A Celebration of Design With Purpose
For Surge for Water’s 12th Annual Design, Dine, Make a Difference Gala, we asked sixteen design teams to embrace Broken Beautiful—a theme inspired by Kintsugi and Wabi-Sabi that challenges our instinct toward perfection. To find strength in scars. To honor what’s been discarded. To tell stories through imperfect materials.
The design community gathered for a beautiful, record-breaking night, making it Surge’s most successful global event ever!
The theme invited designers to treat damage not as a conclusion, but as the starting point for transformation. Discarded materials, incomplete ideas, and forgotten fragments became sources of inspiration, reworked into pieces that carried new meaning.
And the designers delivered.
A Broken Beautiful design piece on display at the gala.
From reclaimed wood and cracked glass to discarded textiles and reperfect stone, each piece told a story of resilience, transformation, and renewal. Every installation, furniture piece, and light fixture wasn’t just art—it was impact.
The Winners: Broken Beautiful 2025
Our esteemed jury—Ammar Kalo, Esra Lemmens, Neel Shukla, Paul Newman, and Sofia Hagen—evaluated each piece on sustainability, innovation, functionality, aesthetics, and alignment with the theme. Here are the creations that captured their attention:
Overall Winner & Most Sustainable
Nesmah by SAY Studio
Presented by Light Link & Haworth
Nesmah emerged as the overall winner, conceived at the intersection of sustainability, cultural heritage, and social purpose. Drawing on the UAE’s longstanding relationship with the sea and its history of traditional sailing, the design repurposes reclaimed spinnaker and mainsail fabrics—materials once shaped by wind and waves.
The piece also references the nation’s pearl-diving legacy, a craft deeply woven into the cultural identity of the Emirates. Envisioned as a wearable form of shelter, it offers protection against harsh climates, wind, and rain. Lightweight, weather-resistant, and durable, Nesmah reimagines maritime materiality for everyday use.
Designers: Nemanja Ribic, Dustin Bradnick
Build Partners: 95 Upcycle and Thread Up Tailoring & Boutique
People's Choice, Master Craftsman, Most Active Build Partner & Most Impactful
Alara by AAID
Presented by APE Grupo, MillerKnoll, Cundall and Seekers Furnishing
Alara swept multiple categories, capturing hearts and demonstrating exceptional craftsmanship. Crafted from shattered glass and reclaimed metal, the piece reassembled discarded fragments within fluid resin and a clear acrylic shell. As light passed through its cracks and contours, each fracture became illuminated, tracing the journey from breakage to renewal.
Its soft, sculptural profile echoed transformation—where something once sharp and rigid settled into a new expression of resilience. Alara reframed imperfection as insight, revealing the beauty found in what persisted. Every shard of glass once smashed on a construction site, every metal frame once stripped and discarded, found new purpose within the piece’s layered structure.
Designers: Candida Van Dyk, Laibah Malik, Lizendra Pinto, Malavika Chedambath, Viki Ferrari
Build Partners: Acoulite, Finishes & Beyond and Optima Partitions
Peer Choice & Practical Excellence
ReSeat by Design Matter
Presented by INC
Constructed from reclaimed plywood salvaged from discarded furniture and offcuts collected from local workshops, ReSeat celebrated the character of reuse. Instead of masking imperfections, it preserved every grain and mark, allowing traces of the material’s previous life to deepen its narrative.
At the heart of the piece was a built-in chessboard, which invited people to pause, sit, and engage. A removable cushion, made from locally produced cotton fabric and repurposed foam, introduced comfort and versatility, allowing ReSeat to shift easily from stool to table to storage. Its low, compact proportions encouraged grounding and closeness, fostering the kind of informal interactions that bring people together.
Designers: Archana Unnikrishnan, Farsana Ahammed, Nishana Shajahan
Build Partner: Lloyd Design
Highly Commended
Wevo by InterSpace
Presented by The Total Office
Wevo transformed discarded fabric swatches, laminate samples, and other remnants from material libraries into a bench that carried both cultural and environmental intent. Inspired by local weaving traditions, the piece connected heritage with contemporary form.
Its soft, organic silhouette, echoing river stones shaped by water, expressed movement, separation, and reconnection. Comprising two chairs and a bench, the modular trio adapted easily to different settings, offering versatility without losing cohesion.
Designers: Biljana Gajic, Melani Sabhaney, Sana Shaikh
Build Partner: M FIT
Most Innovative
Moss & Memory by The Soch Collective
Presented by Skyelume
Moss & Memory captivated the jury for the way it transformed rupture into quiet revival. The sculpture embraced the idea that cracks were not endings but openings—spaces where life could return. Its fractured surfaces and gentle contours echoed the slow processes through which nature heals, reclaims, and coexists with the built world.
What appeared broken at first glance revealed something deeper: each crevice held moss, moisture, and the suggestion of memory, turning the sculpture into a dialogue between time, environment, and resilience.
Designers: Sayalee Golatkar, Cheyenne Patel, Varsha Jagannathan
Build Partners: The Dream Lab and Designsmith
Cause-Aligned
Sacred Knots by Al Tayer Stocks
Presented by Acoulite
Sacred Knots earned recognition for the way it transformed two forgotten furniture pieces into a unified symbol of renewal. Each object carried its own history, but together they found a new, stronger purpose. Reclaimed materials, fabric remnants, and discarded electrical cables were reinterpreted to give the pieces fresh life.
Viewers were encouraged to tie small knots of fabric onto the pieces, turning individual gestures into a shared expression of responsibility and hope. As the knots accumulated, they wove a collective story—evidence that care, even in its smallest form, could create something enduring.
Designer: Peter Mishreky
Build Partners: Finishes & Beyond, Jalapeno & Plumsheep
Best Storyteller
A Starry Mind by Eire Gulf
Presented by Woodmans Group & Milliken
A Starry Mind translated the inner experience of ADHD into sculptural form. Drawing inspiration from Van Gogh’s Starry Night, it reimagined the swirling sky as a metaphor for racing thoughts, shifting emotions, and moments of creative clarity. Its fluid, layered structure rose in looping curves that echoed motion, while small ledges carved along the form offered places for personal objects—quiet points of grounding within the flow.
Bands of blue, green, and gold fused together to reflect vivid perception, and at the piece’s peak, a round glass light served as the “star” of hyperfocus, symbolizing those rare flashes of brilliance that cut through distraction. Crafted from recycled PLA through 3D printing, the work embraced sustainability as both material and metaphor.
Designer: Yusra Fahad
Build Partner: Orbit 3D
Lighting Partner: NuLumenTek
The People Who Made It Possible
To everyone who attended, sponsored, designed, judged, volunteered, bid, donated, and believed—thank you.
Design Teams: LW Design, SAY Studio, The Soch Collective, Pinnacle Interiors, Al Tayer Stocks, Horton Interiors, DEI Design, InterSpace, Eire Gulf, AAID, JLL, Design Matter, WARU, TwentyOne06, Nour Toubia Designs and Artse.
Headline Sponsors: Acoulite Environmental Solutions, Sedus, and Light Link
Global Advocate Sponsors: APE Grupo Middle East, Al Tayer Stocks – Building & Interior Divisions, Consort Architectural Hardware, Cundall, Haworth, MillerKnoll, INC Group, Milliken & Company, SEEKERS FURNISHING LLC, Skyelume, The Total Office
Community Developer Sponsors: Bene, Cultivate UAE, Havelock One Interiors, Horton Interiors, Metre Squared – Commercial Flooring, SAS International
Change Agent Sponsors: Design Infinity, Finishes & Beyond, No Grey Area, Quooker Emirates, SAY Studio, Xworks Interiors LLC
This night was so special. Thank you to everyone for supporting Surge for Water’s work. For supporting communities leading their own sustainable futures. For supporting a world where access to water isn’t a privilege, but a given.
Find more photos from the night here!
