From Milan to Dubai: Isola Design Group fuels Middle East’s creative future

Vision, hunger, and a bit of craziness. This is how Gabriele Cavallaro, CEO and co-founder of Isola Design Group alongside Elif Reşitoglu, describes the driving forces behind their decision to establish their first regional headquarters in Dubai, located in the vibrant Dubai Design District (d3). This expansion represents a pivotal moment in the company’s international growth and highlights the increasing significance of the Middle East in the global design landscape.

The Gulf region is rapidly emerging as a major hub for innovation, driven by ambition, vision, and an unwavering commitment to progress. Isola Design Group is confident in its ability to make a valuable contribution to this thriving market, offering fresh insights and cutting-edge solutions to its constantly evolving environment.

In this interview, Gabriele Cavallaro explains what led the company to take this bold step. Recognizing the region’s dynamic growth, Cavallaro saw an opportunity to engage with and support its development, confident that the time was ripe for such a move. As he reflects, it truly was “now or never”.  

Isola Design’s new headquarters in Dubai marks a significant step for both the company and the internationalization of Italian design. What factors influenced this strategic decision?

Gabriele Cavallaro:

“I would say, vision, hunger, and a bit of craziness! Since we started working on Isola’s project, eight years ago, what initially was a yearly event has organically transformed into much more. Now it’s a fast-growing platform connecting over 1600 designers from 70 different countries through isola.design and the exhibitions we organize around the world, and a consultancy firm, Isola Studio, supporting brands and institutions with a forward-thinking approach. That’s why our needs have changed.

Being based in Milan is crucial for the events we organize like Milan Design Week, considering that we manage an entire district there, or Dutch Design Week, but as a design community we are global. We realized that in Europe there are not as many opportunities of growth as in the Middle East, for both our network of designers and our ideas. After taking part in three Dubai Design Weeks in a row and starting a partnership with Dubai Design District, we said ‘it’s now or never’ and we took the risk, establishing a company in Dubai with the goal of supporting the local design studios, companies, and organizations with our solutions and experience”.

Now that you’re firmly established in Dubai, how would you describe your participation in the latest year’s Dubai Design Week? How did it differ from previous editions?

Gabriele Cavallaro:

“I personally moved to Dubai to start this process less than two months before the Dubai Design Week and we approached in a different way to the event simply because, besides our booth in the Downtown Design fair, we had to develop an entire project from scratch for Dubai Design District. 

When we created Design Next with Isola Studio for them, we wanted to offer to the visitors of the event a full immersive experience into circularity and design innovation. So we got this 750 sqm space and, with a huge effort of all our team, we have transformed it into the first-of-a-kind exhibition in the UAE, hosting over 50 projects from biomaterials to market-ready furniture and a successful program of panels following the main topic. Well, that was like our ‘hey, here we are, that’s what we came for!’, the feedback was extraordinary and I honestly felt really proud of this achievement.

While until the previous year we were doing our own things and attending the program, this time we felt for the first time part of the whole organization with something really big, just like in Milan. And thanks to our partners we had the chance to access the local community from the main door”.

What role does cross-cultural exchange between such different countries play? How crucial is it not only for the final product but also in challenging our Eurocentric perspective?

Gabriele Cavallaro:

“Promoting a cross-cultural exchange is actually the role we want to have and we are starting to be recognised for. We are currently working on different projects to enhance the local community but also to bring to the international stages their heritage and sophistication. And not just in Dubai!

For example, in December we completed a 50-day design residency program between Milan and Jeddah, involving three Italian and two Saudi designers. It was commissioned by Sama Design to Isola Studio and became a beautiful experiment of contamination between different cultures, techniques, and materials, which was translated into a series of beautiful lighting objects and sculptures. They are currently exhibited at Wasl Art Space within the exhibition designed by our creative director Elif Reşitoglu and will be there for the whole duration of the Islamic Art Biennial for those who want to go have a look!”

You’ve mentioned your commitment to forward-thinking brands, which led to the creation of Isola Studio. What does “progress” mean to you, and how should designers approach innovation?

Gabriele Cavallaro:

“Progress means finding life-changing solutions, keeping in mind people’s needs and planet’s well-being. That’s the direction of our curation and the one we try to take toward Isola Studio’s clients. It’s a huge challenge which can be declined in many different ways, buy we believe that design is very important in this game”.

How imperative is it to invest in young talent, particularly in a country like Italy, where the “brain drain” is an ongoing issue?

Gabriele Cavallaro:

“It’s simply the key, but it’s just not happening at all. That’s, again, one of the reasons we started looking abroad. From the Netherlands, where we are working and creating a beautiful community since 2019, to the Middle East, where the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are all strongly investing in developing the design culture”.