Contemporary Sanctuary redefines urban living in Abu Dhabi with a design that prioritizes serenity, natural light, and connection to nature within a bustling city context. This residential project transforms a conventional apartment into a peaceful retreat through thoughtful spatial planning, refined material selection, and meticulous attention to detail. Every design decision was made with the goal of creating a calm, harmonious environment that serves as a restorative counterpoint to the energy of city life.
- 3,200 sq ft interior area
- 3 bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms
- Open-plan living and dining
- Designer kitchen with premium appliances
- Master suite with walk-through closet
- Floor-to-ceiling windows
- Custom millwork throughout
- Automated lighting and climate control
- High-end Italian fixtures
- Marble and wood flooring
- Built-in storage solutions
- Private balcony with city views
Spatial Transformation: From Compartmentalized to Connected
The original apartment layout was typical of its era—a series of closed rooms connected by corridors, with limited natural light penetration and no sense of spatial flow. Our first move was to reimagine the entire layout, removing all non-structural walls and creating an open plan that allows light to travel deep into the interior while maintaining necessary privacy for bedrooms and bathrooms. The new layout organizes space into three distinct zones: public spaces for living and entertaining near the windows, private sleeping quarters toward the interior, and service areas discreetly positioned for convenience without visual intrusion. These zones are defined not by walls but by subtle architectural gestures—a dropped ceiling over the dining area, a change in floor material, a freestanding joinery element that provides storage while allowing visual connection. The entry sequence establishes the design's refined character immediately: guests pass through a custom pivot door into a gallery-like hallway featuring a floating console and carefully curated art, then emerge into the main living space with its floor-to-ceiling windows and views across the city. The living area itself is deliberately uncluttered, with concealed storage throughout ensuring that personal items can be hidden away to maintain the serene aesthetic. A linear kitchen runs along one wall, its sleek cabinetry and integrated appliances creating a minimalist backdrop that doesn't compete with the living spaces. The master bedroom suite occupies a quiet corner of the apartment, with a sleeping area that opens to a luxurious bathroom through a walk-through closet. This layering of spaces—sleeping, dressing, bathing—creates a private retreat within the larger home. Guest bedrooms are smaller but equally refined, each with built-in storage and thoughtful detailing. Throughout, we eliminated all unnecessary elements, focusing on clean lines, perfect proportions, and exquisite materials that create richness through quality rather than quantity.
Material Poetry: A Refined Palette
The material palette for Contemporary Sanctuary is deliberately restrained, focusing on natural materials with inherent beauty and exceptional quality. We began with a neutral base—walls in smooth plaster with a subtle warm white tone that catches and reflects light beautifully, creating surfaces that seem to glow. Floors throughout public spaces are honed Calacatta marble, its subtle gray veining providing visual interest while maintaining the overall sense of calm. This luxurious material extends even into the kitchen, creating continuity and elevating what's typically considered a service space to the same level of finish as living areas. In bedrooms, we switched to wide-plank white oak flooring with a matte natural oil finish—warmer underfoot and acoustically softer than stone. The kitchen is a study in precision and materiality: upper cabinets in back-painted glass create a reflective surface that makes the space feel larger, while lower cabinets are oak veneer to match bedroom floors. Countertops are book-matched Calacatta marble, creating dramatic visual impact while tying to floor material. All hardware is custom-designed in brushed brass, adding warm metallic accents that contrast beautifully with the cool stone. In bathrooms, we used large-format porcelain slabs that mimic natural stone but provide better water resistance and easier maintenance. The master bath features a freestanding soaking tub positioned to enjoy city views, with a walk-in shower enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass. Throughout, we specified fixtures and fittings from premium European manufacturers, selected for both design excellence and lasting quality. Joinery details reveal our obsession with craft: perfectly mitered corners, shadow gaps instead of visible trim, push-to-open drawers with soft-close mechanisms, and LED lighting integrated into shelving. This attention to material quality and construction detail creates an interior that feels effortlessly luxurious—refined without being precious, minimal without being cold, contemporary without being trendy.
Light and Atmosphere: Designing for All Hours
Natural light was a primary driver of our design decisions for Contemporary Sanctuary. The apartment's floor-to-ceiling windows provide abundant daylight, but we needed to manage this light carefully—maximizing illumination while controlling glare and heat gain. We specified automated sheer curtains that can be adjusted throughout the day, filtering harsh midday sun while maintaining views and sense of connection to the outside. For privacy at night, blackout curtains conceal behind a soffit detail, completely hidden when not in use. But natural light is only part of the story; artificial lighting design was equally crucial to creating the right atmosphere for different times and activities. We developed a comprehensive lighting scheme with multiple layers: ambient lighting from recessed ceiling fixtures provides overall illumination, with careful spacing to avoid hot spots; task lighting includes dedicated fixtures over kitchen counters, bedside reading lights, and vanity lighting in bathrooms; accent lighting highlights artwork and architectural features, creating visual interest and depth; and decorative fixtures—a stunning sculptural chandelier over the dining table, elegant bedside lamps, sleek bathroom sconces—provide focal points and express personality within the minimal aesthetic. All lighting is controlled through a sophisticated home automation system that allows different scenes for different occasions: bright and energizing for morning routines, dim and atmospheric for entertaining, and customized settings for movie watching or relaxation. We also paid careful attention to color temperature, using warmer tones in living areas and bedrooms to create cozy atmospheres, and cooler, brighter light in kitchen and bathrooms where task visibility is important. The result is an apartment that feels completely different at different times of day—bright and airy during daytime hours, warm and intimate in the evening—yet always maintaining its essential character of serene sophistication.
