Arabian Ranches, the master-planned community on the edge of Dubai, trades in Mediterranean and Spanish pastiche – the kind of terracotta-roofed villa that has become shorthand for aspirational suburbia. Inside one of these houses, in the gated enclave of Savannah, Marie Claire Mrad has undertaken something quietly subversive. The interior designer stripped the space down to the bare bones, displacing a borrowed European design language for something more disciplined: contemporary Japanese restraint.
During the six-month renovation, there were no significant structural changes. The arches and roof tiles that once marked a Spanish villa now stand in tension with the monolithic interior. Where the community defaults to relying on ornament to convey warmth, this home instead uses proportion, rhythm and the behavior of light to carry the emotional weight.
Slate partitions—repeated in walnut and blackened wood—create layered thresholds and filtered visual points throughout the space, reminiscent of the koshi grids and shoji of Japanese architecture. In a desert villa, this logic also makes climatic sense, framing the harsh Gulf sun into something layered rather than blocking it outright.
Ceppo di Gré stone anchors floors and surfaces alongside concrete-effect ceramics. Some sculptures include a Patagonian stone dining table, as well as a special collection of lamps built entirely around Sahara onyx. What underpins the project beyond aesthetics is its artisanal economy. Almost everything, from the sofas and coffee tables to the entire line of lighting, was designed for the villa and made in Beirut by Lebanese craftsmen, with materials sourced from Lebanon and Italy.
The owners’ collection includes an Eames chaise longue, an Eileen Gray side table, a Michel Ducaroy Togo sofa, all of which sit comfortably in the restrained frame without interruption.
See more information about Marie Claire Mrad’s website.
Photo by Natalee Cocks.
