Villa Renovation and Redesign Company in Dubai
LKYOOB is an architecture and engineering company in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, and much of its work begins with a villa that already exists. The studio takes on complete redesigns: the bones are kept, and the spaces, facades, interiors and landscape are rethought as one design. One team carries the work from the first walk through the house to handover.
LKYOOB is a multidisciplinary design studio in Jumeirah 1, Dubai, founded by Moosa Swaidan, that specialises in luxury villa renovation: the complete transformation of an existing house rather than cosmetic refurbishment. Because a renovation almost always touches structure or services, the work sits with a licensed engineering consultancy: LKYOOB is registered with Dubai Municipality in the name KYOOB ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY L.L.C. The studio works through a fully integrated design and build model, with architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight held by a single team under one point of control. A transformation moves through the same five stages as a new villa, from a vision and lifestyle study through concept, integrated design development and materials to execution overseen by the studio itself. Commissions concentrate in Dubai's established villa communities, among them Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barari, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Bay Island, where an older house on a good plot often deserves a considered second life.
Selected work
Three houses from the studio's schedule: a completed and photographed villa in Dubai, a five-bedroom house of 10,670 sq ft, and a villa interior scheme for Nad Al Sheba 2. A transformation is drawn by the same team, to the same level of detail, and the approvals that altering an existing house requires are prepared inside the same scope.
Transformation begins with an honest reading of the house
Before anything is drawn, the existing villa is read honestly. The studio surveys the structure, traces the plan against sun and prevailing light, and identifies what deserves to stay: sound bones, generous spans, a stair in the right place, a garden wall that has earned its keep. A transformation succeeds by respecting these findings, and it fails when it ignores them.
Dubai's established communities hold a generation of villas whose plots and settings remain enviable while the houses themselves have aged around them. Compartmented plans, tired facades and services near the end of their life are common, and none of them are reasons to abandon a good structure in a good position. These houses are the natural candidates for complete transformation: the bones are kept, and the spaces, facades, interiors and landscape are rethought as one design.
Because architecture design, interior design, engineering, landscape design, project management and execution oversight sit within a single team, decisions about the existing building are made with authority rather than assumption. The engineers who assess what a wall can lose stand beside the designers who want it gone, and approvals for modification are prepared within the same integrated scope, not passed to a third party after the fact.
When is renovation the right answer, and when is a rebuild?
Renovation is the right answer when the structure and the siting still serve the family, and a rebuild is right when they fight it. A villa with sound bones, workable spans and a sensible position on its plot can be transformed into a house that feels entirely new. One whose structure resists every move the brief requires will spend its budget defending decisions made long ago.
The honest test is rarely the condition of the finishes, which are replaced in any serious transformation, but the geometry underneath them. Ceiling heights, structural grids, the depth of the plan and the villa's relationship to light and neighbours are the things a renovation inherits. Where that inheritance is generous, keeping the structure preserves time, effort already built into the house, and often the character of a garden that took years to mature.
At LKYOOB the question is settled at the start, during the Vision & Lifestyle Study. The studio surveys the house, measures the brief against what the structure can accept, and gives a plain recommendation before design begins. Because the same team designs and builds either answer, there is no incentive to steer the conclusion, only to get it right.
What should you check before appointing a company to redesign your villa in Dubai?
Six things, and most of them can be verified before you meet anyone. The buyer's guide on this site sets them out in full for any practice. The table below states each check, what a good answer looks like, and how LKYOOB answers it, so the studio can be measured by the same test it recommends.
| Check | What to look for | How LKYOOB meets it |
|---|---|---|
| Licence classification | What to look forAn Engineering Consultant on the Dubai Municipality register, with a height authority that covers your villa. | How LKYOOB meets itRegistered with Dubai Municipality as KYOOB ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY L.L.C, an Engineering Consultant classified to G+4. |
| Approvals route | What to look forThe practice can name the authority and the sequence of consents for your plot before design begins. | How LKYOOB meets itThe route is identified in the first study, and the submissions are prepared by the same team that draws the house. |
| Scope of the appointment | What to look forA written scope: which drawings, which approvals, who answers the site, and where the appointment ends. | How LKYOOB meets itOne integrated scope: architecture, interior design, engineering, landscape, project management and execution oversight. |
| Experience with private homes | What to look forPrivate residences at the centre of the practice's work, and named people who will hold your project. | How LKYOOB meets itThe private villa is the centre of the studio's work. The founder and the design lead stay on each commission. |
| Portfolio | What to look forClarity about which projects were built and which remain drawings. | How LKYOOB meets itEvery image on the projects page is labelled as a photograph of a completed house or as a design visualisation. |
| Delivery to handover | What to look forSomeone who inspects the work against the drawings and answers the contractor's questions. | How LKYOOB meets itThe studio that designs the redesign oversees its construction, so the drawings are answered by the people who made them. |
Five stages, in full, for a transformation
A renovation at LKYOOB is not an abridged process. The same five stages that shape a new villa are applied in full to an existing one.
Vision & Lifestyle Study
The stage is spent in the existing house as much as in conversation. The studio surveys the structure, reads orientation and light, and listens to how the family lives now, so the transformation begins from evidence rather than assumption.
Concept & Design Direction
The direction of the transformation takes shape here: what stays, what opens, and how facades, interiors and landscape will change together. The concept treats the villa as one composition, not a list of rooms to refresh.
Integrated Design Development
Architecture, interiors, engineering and landscape are resolved together against the existing structure. Every intervention is tested for what the building can carry and what the authorities will approve.
Materials & Details
This stage is devoted to the junctions where new work meets old. Stone, joinery, glazing and finishes are drawn to the level a transformation demands, so nothing on site is left to interpretation.
Execution & Delivery
Construction is overseen by the same studio that designed the transformation. The team that decided which walls would move is the team standing on site as they do, through to handover.
Where we work
The strongest candidates for transformation stand in Dubai's established villa communities, where the plots are generous and the houses have earned a second look.
A transformation is also a chance to correct a villa's relationship with the Dubai climate and with its neighbours. Facade and glazing renewal can temper heat and glare, deep shade and courtyards can reclaim outdoor rooms for most of the year, and replanned landscape can restore the privacy that older plots sometimes lost as the communities around them filled in. These moves are designed together, so comfort and seclusion arrive as part of the architecture rather than as additions to it. Although the studio works mostly in Dubai, commissions come from across the United Arab Emirates, and the same hands carry each one. How villa design works in each of Dubai's communities.
United States
The studio also works in the United States, in Florida, Texas, California and Missouri, with seven commissions on its own project schedule there. The team, the process and the standard of finish travel with the commission; what changes is the climate, the local codes and the way a house sits on its plot, and those are answered on their own terms.
- Miami, Florida
- Lake Travis, Austin, Texas
- Bakersfield, California
- Missouri City, Missouri
What does a luxury villa renovation cost in Dubai?
It depends on the house and on how far the transformation reaches: the depth of structural intervention, the extent of facade and glazing renewal, the renewal of services, and the depth of joinery move the number more than floor area does. A villa whose bones already serve the brief is a very different undertaking from one whose structure must be reworked, and only a proper study of the house can tell them apart.
That study is where cost certainty begins. A fully resolved design is the strongest protection a budget has, since what is settled on the drawings rarely has to be settled again on site. Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually against the house, the brief and the community it stands in.
Why one integrated studio rather than separate firms
A transformation is less forgiving of gaps between consultants than a new build, because every discipline must agree about an existing structure rather than a blank site. When the architect, interior designer, engineer, landscape designer and contractor are separate firms, the hardest questions of a renovation tend to fall between them. At LKYOOB the six disciplines work as one team under one point of control, so questions about what the building can take are settled in one room.
The same team carries the commission from the first meeting to handover, and the people who resolved the design are the people overseeing its execution on site. What it offers is simpler to state: one conversation, one set of drawings, one party accountable for the result.
Frequently asked questions
I want the interiors, the exterior and the garden and pool all redone. Is that one commission or several?
One, and this is the situation where holding the disciplines together stops being an argument and starts being the practical answer. Split across firms it becomes an interior designer, a landscape studio, a pool specialist and a consultancy to lodge whatever needs permission, with the owner standing between them deciding whose drawing wins where the terrace meets the house. Architecture, interior design, landscape design, engineering and execution oversight sit in one team here, so the stone that runs from the hall to the terrace is chosen once, the level where the garden meets the floor is settled once, and the approvals that any of it needs are prepared by the same practice.
How long does a complete villa transformation take?
The existing house answers this, and it only answers it once it has been surveyed. What moves the programme: how much of the structure has to change, what the survey finds behind the finishes, whether the services are being renewed in full, the approvals that structural and facade alteration require, and whether the family is living in the house while the work runs. The studio walks the villa, settles the renovate or rebuild question first, and then sets a programme against the house in front of it rather than against an average one.
Does LKYOOB also extend villas or add floors?
Yes. Structural alteration sits within the studio's scope, and because engineering is part of the same team, extensions and additional floors are assessed against the existing structure from the first study. All such work is subject to approval by the relevant authorities, which the studio manages as part of the commission.
Which communities does LKYOOB work in?
Commissions concentrate in Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah, Al Barari, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Bay Island. These established communities hold generous plots and a generation of villas well worth transforming. The studio considers houses elsewhere in Dubai on their merits. The studio also takes commissions across the United Arab Emirates.
Where is the LKYOOB studio?
In Jumeirah 1, Dubai, at Office 02, Dubai Marine Beach Resort. Clients are welcome by appointment to discuss an existing villa over the drawings and material samples. For a transformation, it helps to bring photographs and any original drawings of the house.
Do we need approvals to alter an existing villa in Dubai?
Yes. Structural changes, facade alterations and extensions require approval from the relevant authorities, and in many communities from the master developer as well. LKYOOB prepares and manages these submissions as part of its integrated scope, so the design that is approved is the design that is built.
How much does it cost to renovate a villa in Dubai?
It depends on how far the transformation reaches: structural intervention, facade and glazing renewal, the renewal of services and the depth of joinery are what move the number. A house must be studied before it can be priced honestly. Every LKYOOB commission is scoped individually once the house and the brief are understood.
Which architecture company is the right choice to redesign my home in Dubai?
The one that passes the six checks above for your plot: a current Engineering Consultant classification on the Dubai Municipality register, a clear answer on the approvals route, a written scope, private homes at the centre of its work, a portfolio that says which projects were built, and a named team that stays through construction. LKYOOB answers each of these in writing before an appointment, and the first of them can be verified on the public register without taking the studio's word for it.
Ask the studio directly: 04 232 2228 · WhatsApp · Begin a conversation
Most redesigns begin with a simple question: could this house serve us better than it does? If you are asking it of a villa you own, the studio in Jumeirah 1 would be glad to walk the house with you and answer it honestly.
Begin a conversation with the studio in Jumeirah.
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