Sharjah Design Centre to Open in 2029 as Rammed Earth Hub

A design institution built from rammed earth will open in Sharjah in 2029, anchoring a new cultural district in the United Arab Emirates. The Sharjah Design Centre (SDC) will house seven specialist laboratories, a Material Library and production spaces in a single purpose-built complex, its developers have announced.

Taller de Arquitectura – Mauricio Rocha leads the design, in collaboration with architect Daniel Rosselló. The building combines local materials, vernacular principles and contemporary technology, with rammed earth construction intended to cut its environmental footprint. The approach reads as a quiet argument: a centre devoted to material research should, reasonably, be made of the materials it studies.

The institution operates under the leadership of H.E. Sheikha Hind bint Majid Al Qasimi. Its stated mission is connecting designers, manufacturers, researchers and entrepreneurs through an integrated framework for material experimentation, fabrication and knowledge exchange — linking design research directly to manufacturing capability and professional practice.

What will the centre actually contain?

Seven laboratories form the core, each dedicated to a material discipline:

• Textiles
• Rapid prototyping
• Glass
• Ceramics
• Jewellery
• Metal
• Wood

Around them sit a Material Library, a Digital Archive, exhibition spaces, co-working areas, private studios and a retail space. The Material Library will catalogue material research, document experimental materials and support education through design publications. The connected Digital Archive will store research, digital publications and industrial mappings as a searchable resource for members and researchers.

The public programme runs deeper than the usual lecture series. SDC plans workshops, courses, masterclasses, residencies, collaborative research projects and professional development initiatives, all aimed at the gap between design education and professional practice.

Where does the research stand now?

The building may be four years away, but the research has started. SDC is collaborating with Atelier LUMA, a programme of LUMA Arles, and the American University of Sharjah (AUS), with support from the AUS Energy, Water, and Sustainable Environment Research Center, BEEAH and Sharjah National Oil Corporation.

Through Theatrum Al Kimiya, an ongoing initiative developed with Atelier LUMA, researchers are testing locally sourced and waste-based materials including salt, brine, limestone, sand, clay, palm, shells, demolition waste, ceramic waste, wool and mycelium. That's eleven substances, most of them sitting within a day's drive of the site. The work builds on Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council's 2023 publication Architecture of Culture, translating craft-based findings into design applications.

How does the centre fit into the wider district?

SDC joins the Sharjah Creative Quarter, also scheduled to open in 2029. The district's roster includes the Irthi Museum, Sharjah Fashion Lab, Qasimi Archives, the Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi Collection, and L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels. The site sits across from Sharjah's University City and adjacent to the House of Wisdom.

The Creative Quarter is conceived as an interconnected network supporting creative industries through research, education, production and public engagement — a cultural district, in other words, with a supply chain attached. By the time the doors open in 2029, SDC will have four years of material research already banked, giving the rammed earth building something to study inside it.