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Haitham Abdelrehim

Interior Design—05 / 11

W22

Emirates Hills, Dubai, UAE/Villa interiors/2023 — 2024/Eleven Plus Decoration Design

The interior is organised around arrival: a full-height entrance hall, a curved stair that turns through it, and reception rooms opening off a single axis.

01A tall display wall gives the formal living room a centre independent of the stair hall.
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 interiors from concept through IFC
  • Set the material palette and joinery language
  • Directed FF&E and decorative lighting
  • Coordinated suppliers and the technical package

The project

Everything in the plan reports to the hall. It runs the full height of the house, and the stair turns through it as a single sculptural ribbon, lit from above so the underside of the flight becomes the brightest surface in the room. Around it the materials are few and repeated: veined marble underfoot and on the wall panels, fluted and slatted timber in tall vertical bays, bronze-toned metal in the frames, screens and balustrade.

The reception rooms sit off that axis and are treated as a sequence rather than separate schemes — formal living, dining and family sitting each take the same palette at a different intensity, so the house reads as one interior from the door to the garden. Lighting is integrated rather than applied: linear coves, backlit stone, and a small number of large decorative pieces where the ceiling opens up.

02The stair turns through the hall as one continuous surface, with room to gather beneath it.
03The curved flight interrupts the house's otherwise orthogonal sequence of stone and timber bays.
04A stone platform marks the centre of arrival without enclosing the hall.
05The upper gallery overlooks the entrance, keeping movement between floors visible within the house.
06Small points of light give the wall behind the stair depth across its full height.
07The stair remains part of the outlook from the reception rooms.
08Seating follows the room's structural bays while the circulation stays open around it.
09A quieter material treatment distinguishes the family lounge within the shared house palette.
10Several seating groups allow the larger reception space to work for both small and extended gatherings.

“Everything in the plan reports to the hall.”

11A wall of lit cabinetry gives dining its own backdrop within the continuous interior.
12Freestanding basins bring the stone palette into a compact, deliberately composed washroom.
13The lift threshold continues the hall's timber and metal rhythm in a more enclosed space.
14Recessed doors and a dark textured end wall keep the lift lobby visually calm.

Colophon

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