Luxury Villa Design in Dubai
A villa should be designed around the people who will live in it, not around a template. LKYOOB designs bespoke private villas in Dubai from its studio in Jumeirah 1, taking each residence from the first conversation about how a family lives to the day the keys are handed over.
LKYOOB is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, specialising in the design of bespoke private villas and residences. The studio works through a fully integrated design and build model: architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight are carried by a single team under one point of control. A villa commission moves through five stages, beginning with a study of the client's way of living and the plot itself, then concept, integrated design development and material detailing, and ending with construction overseen by the same studio that produced the drawings. The practice was founded by Moosa Swaidan, with design led by Mahra Al Ramlawi, and serves private clients across Dubai's established communities, from Palm Jumeirah and Emirates Hills to Jumeirah and Al Barari.
What we design
The centre of our work is the private villa designed from the ground up: plan, elevations, structure, interiors, garden and pool conceived together as one composition. A commission usually begins with a plot in one of Dubai's established communities and a client who wants a home drawn around their own family rather than adapted from a developer's plan.
The same team also takes on complete transformations of existing villas, where the bones of a house are kept but its spaces, facades, interiors and landscape are rethought as a whole, and penthouse and apartment residences, where the work concentrates on plan, light, joinery and material within a fixed shell.
Whatever the typology, the interiors are never a separate exercise. The stone that runs from the entrance hall to the terrace, the walnut that lines the majlis, the way a corridor borrows light from a courtyard: these decisions are made inside the same studio, at the same table, as the architecture itself.
What does a full villa design service include?
A full villa design service takes responsibility for every drawing the project needs and every decision those drawings depend on. At LKYOOB that means the architecture, the interior architecture and furnishing direction, the structural and services engineering, the landscape and pool design, and the documentation required for authority approvals and construction pricing, produced by one team to one standard.
It also includes the unglamorous work that decides whether a project runs well: coordinating the disciplines so the drawings agree with each other, managing the approvals process with the relevant Dubai authorities, preparing the project for accurate pricing, and staying responsible for the design through construction rather than handing it over at the door of the site.
Clients come to us for the design of a home, but what they are really buying is the absence of gaps: no seam between architect and interior designer, no contradiction between drawing sets, no stage at which the project changes hands and loses its intent.
How a villa moves through the studio
Every residence follows the same five stages. Each one closes with the client's approval before the next begins, so the project always stands on decisions that have already been made properly.
Vision & Lifestyle Study
We study how the household lives, receives guests and observes privacy, and we read the plot: orientation, levels, views and light through the day. Typically two to three weeks, producing the brief the villa will answer to.
Concept & Design Direction
The first architecture: massing, plan organisation, the relationship of house to garden and pool, and the material direction. Typically four to six weeks, closing with an agreed concept.
Integrated Design Development
The concept is developed across all six disciplines at once, so structure, services, interiors and landscape are resolved together rather than reconciled later. Typically ten to sixteen weeks.
Materials & Details
Stone, timber, metals and joinery are selected and sampled, junctions are detailed, and the documentation is completed for pricing and construction. Typically six to eight weeks.
Execution & Delivery
The studio that designed the villa oversees its construction, managing site quality, samples and programme under the same point of control the client has had from the first meeting.
Where we work
Our clients commission villas across Dubai's established private communities. Each sets its own terms, and a design that reads them correctly starts ahead.
- Palm Jumeirah
- Emirates Hills
- Jumeirah
- Al Barari
- Dubai Hills Estate
- Jumeirah Bay Island
Designing in Dubai means designing for its climate. Hard light asks for deep reveals, shaded loggias and courtyards that admit brightness without glare. Heat rewards orientation and mass considered from the first sketch. Privacy is planned in the architecture, not added with curtains, and because the cooler months are lived outdoors, the garden and terraces are drawn as rooms of the house. And although the studio's centre of gravity is Dubai, commissions are taken across the United Arab Emirates, carried by the same team under the same point of control.
How much does villa design cost in Dubai?
There is no honest single answer: the cost of designing a villa in Dubai depends on the scope of disciplines engaged, the size and complexity of the house, and how far the documentation is developed before construction. A design that includes architecture, interiors, engineering and landscape as one scope is a different undertaking from architecture alone, and a plot with a basement, long structural spans or an ambitious landscape asks more of every drawing set.
What can be said with confidence is where cost certainty comes from: a fully resolved design before site work begins. Decisions made on paper cost a fraction of the same decisions made on site, which is exactly what the five-stage process exists to protect. Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually against its brief, plot and specification, and we would far rather discuss a specific house than quote an average one.
Why design and delivery belong in one studio
The conventional route asks a client to appoint an architect, an interior designer, engineers, a landscape designer and a contractor separately, and then to arbitrate between them for two or three years. Every party is competent; none is responsible for the whole.
LKYOOB was structured to remove that arbitration. One team carries the six disciplines, and the client holds one point of control from the first study to handover. Decisions are made once, with every discipline in the room, and the people who oversee the site sat beside the people who drew the details. The studio's Google rating of 4.4 from 42 client reviews reflects work delivered this way.
Frequently asked questions
What is included in LKYOOB's villa design service?
Everything the residence needs to be designed, approved and built: architecture, interior design, structural and services engineering, landscape and pool design, authority documentation and construction drawings, produced by one integrated team. The same studio then oversees execution, so responsibility for the design never changes hands.
How long does villa design take in Dubai?
The design stages typically take six to eight months in total: two to three weeks for the vision study, four to six weeks for concept, ten to sixteen weeks for integrated design development and six to eight weeks for materials and details. Authority approvals run in parallel where possible.
Does LKYOOB also build the villas it designs?
Yes. LKYOOB works as an integrated design and build studio, with execution oversight and delivery operations inside the same team that produces the design. Clients keep one point of control from the first meeting to handover rather than coordinating separate firms.
Which communities does LKYOOB design villas in?
Across Dubai's established private communities, including Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barari, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Bay Island. Each plot is read on its own terms: orientation, views, overlooking and the character of its street. The studio also takes commissions across the United Arab Emirates.
Can LKYOOB redesign an existing villa?
Yes. The studio takes on comprehensive transformations where an existing villa's spaces, facades, interiors and landscape are rethought as one design. The five-stage process applies in full, beginning with the same study of the household and the site.
Where is the LKYOOB studio?
In Jumeirah 1, Dubai, at Office 02, Dubai Marine Beach Resort. Clients are welcome by appointment to discuss a plot, a brief or an early idea over the drawings and material samples.
A villa begins long before the drawings, in a conversation about how you want to live. If you are considering a bespoke villa in Dubai, we would be glad to have that conversation, with your plot plan on the table if you have one and without it if you do not.
Begin a conversation with the studio in Jumeirah.
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