Landscape Design in Dubai
A garden in Dubai succeeds or fails long before anything is planted. From our studio in Jumeirah 1, LKYOOB designs the landscape of a villa in the same rooms, and at the same time, as its architecture and interiors, so the garden, pool and terraces arrive as part of the house rather than as a finishing layer. The result is an outdoors that is genuinely lived in, not simply looked at.
LKYOOB is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, and its landscape design service treats the garden, pool and terraces as rooms of the house rather than a finishing touch. Founded by Moosa Swaidan, the studio works through a fully integrated design and build model in which architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight sit within a single team under one point of control. Every commission moves through five stages, from a vision and lifestyle study through concept, integrated design development and materials to execution and delivery, so the landscape is drawn alongside the building it belongs to. The studio designs outdoor environments for villas and residences in Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barari, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Bay Island, and takes commissions across the United Arab Emirates.
The garden, designed as another room of the house
Most landscape work in Dubai is commissioned after the house is finished, which is why so many gardens feel applied rather than belonging. LKYOOB works the other way. Landscape design is one of six disciplines carried by the studio, alongside architecture design, interior design, engineering, project management and execution oversight, and it enters the project on day one. The terraces are drawn with the floor plan, the pool is set against the structure it borders, and the planting is planned with the same care as the joinery inside. Design across the studio is led by Mahra Al Ramlawi, so the hand that shapes the house also shapes its grounds.
Every landscape begins with reading the plot. Orientation, the path of the sun through the year, the prevailing breeze, the neighbours' sightlines and the levels of the land are all understood before a single plant is chosen. From that reading come the bones of the garden: shade structures, loggias and courtyards that make the outdoors usable in the hottest months, and lawns and terraces positioned for the seasons when Dubai is lived outside.
Water is treated as composition rather than ornament. A pool is placed where it extends the geometry of the house and catches the right light, not where a catalogue suggests it should go. The same is true of planting: species are selected to survive and serve a Dubai summer, layered to soften walls, cast shade and hold their form, so the garden looks considered in August as well as in January.
What does a villa landscape design service include?
A villa landscape design service at LKYOOB includes a masterplan of the outdoor spaces, the hard landscape, planting design, pools and water features, lighting, and supervision through execution. The masterplan settles how the grounds work as a whole: arrival, the private garden, service zones, and the relationship between indoor and outdoor rooms. The hard landscape then gives that plan its permanence, in stone, paving, boundary walls, pergolas and built shade.
Planting design is where the climate is answered. Species are chosen for tolerance to heat, and to salt air where the plot demands it, arranged in layers that provide shade, screening and seasonal change, and supported by irrigation that our engineering team designs rather than leaves to chance. Lighting is resolved in the same drawings, so the garden reads as calmly at night as it does by day.
Because the studio carries execution oversight as one of its six disciplines, the landscape design does not end at a set of drawings. The same team supervises levels, drainage, pool works and planting on site, checks materials against the approved samples, and stays with the project until the garden is established and handed over.
The five stages of a landscape commission
Landscape follows the same five-stage structure as every LKYOOB commission, drawn alongside the architecture and interiors from the first week. The design stages together typically take six to eight months.
Vision & Lifestyle Study
Two to three weeks spent understanding how you want to live outdoors: morning shade or evening sun, dining under cover or under the sky, children, pets, privacy and entertaining. In parallel we read the plot itself, its orientation, light and levels, before any design begins.
Concept & Design Direction
Over four to six weeks the masterplan of the grounds takes shape. The positions of the pool, terraces, courtyards and principal planting are set in relation to the plan of the house, so garden and building develop as one composition.
Integrated Design Development
Ten to sixteen weeks in which the landscape is developed alongside the architecture, interiors and engineering. Levels, drainage, irrigation, pool structure and the framing of loggias and shade structures are resolved in coordinated drawings by one team.
Materials & Details
Six to eight weeks of decisions you can touch: stone and paving, timber and screens, water finishes, the planting palette and the lighting that carries the garden into the evening. Every selection is recorded so nothing is improvised on site.
Execution & Delivery
Construction of the landscape is overseen by the same studio that designed it. We supervise the ground works, pool, hard landscape and planting through to establishment, and hand over a garden that matches the drawings it began as.
Where we work
Each of these communities asks something different of its gardens, from the salt air of the Palm to the mature canopies of Al Barari. We design landscapes for villas and residences across them all.
- Palm Jumeirah
- Emirates Hills
- Jumeirah
- Al Barari
- Dubai Hills Estate
- Jumeirah Bay Island
Dubai's climate rewards gardens designed with honesty about heat, and its communities place a high value on privacy. Boundary walls, layered planting and screened terraces are therefore composed as carefully as any facade, and shade is planned before ornament, so that the terraces earn their keep in summer and the whole garden opens up through the cooler months, when life here moves outdoors. Commissions are taken across the United Arab Emirates, carried by the same team under the same point of control.
How much does landscape design cost in Dubai?
There is no single honest answer, because no two plots ask for the same work. What moves the cost is scope: the extent of hard landscape and boundary walls, the structure behind pools and shade elements, the depth of stone and joinery in the outdoor rooms, the systems that carry irrigation and lighting, and the maturity of the planting you begin with. A courtyard garden and a full estate landscape are simply different undertakings.
What we can say plainly is that a fully resolved design protects a budget. Decisions made on paper cost a fraction of decisions made on site, and a landscape drawn in coordination with the architecture avoids the reworking that follows when a garden is designed after the house. Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually, against your plot and your brief.
Why one integrated studio rather than a separate landscape firm
When landscape is handled by a separate firm, it joins the project late and negotiates with decisions already made: levels it did not set, services it must work around, a house it can only respond to. Inside LKYOOB, the landscape designer sits with the architect and the engineer from the first study, so drainage, structure and planting are agreed once, in one set of drawings, under one point of control.
That continuity holds through construction, because the people who drew the garden are the people supervising it. The studio holds a Google rating of 4.4 from 42 client reviews, and the pattern in that feedback is consistency: one team, one standard, from the first meeting to the day the garden is handed over.
Frequently asked questions
How much does villa landscape design cost in Dubai?
Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually, so we do not publish standard fees. The cost of a landscape is moved by the extent of hard landscape, the structure behind pools and shade elements, the depth of stone and joinery outdoors, and the systems that carry irrigation and lighting. A fully resolved design protects your budget, because decisions made on paper cost a fraction of decisions made on site. We set out a clear scope and fee after the first conversation about your plot.
How long does the landscape design process take?
The design stages of a full commission typically take six to eight months in total. The landscape moves through the same five stages as the house: a vision and lifestyle study of two to three weeks, concept and design direction over four to six weeks, integrated design development over ten to sixteen weeks, and materials and details over six to eight weeks. Because the garden is drawn alongside the architecture, it adds no separate design programme of its own.
Does LKYOOB also design the architecture and interiors?
Yes. Landscape design is one of six disciplines carried by the studio, alongside architecture design, interior design, engineering, project management and execution oversight. The studio designs bespoke new villas, complete transformations of existing villas, and penthouse and apartment residences. That is why our gardens belong to their houses: the same team designs both.
Which communities does LKYOOB design landscapes in?
The studio designs gardens and outdoor environments in Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barari, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Bay Island. Each community shapes the work differently, from coastal planting on the Palm to the established green of Al Barari. Commissions are taken across the United Arab Emirates.
Where is the LKYOOB studio located?
The studio is at Office 02, Dubai Marine Beach Resort, Jumeirah 1, Dubai. It is where every commission begins, with a conversation across one table rather than a chain of referrals. Visitors are welcome by appointment, and the team that meets you is the team that will carry your project.
What planting actually survives a Dubai summer?
Planting in Dubai has to be chosen for heat, and near the coast for salt air, before it is chosen for appearance. We work with layered schemes: canopy trees for shade, structural species that hold their form through the hottest months, and softer planting positioned where it is protected. Irrigation is designed by our engineering team as part of the same drawings, not added afterwards. The aim is a garden that looks composed in August, not only in the cooler season.
If you are planning a garden, a pool or the grounds of a new villa, we would be glad to talk it through. Write to the studio or visit us in Jumeirah 1, and we will begin with your plot and how you want to live in it.
Begin a conversation with the studio in Jumeirah.
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