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Architecture—19 / 24

W22

Emirates Hills, Dubai, UAE/Private villa/2023 — 2024/Eleven Plus Decoration Design

Stacked floating roof planes, full-height glazing and a terrace that runs the length of the garden — a house organised around the transition from inside to out.

01The garden elevation opens in layers, from the pool terrace to the roof-level loggia.
Location
Emirates Hills, Dubai, UAE
Year
2023 — 2024
Sector
Residential
Scope
Concept to IFC
Status
Completed

My contribution

My role
Senior Designer — design lead
Responsibility
Concept to IFC

Key contributions

  • Led the design from concept through IFC
  • Developed the massing and the terrace-to-garden relationship
  • Directed the material palette
  • Coordinated the technical package so the detailing held the design intent

The project

The house is built from horizontal planes. Broad roof slabs float over each floor and extend well past the glass line, so the terraces they shade become usable rooms rather than leftover edges, and the glare is cut before it reaches the interior. Behind them the elevation is almost entirely glazed, which puts the pool terrace and the garden into every principal room.

The garden front is the argument: one continuous terrace, a shaded outdoor kitchen and dining pergola at one end, the pool running parallel to the façade, and planting brought tight against the building so the architecture always reads through greenery. The palette stays deliberately quiet — pale stone, off-white render, dark metal soffits and bronze-toned frames — so the shadows do the drawing.

02Projecting frames lend depth to a largely glazed house at the street edge.
03The entrance is marked by a taller stone plane within the horizontal façade.
04A recessed doorway gives arrival a sheltered pause beneath the upper rooms.
05The car canopy adopts the same thin-edged roof language as the house.
06An outdoor lounge extends the living rooms towards the water without enclosing the terrace.
07Planting interrupts the long balcony, giving the upper rooms a softer edge.
08The pool brings the garden close to the house while separating its smaller seating terraces.
09The dining pavilion completes the garden composition at a lower, more intimate scale.

“The shade is the architecture; the palette just keeps quiet.”

10Kitchen and dining share the pergola, making outdoor meals independent of the main house.
11A change in level defines the fire lounge within the larger terrace.
12The pergola remains open on three sides, keeping dining in the life of the pool garden.
13The garden is planned as linked outdoor rooms, each with a different relationship to the water.

Colophon

Location
Emirates Hills, Dubai, UAE
Year
2023 — 2024
Sector
Residential
Typology
Private villa
Scope
Concept to IFC
Status
Completed
Role
Senior Designer — design lead