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Minara: Pillars of Light was exhibited at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris from 10 to 20 September 2026, alongside the projects selected as finalists for the institution’s Design Award. Following the Emerging Talent nomination, the exhibition offered a physical encounter with the work and its approach to cultural exchange through light. References to ablaq columns and the geological diversity of the Arab world become translucent elements whose individual characters contribute to a shared composition. Developed with FROMM.Lab, with contribution by Blanca Scully, Minara entered a setting where visitors could consider material, scale and the relationships between its parts. The presentation connected the atelier’s ongoing research with a broader view of contemporary design from the Arab world.

Minara: Pillars of Light was selected through the FROMM.Lab International Design Competition, opening a period of mentorship, prototyping and production within the platform’s 2025-2026 programme. The proposal began with the column as a meeting point between architectural memory and contemporary light, drawing on ablaq stonework and regional geological references. With support from FROMM.Lab and mentorship from Joseph Grima, the research could move through material trials and the development of stackable, translucent elements. With contribution by Blanca Scully, this process gave the initial idea a physical form while keeping its compositions open to change. The selection connected the atelier’s research with the people and production knowledge needed to carry it forward.

Minara: Pillars of Light was selected as an Emerging Talent finalist for the Arab World Design Award 2026, organised by the Institut du monde arabe in Paris. Developed with FROMM.Lab, with contribution by Blanca Scully, the project explores cultural exchange through the architectural language of the column. References to ablaq stonework and the geological diversity of the Arab world become translucent modules that can be stacked into different compositions of light. Each part keeps its own character while contributing to a collective presence. The finalist selection brings this ongoing research into a wider conversation about contemporary design from the Arab world, and how material, memory and making can carry shared histories into new forms.

Fragments of a Weave, a proposal by Studio Etienne Bastormagi in collaboration with Ismail Hutet, was shortlisted among 20 projects for the Doha Design District Public Art Open Call in 2026. Presented through the shortlist exhibition and public vote from 18 to 25 June, the proposal imagines public space as a place for gathering, making and cultural exchange. A fragmented limestone terrain and a floating textile canopy draw on Doha’s archaeology and the tradition of Sadu weaving. Conceived to evolve through future artisan interventions, the pavilion explores how craft could remain visible and active within the changing city. The shortlist brought this idea into a public conversation about the places people share in Msheireb Downtown Doha.

On 23 April 2026, Ismail Hutet joined Joseph Grima, Alia Rachid and Cecilia Rinaldi at Alcova Milan for Design in Dialogue: Resilience Across Regions, moderated by Etienne Bastormagi. Presented alongside FROMM.Lab’s Interlaced preview, the conversation explored heritage, working across cultures and the conditions that allow design practices to evolve through uncertainty. For the atelier, these questions meet the research behind Minara: how historical exchanges can inform a contemporary object, and how a modular system can remain open to different places and uses. The discussion extended the encounter beyond the exhibited work, bringing designers, mentors and audiences together around the ways material, memory and perception can make cultural stories felt.

Minara: Pillars of Light was presented with FROMM.Lab at Alcova Milan during Milan Design Week 2026, as part of the preview of Interlaced: Dialogues in Design. Shown at the Lavanderia of the Baggio Military Hospital from 20 to 26 April, the modular lighting system brought research into Arab architectural and geological heritage into a shared exhibition setting. Translucent elements, inspired by regional stones and the rhythms of ablaq columns, gather light while retaining the character of their individual parts. Developed with FROMM.Lab under the mentorship of Joseph Grima, with contribution by Blanca Scully, the presentation marked a step from material experimentation to public encounter, within an exhibition curated and designed by Studio Etienne Bastormagi.

In Transit: A Nomadic Library was presented at NOMAD Abu Dhabi 2025, bringing books, reading and conversation into a gathering of art and design. Conceived by Studio Etienne Bastormagi and developed with Dongola Limited Editions and Mira Hawa Projects, the mobile installation gathers publications, seating and display surfaces within an aluminium structure. Its movement offers a way of thinking about how knowledge travels: a book reaches a new reader, a moment of reading opens a conversation, and a story continues elsewhere. The collaboration with Atelier Ismail Hutet formed part of this encounter between space and cultural exchange, creating room for people to pause and spend time with the publications.

Skinlal was presented at Artigiano in Fiera in Milan from 30 November to 8 December 2024, with Arts AlUla and the Royal Commission for AlUla. Among an international gathering of craft practices, the handmade camel cover carried references to AlUla’s biodiversity and historic inscriptions into a new setting. Its patterns bring observations of the landscape into textile, developed through the knowledge of Lebanese artisans. Displayed as part of the presentation of Saudi cultural heritage, the work invited visitors to encounter the relationships between a place, its stories and the people who give them material form. The exhibition extended Skinlal’s journey beyond the award, placing its research in conversation with the everyday continuity of craft.

Skinlal received the AlUla Design Award 2024, recognising a contemporary interpretation of the traditional camel cover through research and handcraft. Inspired by AlUla’s biodiversity and historic inscriptions, the textile translates observations of the region into a composition of forms and patterns. Lebanese artisans brought the drawings into material through their knowledge and making, connecting the landscape that inspired the work with another place of production. Presented through Arts AlUla and the Royal Commission for AlUla, the award marked an important step in the project’s development. It opened a wider context for a piece conceived to carry stories of landscape and cultural memory through an object associated with movement and everyday life.