Electricity problems, leftover rice and things washed up on the beach might not sound like the usual starting points for award-winning design, but that’s exactly where this year’s Design Doha Prize winners found their inspiration. With four creatives from Bahrain, Lebanon and Iran taking home the 2026 awards, the winning projects prove that design can be pretty unexpected.
Announced on November 8 at Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, the winners were selected from more than 550 applications by an international jury of 24 professionals. Each will receive QAR 200,000, alongside mentorship opportunities and access to creative facilities and networks. So, who made the cut?
Craft: Bahraini-Danish Group– Mesh!
Three creatives, one clever idea and a whole lot of woodworking. Bahrain-based studio Bahraini-Danish, made up of Batool Alshaikh, Maitham AlMubarak and Christian Vennerstrøm, won the Craft category for Mesh!.
Made from reclaimed Cape teak, the modular piece takes inspiration from traditional Bahraini woodworking and weaving. Its interlocking wooden pieces can be rearranged into a screen, room divider or freestanding structure. The team also worked with local Bahraini craftsmen to shape and assemble each element by hand. A nice reminder that traditional techniques don’t have to stay in the past.
Product Design: Dia Mrad – PSI-01
If you’ve ever wondered how to turn an electricity crisis into a design piece, Lebanese designer Dia Mrad has an answer. His winning project, PSI-01 (Power Supply Indicator 01), takes inspiration from Lebanon’s complicated electricity situation.
Standing 2.4 metres tall, the yellow steel installation resembles an oversized control panel, showing which electricity source is currently powering a home. Through his studio, Post Design Studio, Mrad turns an everyday frustration into something you can actually stop and look at. Quite the upgrade from checking whether the electricity is back.
Furniture Design: Shaha Raphael – Low Tide
For Lebanese designer and architect Shaha Raphael, a walk along the Mediterranean shoreline can be a pretty good design brief. Her collection, Low Tide, takes its shapes from shells, bones and fossils, turning them into furniture and tableware.
The results include fishbone-shaped candelabras, fossil-like spoons and onyx tables inspired by sea creatures. Developed with ten Lebanese artisans, the collection brings together stonework, metal casting, lace-making and woodworking. Basically, the beach, but make it furniture.
Emerging Talent: Yasamin Shaikhi – The Spoils: Lights From Waste
And finally, proof that not everything belongs in the bin. Iranian designer Yasamin Shaikhi won the Emerging Talent category with The Spoils: Lights From Waste, a sculptural lighting project made from cooked rice waste and date pits.
Using a process of pulping and pressing, she transforms these discarded ingredients into translucent surfaces that let light through. The project explores food waste in Qatar while finding a new use for ingredients already familiar to local food culture. Leftovers have officially entered their design era.
What’s Next for the Winners?
From making something beautiful out of electricity struggles to giving food waste a second life, this year’s winners are approaching design from some refreshingly unexpected angles. And with the second Design Doha Biennial running until January 2027, there’s plenty more regional creativity to discover.
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