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The A/P Room opens gallery at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai
It is scheduled to open a second space in Abu Dhabi in Q4, expanding its cultural footprint and reinforcing its ambition to shape the region’s design identity within the wider global ecosystem
- PUBLISHED: Tue 17 Feb 2026, 7:19 PM
The A/P Room inaugurates its permanent gallery at Alserkal Avenue, redefining the future of collectible design in the Middle East. The gallery opens with its inaugural exhibition, At First Sight, on view till 29 March 2026.
Founded and led by industry expert Christelle Bassila, and operating under Atelio, the region’s destination for design furniture, art advisory and collectible design, founded by businessman and art patron Elie Khouri, The A/P Room launches as a new cultural platform bridging historic and contemporary design, connecting international and regional creative practices through curatorial programming.
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Located within Dubai’s cultural district at Alserkal Avenue, the gallery introduces a new approach to how design objects are experienced and collected.
Its first exhibition At First Sight, reflects on how collectors recognise and respond to an object. For The A/P Room, the answer lies in how a work inhabits space, how it carries its material language, how it holds presence, and how it lingers with the viewer beyond the moment of encounter.
“At First Sight is about recognising that first intuition and trusting it enough to stay with it,” says Christelle Bassila, Founder and CEO of The A/P Room. “To collect is not only to acquire, but to learn how to see. What stays is what matters. What unfolds over time is what endures.”
The exhibition proposes a slower form of attention rooted in materiality and scale, introducing The A/P Room’s curatorial vision through a carefully selected group of sculptural and material-driven works.
Featured artists and designers include Rogan Gregory, Vincent Dubourg, Andrea Branzi, Faye Toogood, Choi Byung Hoon, Jonathan Trayte, Roham Shamekh, Georges Mohasseb, Sayar & Garibe, Samuel Ross, Hamrei, Pierre Bonnefille, Victor Guedy, Jane Yang D’haene, Juliana Vasconcellos NS Studio alongside historic figures such as Gio Ponti, Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, Jose Zanine Caldas, Angelo Lelli amongst others.
The A/P Room’s curatorial approach treats design as storytelling, revealing how material languages and creative gestures move across generations and geographies.
“Opening The A/P Room at Alserkal Avenue places collectible design within the heart of Dubai’s cultural infrastructure,” says Elie Khouri, Chairman of Atelio. “By establishing a permanent curatorial space here, we are creating an environment where international designers and regional voices can be presented in dialogue, and where the Middle East can be positioned firmly within the global design conversation. It is a space conceived with the rigour and purpose this moment in the region calls for.”
Ruggero Ottogalli, CEO of Atelio adds “The A/P Room reflects Atelio’s commitment to building a cultural ecosystem for design in the region, through this platform, we are creating new pathways for collaboration between designers, collectors and cultural partners, and new ways for audiences to engage with collectible design.”
The A/P Room is scheduled to open a second space in Abu Dhabi in Q4 2026, further expanding its cultural footprint and reinforcing its ambition to shape the region’s design identity within the wider global ecosystem.
