Local Cultures in Global Settings

Iris Ceramica Group is a world leader in the design, production and distribution of high quality porcelain products for residential, commercial and industrial architecture.
A group that is identified by its talents and that combines the excellence of products made in Italy worldwide. Inspired by the principle of sustainable development, Iris Ceramica Group has always been convinced that technological innovation combined with extraordinary talents can create environmental and quality solutions, yet beautiful solutions that are able to meet the customers’ needs while respecting its values.

Sustainability is a core asset of the Group. The Sustainability Report is an important message with strategic value, a transparent account of the guidelines it has adopted in the areas of social responsibility and sustainability policies.

Iris Ceramica Group operates in the Gulf since the beginning of the '90s, and the top brands of the Group have contributed to the making of successful design stories in the UAE including the Burj Al Arab, the Dubai Metro, Masdar City, and Yas Island.

Uae Modern, founded by Massimo Imparato and Monica Mazzolani, is a cultural hub where designers, scholars, professionals, and institutional bodies committed to sustainability and the transition to the Circular Economy, can collaborate and share experiences on projects focusing on the 17 SDGs of the United Nations Agenda. UAE Modern has been a partner of the official program of the Dubai Design Week, for whom it curated several events and international conferences, including “Conservation and Reuse of Modern Architecture - Experiences and Perspective”, “People Planet Profits - Trials of a Sustainable Future”, and “Nature Based Generations". UAE Modern serves a community of over 1,5k people with call for entries in sustainability-focused events and initiatives in the Region and internationally.

The project topics and the participants

Promoted by Iris Ceramica Group and curated by UAE Modern, “Local Identities in Global Settings” is an event series that sets  at its core Dubai as a living laboratory where over two hundred communities contribute to forging a new globalized identity and that challenges the stereotype of a place with no context, offering opportunities to re-thinking the relationship between culture, nature, and technology.

Leading design figures that are addressing in their work the challenges of reconciling crafts, digitalization of processes, and the circular use of resources, from the perspective of value creation for communities and the society at large, will be invited to share their achievements; design practitioners from across the globe will contribute to nurture the discussion through a design contest. The project's roadmap connects Milan, London and Dubai, final destination of journey that will contribute to foster cultural bridges among people, institutions and enterprises.