From the desert mountains of Hijaz to the oasis of AlUla, through 200,000 years of human history, the human hand has been both tool and storyteller. It made hand-axe’s and other functional tools in Palaeolithic times, carved colossal statues and intricate motifs, sculptures and inscriptions from the rocks during the Dadanite and Nabataean eras when camel caravans were guided along the Incense Road facilitating the exchange of forms, ideas, and memory. Through decorative ceramics, embroidery, carving, and trade, AlUla’s ancient crafts reveal a dialogue between people and place, necessity and imagination, heritage and the future.


This year’s theme, “The Ingenuity of the Human Hand” invites designers to extend that dialogue through product and fashion design, treating AlUla as collaborator studio, library, and stage. We seek material intelligence and accountability: designs that honor local know-how while exploring new tools such as 3D printing and digital prototyping.


We welcome works that weave continuity with departure precise yet porous, rooted yet open. Designs where ornament becomes information, geometry an ethic, and fabrication a language. Hands remembering, and hands anticipating.