Why the Courtyard House in Dubai Is Coming Back
Long before the boundary wall and the tinted window, the Gulf kept its privacy the elegant way: it turned the house inside out and gave every room a private square of sky.
Interiors
Comparing Furniture Manufacturers Without Relying on Brand Names
Seven construction variables set the price and service life of upholstered furniture. Eight questions that produce specifications, what brand reputation.
Architecture
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North Light, Please: Villa Orientation in Dubai
Before mood boards and marble, a villa succeeds or fails on where it points. Reading the sun across a plot costs nothing on day one and pays, or punishes, for decades.
Facade Materials for Dubai Heat: What Survives August
Salt on the breeze, ultraviolet by the kilowatt and a wall that is one temperature at dawn and quite another by three. Choosing a facade here is choosing how a building will age.
Design
All design stories
Made, Not Bought: Commissioning Custom Furniture in Dubai
Between Al Quoz and Ras Al Khor sits a workshop economy that can build almost anything. The difference between a commission you keep for decades and one you regret is decided before the saw starts.
Sadu, Khoos, Gypsum: Emirati Craft in Interiors Today
Sadu, khoos and carved gypsum survived the concrete decades. Used at the right dose they give a contemporary Dubai interior a memory; used everywhere, they turn it into a lobby.
Escaping the Downlight Grid: Lighting for Dubai Apartments
Developers hand over ceilings, not lighting schemes. A few lamps, disciplined colour temperature and a dimmer or two will do more for an apartment than any single piece of furniture you could buy.
Interiors
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Sleeping Through August: A Bedroom for Dubai Summer
Good August sleep is engineering: darkness, air, temperature, and the war on small green lights. A practical guide to a bedroom that stays on your side until morning.
The Curtain Question: Curtains and Blinds for Dubai Sun
Glass walls make Dubai flats bright and, from May to September, slightly punishing. Window treatments are the cheapest climate control you will ever buy; the trick is layering them properly.
Cool Underfoot: Marble and Porcelain Floors in Dubai
Stone floors here are not a style decision; they are climate response. On marble's honest maintenance, porcelain's quiet competence, and the rug that makes both of them liveable.
Style
All style stories
Sand Is Not Beige: A Desert Colour Palette for Interiors
The desert is rose at dawn, ochre at noon and violet by evening. A room that borrows those hours honestly will never read as beige.
Mashrabiya Without Kitsch: Arabic Pattern in Modern Homes
Geometry that once managed light, air and privacy has been flattened into a lobby cliché. Used at the right scale, in the right material, it still does what it always did: turn sun into shadow.
Indoor Plants for Dubai Homes That Forgive the AC
Air-conditioning is a desert of its own: dry, draughty, dim in the corners. Most houseplants sulk in it. A reliable few genuinely do not mind, and they are the ones worth buying twice.
Living
All living stories
Your AC Is the House: AC Maintenance in Dubai
For most of the year the air you breathe at home has passed through one machine. It keeps its side of the bargain only if somebody looks after it.
A Desert Garden in Dubai That Drinks Responsibly
The default villa garden is a lawn on life support. There is another way to plant, one that takes its cues from the ghaf tree rather than the golf course.
Before You Knock a Wall: Renovation Approvals in Dubai
Apartments across the city are stripped back to concrete every week, most of them legally. The paperwork that makes it legal is shorter than its reputation, provided you start it before the contractor does.