Bu'ed Nadhar

AN EXHIBITION OF FIVE RESIDENCIES

Bu‘ed Nadhar, meaning Beyond Immediate Vision, frames design as a temporal and reflective practice that navigates memory, material knowledge, and cultural continuity, shaping the environments of tomorrow while remaining accountable to the past.

Presented at Liwan Design Studios and Labs, the exhibition features 32 works developed through five residencies and collaborative experiments by 16 artists across the Gulf and neighbouring regions. The projects probe craft as a living archive, where material intelligence intersects with ecological and social knowledge, and heritage is continually reinterpreted in relation to contemporary contexts. Designers engage with Qatar’s landscape, sourcing local materials such as clay, palm leaves, wood, fibres, and sand, integrating desert ecology and environmental conditions into strategies. This approach connects craft histories to present practice, highlighting how tradition, material exploration, and postcolonial perspectives inform resilient, adaptive, and contextually grounded design.

The exhibition considers Qatar as a site of production, looking closely at the places, materials, industries and forms of knowledge that enable design to be made locally. Designers worked with locally sourced materials, expertise and production facilities, moving through the Industrial Area, workshops and prototyping facilities, and Qatar’s natural landscapes. Through the act of making, the exhibition examines Qatar as a landscape, a material condition, and an evolving urban narrative.

The five residences include:

Ideas FROMM. Industry Residency in collaboration with residency lead FROMM.
Shaping and Crafting the Future Residency in collaboration with residency lead Campus MaNa
Liwan Craft Residency—Oasis: Our Design Ecosystem by residency lead and curator Asma Derouiche and Hayakum by project lead Cristián Mohaded
Athar by Noora Al Melhim
Bar-Bahr by Jassim Al Nasrallah

Curatorial Statement

Bu’ed Nadhar is the understanding that design extends beyond form and function. It is a way of seeing, shaped by resilience, continuity, and the ability to look beyond immediate vision.

It is about reading what came before, imagining what comes next, and recognising what deserves to endure while allowing space for transformation.

Resilience is rooted in intention. Flexibility becomes a form of wisdom. Craft carries memory through hands, materials, and generations. Design carries culture forward while remaining open to change.

Bu’ed Nadhar invites a design practice that is grounded in its origins while embracing new possibilities. It values continuity without resisting evolution, and preserves meaning as ideas, materials, and traditions take on new forms.

Curator
Aisha Nasser Al Sowaidi
Director, Liwan Design Studios and Labs and Curator