Villa Design in Mohammed Bin Rashid City
Mohammed Bin Rashid City was announced in November 2012 and now covers a stretch of inland Dubai wide enough to hold several villa districts at once. They do not share a rulebook. One district is developed by Meydan Group, another by Sobha Realty, another by Meraas, and the plot envelopes differ with them. A villa here is designed for its district first and for the city second, which is why the first questions are about the land rather than the architecture.
Villa design in Mohammed Bin Rashid City begins with the district rather than the address. The city was announced in November 2012 and now holds several separate villa districts. Meydan Group's development within it runs to some forty million square feet and takes in villa communities such as Millennium Estates and Meydan Heights. Sobha Hartland, launched in 2016, occupies about eight million square feet at the north eastern corner. Nad Al Sheba Gardens, a Meraas development, sits just south of the racecourse and sells freehold plots. Each district answers to a different master developer, so the consent required before a permit application, and the authority that grants the permit itself, are confirmed district by district rather than carried over from another part of the city. LKYOOB designs villas for plots in Mohammed Bin Rashid City and lodges its own permit applications. The studio is registered with Dubai Municipality in the name KYOOB ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY L.L.C, with a classification extending to G+4.
MBR City at a glance
| Announced | November 2012, by the Ruler of Dubai |
|---|---|
| Meydan development | About 40 million square feet within the city, by Meydan Group, gathered around the racecourse |
| Sobha Hartland | About 8 million square feet at the north eastern corner, by Sobha Realty, launched in 2016 |
| Nad Al Sheba Gardens | A Meraas development south of the racecourse, with freehold plots eligible for a two storey villa or a seven storey residential building |
| Plot sizes at Nad Al Sheba Gardens | From about 5,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet and larger |
| Villa enclaves | Millennium Estates, about 200 houses near the grandstand, Meydan Heights, Hartland Forest Villas and the gated Hartland Estates |
| Water and green | Sobha Hartland sits on the Dubai Creek and canal with a green belt through it, close to the Ras Al Khor nature reserve |
What sits inside the city?
The districts inside Mohammed Bin Rashid City differ more than their shared name suggests. Meydan Group's development gathers around the racecourse and runs to some forty million square feet, taking in villa communities such as Millennium Estates, a group of about two hundred houses near the grandstand, and Meydan Heights. Sobha Hartland, launched in 2016 by Sobha Realty, covers about eight million square feet at the north eastern corner where Ras Al Khor Road meets the Dubai Al Ain Road, and holds its own villa enclaves, among them Hartland Forest Villas and the gated Hartland Estates beside the water. Nad Al Sheba Gardens, a Meraas development in Nad Al Sheba 1, lies a short distance south of the racecourse and sells freehold plots. A plot in one of these is not governed by the rules of another, so the first task on any commission is to identify the master developer whose land the plot sits on, and the phase in which it was sold.
Whose consent does a design need first?
Because each district has its own master developer, the review a villa design meets first is not the same across Mohammed Bin Rashid City. A plot in the Meydan development answers to Meydan Group, one in Sobha Hartland to Sobha Realty, one in Nad Al Sheba Gardens to Meraas. What each of them requires before an application can be lodged, and which authority grants the building permit for that particular district, is confirmed in writing at the start of the work with the bodies that issue those documents. LKYOOB does not carry an assumption from one district into another, and it does not begin detailed drawings until the route is settled, because the route decides both the content and the order of the submission. The studio prepares and lodges its own permit applications, so the practice that designs the villa answers the queries raised against it. On a site this large, that discipline is what keeps a design from being drawn twice.
What do the plot envelopes allow?
Plot envelopes inside the city are not uniform, and they are worth reading before a plan is sketched. At Nad Al Sheba Gardens the freehold plots run from about five thousand square feet up to ten thousand square feet and larger, and are eligible either for a two storey villa or for a residential building of up to seven storeys. A plot that permits more height than a family needs is still designed as a house, but the envelope shapes what may eventually be built beside it, which is a fair consideration when deciding where to place bedrooms and terraces. Elsewhere in the city the villa enclaves are sold as finished houses rather than as land, so the work there is renovation or extension within an existing shell. Establishing which of those two situations applies, land or house, sets the shape of the whole commission before a single design question is reached.
What does a canal or parkland edge ask of a house?
Several of the city's villa districts are organised around water and planting rather than around a view of the skyline. Sobha Hartland sits along the Dubai Creek and canal, keeps a substantial green belt through the community, and lies close to the Ras Al Khor nature reserve, while its gated Hartland Estates enclave is drawn up beside the Dubai Water Canal. A plot on an edge like this has a long, quiet frontage that a house can either open to or turn away from. Orientation is worked out so that the main rooms take the water and the planting while the hardest sun falls on service faces, with shading and deep reveals doing work that a wall of glass cannot. Planting on the plot is chosen to sit with the green belt rather than against it. Inland heat and the still air of a sheltered canal edge both argue for cross ventilation and shade planned into the plan rather than added afterwards.
How do you design for a street that is not finished?
Much of Mohammed Bin Rashid City is still being built. Nad Al Sheba Gardens has been under development since 2019 and continues in phases, and plots around a new house may stand empty for some time after it is finished. That changes several decisions. Boundary treatment, the height of planting and the position of first floor openings are set against the houses that will eventually stand next door rather than against an open view that will not last. Site access and the sequence of works are planned with neighbouring construction in mind. Where a plot faces a park or a route that is already complete, that edge can be treated as settled; where it faces land still to be sold, the design holds its own privacy rather than borrowing it from an empty plot. Thinking a few years ahead is a modest discipline, and it is the difference between a house that ages well on its street and one that has to be screened later.
Design studies suited to plots in MBR City
These studies were not drawn for MBR City. They are shown because the kind of villa they describe, in scale, in plan and in the way it meets its plot, is the kind this community asks for. Every image is a design visualisation, not a photograph.
Questions owners ask about MBR City
Which parts of Mohammed Bin Rashid City have villa plots?
Nad Al Sheba Gardens sells freehold plots from about five thousand square feet upwards, and other districts hold villa enclaves such as Millennium Estates, Meydan Heights, Hartland Forest Villas and Hartland Estates. Some of those are sold as finished houses rather than as land, so the first step is to establish which district and which phase a plot belongs to.
Who approves a villa design in Mohammed Bin Rashid City?
It depends on the district. The Meydan development answers to Meydan Group, Sobha Hartland to Sobha Realty and Nad Al Sheba Gardens to Meraas. The consent each requires, and the authority that grants the building permit in that district, are confirmed in writing at the start of the work rather than assumed from a neighbouring community.
How tall can a villa be here?
The envelope varies by district and by plot. At Nad Al Sheba Gardens the freehold plots are eligible either for a two storey villa or for a residential building of up to seven storeys. The allowance that applies to a particular plot is read from that plot's own documents before the design is developed.
Is the work here new build or renovation?
Both. Districts that sell plots, such as Nad Al Sheba Gardens, bring new houses designed from an empty site. Districts that sold finished villas bring renovation, extension and reconfiguration within an existing shell. The two follow different design routes and different submissions, so the distinction is settled at the first conversation.
Mohammed Bin Rashid City rewards precision about where a plot sits. The district sets the master developer, the envelope and the route to a permit, and those three decide most of what follows. LKYOOB designs villas for plots across the city and lodges its own permit applications, establishing the route for the specific district before the drawings harden around it.
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