For the fourth consecutive year, BMW Group Middle East returns as the exclusive Automotive Partner of Dubai Design Week. This year, the brand introduces “Ellipse” – a striking architectural pavilion created in collaboration with Bricklab, the award-winning Jeddah-based architecture studio founded by brothers Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz.
Located at the heart of Dubai Design District (d3) from 4 to 9 November 2025, Ellipse captures the tension between precision and emotion, mirroring the same philosophy that defines BMW’s design DNA.
A Pavilion Inspired by Movement and Mastery
At first glance, Ellipse stands as a gleaming symbol of contrast: its hard aluminium exterior, minimal yet commanding, juxtaposed against a sinuous, softly textured interior. This duality reflects the intersection of two worlds, the refined comfort of BMW luxury interiors and the raw energy of the Middle Eastern landscape.
The structure’s elliptical form disrupts the angular geometry of Dubai Design District, creating a space that feels fluid, human, and contemplative. Inside, undulating walls, muted acoustics, and ambient lighting encourage visitors to slow down – to pause amid the bustle of the festival and experience design as reflection rather than spectacle.
A BMW 7 Series Individual, finished in a two-tone composition of Maldives Blue and Oxide Grey Metallic, anchors the installation, exemplifying the brand’s devotion to craftsmanship and emotion through engineering. Its presence within the pavilion feels less like a display and more like a dialogue between architecture and automobile, both driven by precision, proportion, and poise.
“Creating this pavilion for Dubai Design Week has been a process of artistry and practicality,” said Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, co-founders of Bricklab. “Our collaboration with BMW Group Middle East allowed us to pay homage to excellence in automotive design while capturing the drama of the desert highway. The result is a building we can be proud of, elegant yet functional, architectural yet emotional.”
The Art of Motion
Ellipse is not a static structure, it’s a meditation on movement and form. The pavilion’s design language mirrors the fluidity that defines BMW’s most iconic silhouettes. Every curve, every polished edge speaks to the brand’s philosophy, design is not ornamentation; it is emotion translated into geometry.
Inside, visitors encounter a series of textural layers that emulate the experience of being within a luxury automobile. The aluminium exterior represents resilience and innovation, while the interior, crafted with materials reminiscent of the BMW 7 Series, conveys comfort, warmth, and refinement.
The pavilion thus becomes an architectural metaphor for BMW’s ethos: the synthesis of engineering precision and human-centric design.
Championing Regional Creativity
While Ellipse stands as the physical centrepiece of BMW’s participation at Dubai Design Week 2025, its true power lies in the collective creativity it houses. Within the pavilion, BMW showcases works by six regional artists and designers, each handpicked for their innovative approach to materiality, sustainability, and narrative.
The participating creatives include:
- Rania Elkalla, founder of Shell Homage, known for transforming eggshell and nut waste into sustainable design materials.
- Karim Tamerji and Elias El Hage, co-founders of Karim + Elias, whose architectural installations explore geometry and emotion.
- Rand Abdul Jabbar, a multidisciplinary artist whose work fuses archaeology and architecture through storytelling.
- Sara Abu Farha and Khaled Shalkha, co-founders of Datecrete Studio & Lab, who experiment with palm waste and concrete to create biodegradable composites.
- Talin Hazbar, a Dubai-based artist exploring the boundaries between the organic and the industrial.
- Dima Srouji, founder of Hollow Forms, whose architectural glass pieces challenge perceptions of fragility and form.
Together, their work transforms Ellipse into a living gallery of regional innovation, echoing BMW’s philosophy that design is both collaboration and conversation.
“We are committed to championing regional creativity across art, design, and culture,” said Karim-Christian Haririan, Managing Director of BMW Group Middle East. “Our ongoing partnership with Dubai Design Week reflects BMW’s passion for craftsmanship and cultural exchange. The Ellipse pavilion and the six participating designers embody our belief that design is a universal language — one that connects people, ideas, and possibilities.”
Where Innovation Meets Emotion
BMW’s continued presence at Dubai Design Week highlights a decade-long evolution in how automotive brands engage with design. No longer confined to showrooms or test tracks, the car has become a canvas for culture, a representation of motion, progress, and possibility.
Through projects like Ellipse, BMW positions itself not just as a manufacturer of vehicles but as a curator of creativity, exploring how design thinking can transcend industry boundaries. The pavilion itself becomes a space of sensory storytelling.
BMW x Bricklab: Design as Dialogue
The collaboration with Bricklab strengthens BMW’s long-standing tradition of partnering with visionary architects and designers – from Zaha Hadid’s BMW Central Building in Leipzig to the BMW Welt in Munich. Each partnership reflects a shared belief that great design emerges from dialogue: between art and engineering, heritage and futurism.
Bricklab, founded in Jeddah in 2015, has gained global recognition for its experimental approach to materials and spatial perception. Their work for BMW continues this trajectory, combining local inspiration with global execution.
The architects describe Ellipse as “a study in duality”: part sculpture, part sanctuary. Its form, they explain, references both the infinite curve of a racetrack and the shifting horizon of the Arabian desert. It is a space where technology and tactility coexist, where the feel of aluminium under light mirrors the movement of air over a car’s surface.
Designing the Future
BMW Group’s participation in Dubai Design Week 2025 forms part of its broader global strategy to engage with sustainability, design education, and cultural innovation.
In a region where architecture and design have become powerful expressions of identity, BMW’s initiatives in the Middle East resonate deeply. By collaborating with Arab architects and artists, the brand is not just exhibiting design; it is investing in the creative ecosystems of the future.
As BMW continues to electrify its fleet and innovate in sustainable mobility, projects like Ellipse act as cultural extensions of that mission, translating performance and precision into form and feeling.
Design Innovation
From the Bauhaus-influenced curves of its early vehicles to the contemporary elegance of the BMW i Vision Circular, BMW has always understood that design is not just about aesthetics, it’s about intent.
With Ellipse, this legacy finds new expression in the Middle East, through architecture that is as emotional as it is intelligent. The pavilion stands as both a tribute to the power of collaboration and a reflection of Dubai’s emergence as a global design capital.
BMW Middle East at Dubai Design Week 2025
📍 Dubai Design District (d3), November 4–9, 2025
For more information, visit www.press.bmwgroup.com/middle-east.
Discover more from Private Members AE
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
