Urban Commissions is an annual competition taking place in the lead up to Dubai Design Week, with the winning project on display at the festival.

For 2025, the competition asked participants to reimagine courtyards, with designers Omar Darwish and Abdulla Abbas of UAE-based studio Some Kind of Practice winning with their project When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?.

The construction is informed by a housh, an Emirati courtyard, created to adapt to the region's climate using available materials, such as stone, corrugated steel and concrete masonry units (CMUs).

Urban Commissions takes place from 4 to 9 November 2025 at Dubai Design District (d3), Dubai, UAE.