Liwan Craft Residency—Oasis: Our Design Ecosystem
Oasis: Our Design Ecosystem presents the outcomes of Liwan’s Craft Residency, conceived as a space for gathering, exchange, and growth. Drawing on the spatial and ecological logic of an oasis, the residency brings together designers, artisans, workshops, and industry partners to examine how tradition can be reinterpreted through contemporary practice. Each designer developed a distinct body of work shaped by research, material exploration, and engagement with local production. Designers revisited culturally embedded objects and gestures, translating them into contemporary forms through diverse materials and fabrication processes. Rather than offering a single narrative, the exhibition unfolds as a constellation of individual projects.
Residency Lead and Curator: Asma Derouiche,Multidisciplinary Designer and Curator
Designers: Shawky Abdalla and Abdul Rahman Anwar, Saga Elkabbash, Joe Bou Abboud, Stephen Amoyo, Charlotte Rodenberg, Varvara & Mar and Zainab Al Shibani
Asma Derouiche is a multidisciplinary designer and curator based in Doha, whose practice moves across design, research, and cultural production. Her work explores the relationship between cultural identity, craftsmanship and contemporary design, with a particular interest in how traditions and local knowledge can evolve through new forms of making.
Central to her practice is an ongoing investigation into what she describes as“The New Authentic”,an approach to authenticity that looks beyond preservation to consider how culture can remain alive through reinterpretation, experimentation, and exchange. Her work spans objects, installations, exhibitions, and curatorial programs, often bringing together designers, craftspeople, materials, and production environments.
Derouiche holds an MFA in Design from VCUarts Qatar. She co-foundedStudio 7, a platform dedicated to showcasing and supporting design from the region, where she served as Creative Director. Her recent work includes Ripples of Hope for Al-Mujadilah Centre and Mosque for Women and the curation of Liwan’s Craft Residency, Oasis: Our Design Ecosystem, developed around her broader research into Future Traditions & the New Authentic.