AlUla Design Award Extends Its Global Call for Entries until November 28, 2025
In its ongoing ambition to establish AlUla as a global stage for design and emerging creativity, the Royal Commission for AlUla by Arts AlUla announces the extension of the call for entries for the AlUla Design Award, now open until November 28, 2025.
Approaching its fourth edition, the AlUla Design Award has become a leading international platform connecting designers, artisans, and materials to AlUla's unique cultural and natural ecosystem. A true crossroads of heritage, innovation, and sustainability, the 2025 edition will spotlight craftsmanship as a driving force for contemporary design, in alignment with Saudi Arabia's 2025 Year of Crafts.
Theme 2025-2026: The Ingenuity of the Human Hand
This edition invites designers to reflect on the enduring role of the human hand as both tool and storyteller. From rose-gold sandstone tombs carved two millennia ago to delicate plaster geometries and embroidered talismans, AlUla's crafts form a living archive of ingenuity.
Participants are asked to reinterpret these traditions as living, adaptable vocabularies that can shape tomorrow's heritage, where sustainability, innovation, and cultural resonance intersect, extending the legacy of craftsmanship into a future rooted in environmental responsibility.
AlUla Design Award: Global Call for Entries
The 2025 edition emphasizes craftsmanship as a catalyst for innovation, echoing the spirit of the Year of Crafts.
Selected projects will reimagine AlUla's heritage -from Nabataean stone carving and Najdi plasterwork to intricate textiles and embroidery- through a contemporary and sustainable lens. With deep respect for fragile ecosystems and natural resources, designers are encouraged to work with sustainable, locally inspired materials that reflect harmony with the environment.
Key Dates:
-Call for entries: 17 October - 28 November 2025
-Finalists announced: December 2025
-Exhibition, Awards Ceremony & Opening of the AlUla Design Store: 23 January 2026
Participation Benefits:
-Winners of the AlUla Design Award will gain
-Development and prototyping of the designs of the 10 shortlisted designers within the two categories
-Travel and invitation to the Award Ceremony in AlUla for the finalists
-Extensive press exposure through global media campaigns
-Integration into AlUla's growing design ecosystem
Eligibility & Application:
-Open worldwide to individual professional designers or design teams/firms
-Categories: Fashion Design and Product Design
-Entries must be original works, not previously commercialized, with clear attention to sustainability and feasibility
-Designed according to the theme
-Call for Entries: Now through November 28, 2025
The Jury will select one winner per category (fashion and product design). The two winners will each receive a prize of €6,800* (SAR 30,000) as a creative fee for their project. Upon receipt of this prize, ownership and exclusive rights to the winning design will be transferred to the Royal Commission for AlUla by Arts AlUla, granting it all rights to commercialize, reproduce, or adapt the design in any form or medium, worldwide and for an unlimited period.
*Amount based on the exchange rate applicable at the time of conversion.
AlUla: A Living Laboratory of Design and Innovation
Through the AlUla Design Award, AlUla continues to evolve as a living design laboratory a place where artisans, designers, and thinkers collaborate to forge a creative language that is at once rooted, sustainable, and forward-looking.
This program is part of Royal Commission for AlUla by Arts AlUla's broader mission to build a sustainable cultural economy, nurture creative talent, foster international exchange, and champion design innovation in Saudi Arabia and beyond.
