Dubai has its fair share of ultra-luxurious houses; one finds everything from minimalist to the most avant-garde abodes - but when it comes to a modernist Dubai home, no one seems to do it better than Syrian interior designer Hana Hakim.
Founder of Melbourne-based practice The Stella Collective, Hakim has always admired the UAE’s Modernist and Brutalist buildings. “I’ve been travelling to Dubai since the 1990s, and became so enamoured by the architecture that was constructed after the discovery of oil,” she enthuses. “In the city centre, 1970s Modernist buildings are intertwined with Islamic and authentic Arabic designs - an extraordinary mix, absolutely unique to the region.”
When Hakim joined forces with a young professional Dubai couple to create their dream home – located in the Al Wasl district, a diverse expat community since the 1970s – she grasped the chance to indulge her passion for the era. “They wanted a refuge away from their busy work schedules; a soulful home that embraced the feminine while also being modern and connecting to the outdoors,” she explains.
Hakim’s response to the brief was this beautifully simple, streamlined edifice that nonetheless incorporates some of the Arab world’s most timeless historical details, alongside orientalist influences. Known as Casa Amal, the house features a delicately perforated façade, clad in the rendered colour of warm sand, which affords privacy while allowing light to flow indoors.
Its inspiration comes, as you might expect, from wooden mashrabiya screens. “It’s a Modernist interpretation of the idea,” Hakim reflects, “and creates a beautiful texture of light when the sun pours in. We repeated the idea several times around the property, on various scales. There are petite versions in the bathrooms and powder rooms and a dramatic, lantern-like wall in the first-floor lounge. From sunrise to sunset, shadow patterns appear in different places.”
Hakim also added a huge perforated Italian travertine wall that traverses the three levels of the staircase, “taking away that closed-in feeling of traditional stairs”.
Other familiar touches add warmth to the interior. “The client made me smile when she said how much she loved arches – for me as a Syrian, I felt it was important to keep our Arabic heritage front and centre,” says Hakim. “The soaring five-metre-high arches in the house are an ode to traditional Arabic architecture, infusing the space with a sense of grandeur.”
Softly curved walls add further romance, bestowing the feeling of “an oasis of purity and light”. Because the rendered walls subtly change tone throughout the day, the house often almost glows, giving the simply furnished rooms an ethereal quality.
Hakim decorated the modernist Dubai home, only with the most refined essentials – think heavyweight linen bedspreads from Cultiver Goods, contemporary lighting by Apparatus, and olive-green mosaic tiles – allowing light and abundant greenery to take centre stage.
“The idea was to give a sense of living art by Mother Nature herself,” explains the designer. “Nature becomes an active participant in the design. At the heart of the house, there’s a central courtyard and pool that connects to all the other spaces, from the gym to the kitchen, majlis and living areas. Furthermore, every room has a connection to the garden oasis that surrounds the house, which is glimpsed through perforated screens or steel-framed glass doors.”
On the top floor, above a level housing the family’s bedrooms and TV den, there’s a design studio/home office with incredible rooftop views of downtown Dubai – proof that it’s possible to achieve this level of seclusion while keeping in touch with the city’s buzz. “It’s a lusciously escapist, effortlessly luxurious home,” declares Hakim. “Easy living for the soul to feel comfortable in.”
