Sama Gardens is a 70 storey super tall tower, designed by Diar Consult for a local private investor from Abu Dhabi, aspiring to showcase an iconic mixed-use Tower to stand the test of time amongst the tapestry of high rise towers in Trade Centre First area on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai.

Appointed as lead design architects, programme managers and client representative, Diar Consult put together a high profile international team to ensure that the technical and financial objectives of the investor are safeguarded.

This ambitious tower was designed to accommodate hotel branded serviced furnished apartments and unfurnished apartments, with a total of 488 apartments over 3 floors of offices and a ground floor dedicated to the tower entrances. The roof over the 12 storey detached car park building is a recreation deck, connected to the recreation floors of the tower through a pedestrian bridge. It provides swimming pools and recreation amenities, a spa, food & beverage outlets, sunbathing terraces and a jogging track, all designed to enhance the lifestyle of the residents.

Sama Gardens also features semi-outdoor spaces in the form of dramatic elevated sky gardens on three levels offering residents some breathing spaces within the sky living environment to foster social interaction between neighbours. The residential units and sky gardens become vertical neighbourhoods, efficiently linked together by a vertical transportation system.

A roof garden occupies the crown of the tower, creating a unique setting within a curved framework, to enjoy some of the magnificent views of the city skylines.

Project Team

• Diar Consult : Lead Design Architects, Interior Design, Post Contract administration and Project Management
• Arup : Structure and Building Services Design Sub-Consultants (Concept Design), and speciality engineering of vertical transportation, fire & life safety and facades
• DAR: Structural Design Sub-Consultants (Design development) and Architects of Record
• Ian Banham & Associates : Building Services Design Sub-Consultants (Design development)
• Omnium International Ltd. : Cost Consultants

Diar Consult was invited by a private investor to design a mixed-use development on the Abu Dhabi Corniche at the intersection with Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Street (Airport Road).

The 30 storey mixed-use tower is predominantly residential (a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments) with limited commercial and retail components at the lower levels. Amenities are located at roof level with car parking occupying three levels of basement and two podium levels.

The design aims to create a unique architectural state¬ment on this prominent corner plot that would become a recognized landmark for the residents of Abu Dhabi and also provide an enhanced lifestyle. Given its prime waterfront location, a high degree of transparency is used to capture the stunning views of the sea and the city.

The plan form is typical across many floors, stacking vertically to provide economy of scale while maintaining a simple and economic stacking of building services.

Sandoval Gardens is a self-contained, mid-market residential development of 165 apartments and 26 townhouses, situated in the southern zone of Jumeirah Village Circle near Al Khail Road.

Diar Consult designed Sandoval Gardens in 2006, providing lead consultant services to private developer Bavaria Gulf LLC. Two rows of three-storey townhouses provide lively street façades on each side of a five-storey apartment building containing 64 studios, 76 one-bedroom and 15 two-bedroom apartments, and 10 two-bedroom duplex units. An exclusive and secure central courtyard helps to regulate the influences of a harsh desert climate and provides a point of cultural and social interest, incorporating a fitness centre, a swimming pool, recreation grounds, a children’s playground and games room.

The design aims to break the monotony of typical apartment buildings, which can appear institutional. The geometry breaks down the scale of the development to a sensitive human level and the irregular-shaped courtyard allows for random changes in direction, and provides landscaped terraces and recreation areas that encourage interaction and foster the sense of community for the residents.

In contrast, the approach to modulation of the facades is very disciplined, relying on the use of simple cost effective finishes such as laminated wood wall cladding panels which give a sense of rhythm to the facade.

The contemporary architectural style has proven to be very popular and contributed to the project’s recognition by Ellis Don, a project management company, as one of the top 10 designs in Jumeirah Village.

In 1994, Diar Consult was retained by a private developer to design a 20-storey residential tower of two- and three-bedroom apartments on Hamdan Street in Abu Dhabi. The scope of services included architectural, structural and building services design as well as post-contract supervision services in all disciplines.

The gridiron planning of the city of Abu Dhabi has resulted in a lot of individual plots being developed sporadically, with no design guidelines looking beyond the boundary of the plot, and no development controls for parking, the creation of public squares (or meydans), arcades for control of daylight and setbacks, building heights, etc. considering the streetscape and urban fabric. In this context a building can seldom act beyond its boundaries to enhance the sense of place, urban scale or intimacy of the public realm in the absence of any master plan vision.

In this unpredictable context, architects can only concentrate on making the best of their small frontage and creating a building of singular presence, showcasing its own identity and merits.

Of the entire 4,645,152 m² of land area that makes up Dubai Sports City, the master developer, Dubai Sports City LLC, chose to retain and develop only two communities, the remaining plots being sold off to the private sector for medium-rise developments. The two projects it elected to develop itself are Victory Heights and Canal Residence, both of which were awarded to Diar Consult as lead consultant.

Canal Residence West is a collection of five residential apartment buildings which, as the name suggests, are arranged along a landscaped promenade overlooking a manmade canal. The five buildings contain a total of 987 apartments in a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Shared retail and recreational facilities are located on the ground and first floors.

Each of the 12 to 20 storey towers is designed in a theme reflecting the style of great canal and waterfront cities: Venice, Naples, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Dubai. The design challenge was to take the style of five geographically, climatically and culturally diverse cities and bring them together in a cohesive and coherent whole in a completely new context. Unified by the canal while retaining their own identity, each apartment building is compatible in spirit to the Victory Heights villas.

Al Mada Community is a low-rise, city centre redevelopment project in the heart of Al Ain, adjacent to the central souk and the Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Mosque.

The project integrates 200 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with a retail component at street level, including a supermarket, bank and car dealership, as well as other community amenities and a hospital, all within five storeys above two basements.

Al Mada apartments are grouped into individual houses of residence which enjoy shared communal spaces, driveways, parking and community facilities while retaining a high degree of privacy, security and shelter.

Diar Consult undertook the architecture, structure, building services design and interior design as well as complete post-contract administration in all disciplines. The development was built in two phases,with both being completed in 2005. The simplicity of construction techniques and materials used, which do not go beyond the use of bricks, mortar and paint, individual windows and glazing, have contributed to its success, being robust and timeless.

Waterfall Residences is the first neighbourhood in Dream City to break ground, and comprises eight residential towers varying in height from G+P+17 to G+P+25 storeys, offering a total of 1044 apartments in a mix of one, two and three bedrooms, with penthouses in the most prime locations.

Master planning, architecture, interior design and landscape design was carried out by the Diar Consult as well as post contract administration service.

The towers are designed in a contemporary style, with house community amenities and support services at ground floor level as well as activity centres for senior citizens. Two separate clubs are provided for children within this community, one for those aged under 12 and the other for teenagers. Hence all age groups are catered for within the territory of the neighbourhood.

The 2.6km of canals in Dream City terminate at Waterfall Residences ensuring connectivity for residents throughout the township.

Efficiency, spatial economy and the use of modern methods of construction contribute to ensuring the affordability of the accommodation. As a precursor of future communities in Dream City this project is setting trends. For the Indian subcontinent it is set to establish a new benchmark standard in terms of the quality of both the architectural product and the cultural and socio-economic sense of balance and harmony in the community.

Jumeirah Village Circle is a prominent residential community in Dubai, master planned by Nakheel and project managed by EllisDon.

In April 2007, Diar Consult was appointed by a private developer, Al Zahra Properties, as lead consultants to master plan their residential sector comprising five lots in Jumeirah Village Circle, with a site area of 15,479m²; and to design all elements of the master plan over two parcels (A and B), including three-storey townhouses, five-storey apartment buildings and such shared amenities as a fitness centre, swimming pools and recreation grounds.

The grain of the master plan suggests organic growth, in preference to structured urban architectural scale and discipline. The result is a Mediterranean-style living environment that conjures up a Spanish-vibe with intimate landscaped semi-private community gathering and recreational spaces between the townhouses and houses of residence. These open and closed courtyards include swimming pools, piazzas and alleyways.

The façades are uniformly finished in a sand-coloured, textured rustic stucco and brought to life by the use of randomly placed idioms and elements, such as balconies, buttressing structures, projected wooden bay windows (mashrabiyas), terraces and roof gardens.

Al Salam City is a new township in Umm Al Quwain planned by Tameer with a view to providing affordable housing to a large catchment area of UAE residents in the northern Emirates.

The apartment buildings designed for the neighbourhoods of Al Salam City provide medium- to high-density residential accommodation in a compact arrangement of building footprints that increases efficiency of land use. These clusters have been planned to accommodate four to six mediumrise buildings, ranging from 6 to 16 storeys, in a consolidated and yet physically well-defined building form. They are stylistically themed in Mediterranean architectural style, with interest provided by the use of Mediterranean colour palettes and architectural vocabulary. Shared community facilities and parking are located in the podium above one single basement. The roof of the podium is used to encourage social interaction between members of the cluster’s community and to provide a safe, well-controlled and stimulating environment, offering the residents of each cluster a rich landscape of pools and pool decks, carved out terraces and gardens which accommodate children’s playgrounds as well as tranquil landscaped spaces.