Profile
Fabidha Safar-Rahman
Fabidha has worked in interior design for more than twenty years. She started Design Matter in 2017 as a one-person practice, and it has since grown to a team of 11 with projects in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India and the USA. The studio designs hospitals and clinics, homes, offices, shops and schools, as well as building facades.
Recent projects include residential towers for GJ Real Estate, the refurbishment of Aster Hospital Mankhool and Aster Opticals, and facade designs in Saudi Arabia.
Outside the studio, she is on the leadership team of Ellevate, a professional network for women that runs leadership and peer mentoring programmes. She is working on a carpet collection based on Emirati craft, and she used to sit on the advisory board of Neolocus, a startup using AI to make interior design more accessible.
Healthcare work
Clinics and hospitals that feel closer to home, while still meeting medical standards.
Rooms are planned around patients and how they feel during a visit.
Each healthcare client gets an interior people can recognise as theirs.
Waiting areas and treatment rooms borrow materials and lighting from homes.
All of it still has to pass strict medical requirements.
Talks and panels
Fabidha speaks on regional design trends, wellness in architecture and how studios use technology.
The Design Matter team, Dubai