Above the Arab

When the view from your window is the Burj Al Arab, the interior has to be worthy of it. Not competing with it, not ignoring it, but earning its place in the same frame. The client owned a high-floor condo in Dubai with floor-to-ceiling glazing across every principal room, the Arabian Gulf on one side, the Dubai skyline on the other. The brief was an open-plan living, dining and kitchen, a master bedroom suite with a resolved bathroom, and a level of finish that reflected the address without becoming a caricature of it. The challenge was designing a home that would read as sophisticated whether the curtains were open or closed, whether the city was blazing at noon or lit at midnight.

We anchored the entire scheme in a warm neutral palette, travertine floors polished to a high sheen, taupe upholstery, stone and oak cabinetry, and a restrained use of dark bronze hardware that appeared consistently across every room. Against that quiet base we made two bold material decisions. The kitchen island was clad in a highly veined dark marble, its movement and drama providing the only surface in the apartment that competed with the view outside. And the dining chandelier, a sculptural crystal installation that read almost like a three-dimensional drawing suspended in space, became the room's centrepiece and the project's most talked-about element, visually merging with the Burj Al Arab towers through the glass behind it when seen from certain angles. The living zone was resolved around a deep cream sectional, a linear gas fireplace recessed into the TV wall, and a dark shelving column with gold-lit reveals that gave the wall depth and warmth after dark. The master bedroom took a quieter register. Warm oak slatted panelling, a channelled velvet headboard, and a globe pendant cluster that cascaded beside the window, the city skyline providing the room's only artwork. The bathroom was the most material-driven space in the project, full-height travertine slabs with an alternating herringbone texture, dark bronze fixtures throughout, and concealed cove lighting that made the room glow at any hour.

A Dubai residence designed to hold its own against one of the world's most recognizable views. The crystal chandelier, the dark marble island, the travertine bathroom and the bedroom overlooking the Burj Al Arab skyline were each resolved as individual moments that read as a coherent whole. The client approved the full interior from renders. This project represents Studio 5's highest-profile Middle East commission to date.