My Dubai! An Inspiring Visit to The Hub for Arts & Creativity

Every time I travel I look for design inspiration. No matter the location it’s literally what I look forward to while exploring wherever I/we go.

You can imagine my excitement when we planned a family trip to Dubai. Unfortunately, for two days now I have been confined to my room suffering from…don’t judge me…it’s a real thing…Jet-Lag.

So after having a pep talk with my better half, while on our third nap of the day (at 5pm Dubai time) we decided to make ourselves get up the following morning and stay up all day.

My big (little) sister lives in Dubai. We decided to wake up at 5:45am ( I went to bed at 3:45am) and go for a run followed by a trip to Al Serkal Avenue. So the run never happened and with a bed time braid in my hair off we went to Al Serkal Ave. I must say that I had NO IDEA where I was going. She told me there was a cool breakfast spot and that I could Uber home after we ate.

What I found was a creatives heaven & a designers playground. Everything about this place was heightened and unique. Every thing! We walked through coffee shops, shared work space (this name does not give these spaces justice), event venue, outdoor theater, art gallery, photo studio & restaurant and in each space I wanted to document their unique beauties.

**totally necessary sidebar: the breakfast spot that sparked this journey, HAPI, was AMAZING…literally…I will go back before I leave. (Okay that is all)…but if you come to Dubai it’s a must eat…trust me)**

I feel like I have revived a part of me that has been dormant. The design student that thought I could create anything. I snapped photos are we walked around, tried not to look as excited as I felt inside, completely redesigned my office in my head and am grateful that this morning I did not let my jet lag get the best of me.

My sister will read this and laugh at me, this place is a part of her weekly life. But for me it was design inspiration overload and I cannot wait to get back to the states and create a little piece of this awesome Avenue if only in my design studio. Dubai has great sights…in 4 days I’ve seen many of the staples with many more to go with my sister as our tour guide BUT I totally understand the #MyDubai #LiveDXB today as this has been the most fun for me so far.

…with Dune Bashing a close second…even though I thought I was going to die…and have plenty of warning for parents traveling with children on this…like literally…scary fun…that we survived…and I will blog about another day.

For now Shalom from My Dubai…where I will still be looking for design inspiration at every turn.

Inspired

-J