
Dubai City Walk
Benoy
Dubai is a city of hubs, all connected by wide intertwining highways; yet once you arrive at your destination the fun begins. Dubai City Walk is an example of a pedestrian-friendly hub that slowly winds people through an array of cultural and commercial attractions. Part of Dubai’s civic vision for the wider Central Park Masterplan, the public space project is a vibrant connector bringing together various retail, food and beverage offerings – also planned and designed by Benoy, the mastermind behind the UK’s Bluewater and Singapore’s ION Orchard.
Photography: Gerry O’Leary

Dubai City Walk
Benoy
Dubai City Walk was designed with a common visual language that meets the cultural requirements of its context and unites the public space from indoor to out, interacting and responding to the existing buildings and streets. Benoy, the team behind the design of Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World, have a reputation for blending entertainment within the fabric of design – the lively walkway ebbs, flows and swells into viewing platforms for visitors, opening up Dubai’s impressive skyline and bringing the architecture of the city into the pedestrian landscape.
Photography: Gerry O’Leary

Dubai Marina
HOK
This waterfront community was the first ‘lifestyle development’ of its kind in the Middle East, combining 10 distinct communities that accomodate a total of 100,000 residents. The residential towers rise above a waterfront retail promenade and the marina curves around the base of the towers. The yellow sandstone and green glass exterior has become a familiar combination for Dubai’s high-rise buildings and can be found across the city.

Dubai Marina
HOK
On its completion, the Dubai Marina shifted the centre of Dubai west along the shore of the Arabian Gulf and was pivotal to the advance the city’s transformation into a buzzing commercial, entertainment and resort hub. Pictured here, one of the landscaped public seating areas in the neighbourhood.

Cayan Tower
SOM
This helical skyscraper twists and turns slowly into Dubai’s skyline. The form is created by its 73 floorplates that are all identical, yet each slightly rotated against the storey below. It reaches a full 90 degree twist over the course of its 307m rise. The shape of the structure also reduces the wind load and solar heat gain, compared to a rectilinear building of the same height, and because of the shape, the views of the marina and gulf are opened up to residents from a greater number of angles.
Photography: Tim Griffith

Apple store at Dubai Mall
Foster + Partners
The design of this store aims to reinvent the ‘introverted’ idea of mall-based retail – it is open and looks outwards engaging with the ongoing circus of activity surrounding the Dubai Mall including the famously-dancing Dubai Fountains. The store’s two floor terrace is a sweeping 56.6 m wide and 5.5 m deep space that opens up prime people-watching views – located in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Mall has had over 80 million visitors every year since 2014 and is one of the most visited urban centres in the world.
Photography: Nigel Young / Foster + Partners