Every year, Beirut Design Week (BDW) brings a melange of design trends to the Lebanese capital. At this year's event, held May 19-26, one can find accessories that combine Eastern craftsmanship and contemporary design, bold patterned embroideries inspired by traditional Arab garments and recycled plastic cables creating the experience of crossing unfriendly borders. 

Founded and organized by the MENA Design Research Center, a nonprofit organization focusing on design as a multidisciplinary tool for social development and research, BDW has for the last six years been the meeting place for designers, artists and architects. For this year’s theme, organizers settled on “Is Design a Need?” The subtopics are regional collaboration, community and security.

The guest list for the opening day at KED, a refurbished factory built in the 1930s in Karantina, included regional powerhouses in design, among them Cairo NOW! City Incomplete; the Moroccan collaborative collective Houna; the Iranian Persia Collective; Ziad Qweider, an artist from Jordan of Palestinian origins; and Amman Design Week (ADW).

“Due to political reasons, we [Middle Easterners] have never been able to collaborate fully in the field of design before,” Doreen Toutikian, co-founder, president of the board and director of the MENA Design Research Center, told Al-Monitor. “But we [Lebanese] are now realizing that [different trends] in design are emerging from countries in the region and that, as Lebanese, we can learn a lot from regional influences. To reach an international audience, we need to develop a unique approach and a visual language that is more culturally sensitive.”