Tanween 2024 Focuses on Failure as a Catalyst to Growth

Tanween 2024, Saudi Arabia’s leading design conference-cum-festival opened to creatives and the general public on October 31 and continued till November 6, 2024, with its focus on setbacks as a challenge to thrive. The design festival brought international luminaries who spoke around the topic of Fail Forward. Tanween 2024 also focused on the various design challenges and through an exhibition by isola, celebrated the works of designers from around the world as they revealed their working process that involved failing as a stepping stone to better designs. By Sindhu Nair

The snohetta designed building of Ithra where Tanween is being held, cannot be missed. It rises from the desert sands and takes its place in the barren land quite proudly, its structure attracting attention for its primitive resemblance to a pebble construction yet featuring a brazenly pluralistic pipe-clad façade. The bent stainless-steel tubes as single dimension lines resolving the organic shapes, echoes innovation and confidence.

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, also called Ithra which is Arabic for enrichment, promotes cultural development, knowledge and diversity in the country. Since opening in 2018, the centre has provided the local population and visitors unprecedented access to a wide range of learning and cultural facilities open for everyone to use.

The building includes an auditorium hosting a wide range of events from opera, symphony concerts, musicals and lectures, a cinema, a library with over 315 000 books for all ages, a large exhibition hall, integrated art by local and international artists, as well as a museum and an archive connecting the vibrant cultural life of the centre to the past and to the very roots of the society from which the centre is conceived.

“Like a roman arch, where the keystone holds the construction together and prevents it from collapsing, the pebbles are seemingly frozen in time. Reflecting the idea of cultural interdependency, the arch-like formation reminds us that culture is not composed of singular, independent efforts but interconnected forces and ideas that work together to create a strong unity,” describe snohetta architects about the design.

The multi-cultural approach of the building reflects in the activities of the centre and Tanween 2024 is a perfect example of this very key cultural interdependency.

Since 2018, Tanween has served as Ithra’s most impactful annual event dedicated to design, motivating and inspiring a new generation of innovators. With over 265,000 visitors, the conference spotlights Ithra as a global design platform, showcasing diverse design voices from around the world. Through an industry-focused roster of workshops, courses, and a design competition, Tanween yields tangible impact while offering professionals and enthusiasts opportunities to network, discuss, and collaborate. This event is a key pillar that cements Ithra’s position as a beacon of culture and an unmissable design destination in the MENA region.

The Motivational Moments

With internationally acclaimed leaders like industrial designer Ross Lovergrove, Michelle Jafery, design fellow, IDEO & Co-Founder, Friday Gallery, Lebanese designer Guillaume Credoz , CEO of Post Industrial Crafts, Javier Pena,  Director of Concéntrico, the Logroño International Festival of Design and Architecture, Ila Colombo- Creative Director and member of the Architecture Program Advisory Board at the American University in Dubai, Rana Salam, British/Lebanese designer, art director, curator at Dubai Design Week and Sebastian Errazuriz, New York based Tech designer and public artist whose works were exhibited at Carnegie Museum of Art, Tanween 2024 focused on the challenges faced and the way forward for designers.

Michelle Jafery, design fellow, IDEO & Co-Founder, Friday Gallery at the Ithra Theatre on the opening day talks at Tanween 2024.

While designer and gallery owner Michelle Jafery, charmed her audience through thought-provoking insights into design thinking, Ross Lovegrove called himself an evolutionary biologist because “designer” is too simplistic a word to describe what he does.

According to Lovegrove, “Designing is a fantastic profession because everything needs to be rethought in a way that we can improve it for better.”

Another favourite for SCALE was Guillaume Credoz, CEO of Post Industrial Crafts, whose pavilion design erected at the entrance of the theatre where Tanween 2024 was being held, attracted attention.

Working in digital fabrication for thirty years, architect Guillaume Credoz has surrounded himself with a large workshop including many large robot arms which allowed him to explore and crash-test ideas within its close practice. He spoke about his experimentation with materials, recycled paper, clay and aluminium and with 3D printing large structures and public space furniture.

“Walking the lines of fabrication opportunities within digital fabrication, my practice leaves space for errors which is reused to create something new,” said Credoz.

Shahad Alwazani: “Empowering New Talent for Design Thinking”

Shahad Alwazani is Tanween’s Creativity conference lead who spearheads strategic initiatives at Idea Lab focusing on cultivating partnerships with leading international design entities and representing Ithra in the global design scene. With a diverse background in architecture, fashion, and design, Shahad is driven by the belief that design can enhance the quality of life.

Shahad tells us how the brightly coloured pavilion at the entrance of the theatre at Ithra where Tanween 2024 is being held is the perfect example of a failed project that is currently a stunning project.

The scenic 3D printed space frames are developed by Post Industrial Crafts that were made with 100% recycled plastics from industrial waste.

“We were unable to ship this commissioned work by Post Industrial Crafts last year from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia. It took us one whole year to make this possible. This structure which was supposed to be part of Tanween 2023 is now at Tanween 2024 and is the first story of failure that has worked wonders in its final outcome,” says Shaheen as she welcomed media professionals from around the world within Tanween 2024.

“I am architect and urban planner by education, but I have not worked in the field of urban planning, though I love that as well. I focused on architecture and interior design, after I graduated,” says Shahad, taking us through her journey with Tanween and Idea Labs.

“I established an online abaya shop where I design and sell abayas,” she says, “I was consulting at multiple architecture and interior studios before I moved to Ithra.”

Shahad worked at Idea Lab as the Senior Programme Developer. Idea Lab is the home to a creative community dedicated to inspiring and activating innovation within the Kingdom, in addition to offering inspirational classes. The Idea Lab offers cognitive tools to build on projects in order to complete the design stages and production steps.

The Idea Lab within Ithra is an immersive designer talent boosting experience with multiple programmes like Material Library with its advanced material making techniques and results of various experimentation documented giving access to a multitude of new materials with innovative additions like the date palm and resins.

Other collaborations with Precious Plastics has opened alleys for understanding recycling methods, with live demonstrations to finally create materials from the recycled plastics, The Idea Lab benefits the common man to designers in their quest for knowledge and real life experimentation.

On a personal level too, Shahad has gained from her contribution to Ithra and Tanween.

“I gained a lot from my experience at Ithra. I graduated in 2013 and I have realised that what colleges offer is different from what the real market or the design world is about. It is through experience and my work here at Idea Lab that the world of design opened up for me. I gained more insight into the world of material selection and design thinking, and in understanding how design can really solve problems,” she says.

Idea Lab unlocked prospects to think in a very different way, according to Shahad. Her work is dedicated to fostering opportunities that empower emerging talents to showcase their best practices.

Tanween is a by-product of Idea Lab which was started in 2018 and now in 2024 it has gained followers and a lot of global attention for its inclusive and ambitious programmes in design inoculation. The design festival which benefits both the new generation and the design community of the region through the interaction with global think tanks.

Tanween also showcases multiple exhibitions as part of the design festival of which Tanween Challenges 2024 is  a showcase of the winning projects of this year’s Tanween Challenges across four
categories – pavilion, fashion, furniture, and graphic design – that seek to improve the balance between human activities and the planet’s biodiversity.

How has Idea Lab fostered community participation and how has Tanween been a harbinger to fostering more creative minds?

Shahad says that the design community of Saudi Arabia has been very welcoming of the efforts taken. “The community wants to expand their thought process, especially new designersjust out of college. They are open, passionate, imaginative and welcoming every step taken in expanding design thinking. They want someone or some institution to guide them initially and then they are willing to take the lead and take the steps needed in their journey.”

“We are the tools after their educational institutions to guide them through to find their way in the market. We set their minds open, giving them wings for imagination, and then set them to find their place in the society,” says Shahad of the larger role of Ithra, Idea Lab and Tanween in the design community within Saudi Arabia.

On the topic of Fail Forward, the topic of Tanween 2024, Shahad says, “The concept of failure is not openly spoken about but every designer or professional goes through the process of failing and then learning or relearning in their design journey.”

For the students to hear about world-renowned designers talking about failures as a stepping stone towards their innovation in design is a revelation and encourages them to keep making mistakes to create a better solution.

“We wanted to highlight failures to help the new community of designers to accept failure and to open their minds to understanding that in order to succeed, we need to fail, not once, but multiple times and then succeed.”

“Our intention with Tanween is to create a hub for all creatives from the country and from the region and designers to benefit from each other and to speak and discuss notes about their methodologies and take best practices to help improve the world for a better designed tomorrow,” says Shahad.