22 female interior designers redefining the Arab world in 2025
The Arab world’s design landscape is being transformed by an extraordinary generation of female creatives and interior designers who are redefining luxury, heritage, and innovation.
These visionary women architects and interior designers are shaping the region’s aesthetic future through groundbreaking projects that span hospitality, residential, and cultural spaces, proving that the Middle East’s design industry is increasingly female-led.
HRH Princess Alanoud Al Saud
At her Riyadh studio A Interiors, the princess creates contemporary spaces that reinterpret Saudi heritage. Her designs skillfully combine traditional textiles and mashrabiya details with modern materiality in geometric forms. The princess’s Riyadh studio crafts contemporary spaces that reimagine Saudi heritage. Her portfolio features a minimalist villa showcasing exquisite stone and wood craftsmanship, and a desert farmhouse blending organic textures with traditional architectural elements.
Shaikha Al Sulaiti
As design lead for Doha Design District, she mentors emerging Qatari talent while maintaining her own practice. Elevated from luxury home designer to creative force at Doha Design District, she champions Qatari talent while maintaining her own innovative practice. Her Mondrian-inspired tables, debuted at Milan Design Week 2024, reinterpret traditional stained glass motifs, while upcoming rug designs draw from historic Qatari plasterwork.
Aljoud Lootah
The Emirati designer celebrates her studio’s tenth anniversary by merging traditional craftsmanship with minimalist aesthetics. Her Falaj Collection, inspired by ancient irrigation systems, debuted at Dubai Design Week, showcasing her signature approach to culturally rooted contemporary design.
Aline Asmar d’Amman
With strong ties to the fashion world through collaborations with Chanel and the late Karl Lagerfeld, this architect brings couture sensibility to interior spaces. Her current projects include the restoration of Venice’s Palazzo Donà Giovannelli for the Orient Express Hotel brand and a Haussmannian pied-à-terre in Paris.
Nada Debs
The Beirut-based designer preserves traditional craftsmanship through modern applications, from marquetry to weaving. Recent collaborations include decorative objects for Dior’s fragrance collection and multiple variations of her signature Swirl table design.
Rania Hamed
Through her Dubai and Montreal-based studio VSHD, the interior designer creates spaces that balance Japanese minimalism with Brutalist influences. Her Soub café in Dubai channels 1970s design elements while maintaining a Zen-like simplicity.
Agata Kurzela
The Polish-born, Dubai-based designer combines architectural training with engineering precision in her multidisciplinary practice. Her award-winning redesign of Abu Dhabi’s Government Offices demonstrates her ability to modernize heritage structures. Current projects include the Kempinski Residences The Creek and a major Abu Dhabi museum development.
Yasmina Makram
The Cairo-based designer’s HA-BEIT’A Pavilion at Cairo Design Week demonstrated her ability to create avant-garde yet authentic spaces. Upcoming projects include an Art Deco-inspired Nile apartment and futuristic offices in Saudi Arabia.
Zeina Aboukheir
The Italian-Lebanese designer’s decades-long commitment to slow living design culminates in projects like Luxor’s Al Moudira Hotel. Current work includes renovating a historic Cairo skyscraper, bringing new life to the city’s architectural heritage.
Pallavi Dean
A true global citizen, Pallavi Dean, founder of Roar, brings a multicultural sensibility to her designs. Born in India, raised in Dubai, and honed in London, her portfolio is a testament to her versatility, encompassing high-profile hospitality, commercial, and residential projects across the Middle East, Africa, and the UK. Dean’s work is defined by its narrative-driven approach, where every space tells a story.
Dima Srouji
Through her London-based practice and glassware brand Hollow Forms, this Palestinian architect explores cultural heritage using materials like glass and plaster. Her work often examines archaeological narratives, including historical excavations conducted by Palestinian women.
Aisha Al Sowaidi
This Doha-based designer infuses nostalgic elements into contemporary spaces, from playful mirror designs to reimagined majlis concepts. As director of Qatar Museums’ Liwan Design Studios, she transformed a historic girls’ school into a thriving creative hub for Doha’s design community.
Maja Kozel
For Maja Kozel, design is as much about social responsibility as it is about beauty. Drawing inspiration from Emirati heritage, she seamlessly weaves sustainability into her projects, championing recycled materials without compromising on artistry. Her award-winning Tubo lighting design for Surge for Water is a striking example of how ethical design can also be exquisitely crafted.
Salwa Samargandi
The Saudi architect takes a holistic approach to heritage preservation, as seen in her sensitive restoration of AlUla’s historic mosque. Her work successfully balances historical authenticity with contemporary functionality.
Maliha Nishat
With a career spanning Design Worldwide Partnership and HBA, Maliha Nishat has become synonymous with elevated hospitality design. Currently shaping Marriott’s footprint across the region, including the Marriott Hotel Rabat and Westin & Element Riyadh, Nishat collaborates with top design houses to create immersive travel experiences that resonate on a deeply human level.
Hala Saleh
The Cairo-based designer challenges conventional aesthetics through projects like her midcentury-inspired villa in Katamaya Heights, featuring an unconventional eggshell-blue palette. Her background in mechanical engineering informs her innovative approach to adaptive reuse.
Lina Ghotmeh
Known for her work with Hermès and the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion, the Lebanese architect emphasizes sustainable materials and craft techniques. Her upcoming project includes a contemporary art museum in AlUla designed as interconnected desert pavilions.
Sneha Divias
Portuguese-born Sneha Divias brings a European sensibility to the Middle Eastern design landscape. After honing her craft in Lisbon and New York, she founded her own atelier in Dubai, quickly earning recognition as Interior Designer of the Year at the 2017 Commercial Interior Design Awards. Her work is marked by its diversity, blending global influences with a keen understanding of local context.
Sahar Al Yaseer & Cristina Gallenca
The duo behind UAE-based La Bottega specializes in narrative-driven hospitality design. Their Delano Dubai penthouse project successfully translated the brand’s Miami aesthetic into a Dubai context, creating a seamless indoor-outdoor experience.
Laila Al-Yousef
A champion of sustainability and female empowerment, Laila Al-Yousef co-founded Say Studio with a mission to integrate social responsibility into design. Her involvement with Surge for Water underscores her commitment to meaningful creativity, while her corporate workspaces at Perkins+Will remain benchmarks of innovation.
Aziza Chaouni
The Moroccan architect addresses climate challenges through socially conscious design. Her earthquake-resistant housing prototype for High Atlas communities and adaptive reuse of a 1930s bus station demonstrate architecture’s potential for environmental and social impact.
Zoubeida Chtiba
Tunisian designer Zoubeida Chtiba’s work is a masterclass in modern simplicity. Her use of warm hues and strategic mirrors creates spaces that are both luminous and serene.
These remarkable female interior designers represent the vanguard of Middle Eastern design, challenging conventions and elevating the region’s creative reputation on the global stage. Their 2025 projects not only showcase Arab design excellence but also demonstrate the growing influence of female leadership in shaping the built environment across the Arab world.
From preserving cultural heritage to pioneering sustainable solutions, these designers are writing a new chapter in the region’s design narrative – one where women’s voices and visions are leading the way.
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