From the inside out

Gernon was responsible for designing Burj Al Arab?s helipad.
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Rebecca Gernon arrived in Dubai 18 years ago, a fresh-faced architecture graduate in a country where opportunity was as abundant as female professionals were rare.

In a story that reads like an architect’s dream, she found herself working on one of the most iconic buildings of all time, the Burj Al Arab. One of her most visible contributions was the hotel’s helipad, a structure that was inspired, quite accidentally, by the Starship Enterprise.

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After her stint with Atkins, Gernon joined Italy-headquartered interior design firm Decorpoint, where she was tasked with heading up the company’s Dubai office and developing its commercial interior design portfolio. In this capacity, Gernon worked on a series of high-profile hotels, including The Fairmont Dubai, Grand Hyatt Dubai, Meridien Mina Seyahi and Le Royal Meridien.

In 2001, she launched her own firm, Serendipity by Design, which specialises in master planning, architecture and interior and landscape design. While the Dubai-based company has a satellite office in Manila,

Gernon remains lead designer on all projects. Commercial Interior Design caught up with Gernon to find out more about her very Middle Eastern career, and about transitioning comfortably between interior design and architecture.

Tell us about your career so far.
I came to Dubai 18 years ago. Architecture is my background, so I started working for Atkins as an architect on the Burj Al Arab. There was a three-man design team on that project.

Tom Wright was the main architect and there were two other English architects, as well as myself. It was an amazing experience for me – I was straight out of college and working on this amazing, iconic building. This was also my first insight into interior design on an international level, and all of the drama that goes with it.

I worked for Atkins for a year, and my claim to fame is that I designed the helipad at the Burj Al Arab. Tom was my idol at the time. I was 24 and he was designing this incredibly iconic building. He asked me have a crack at designing the helipad and I was terrified because it was such a prominent thing on the building.

I tried lots of designs, but nothing was coming to me. I sat there for three days. I remember the night before I was supposed to present my idea, it was getting later and later, and I had nothing.

Eventually I sketched the Starship Enterprise, out of Star Trek, as a joke. I left it on my desk and went home, wondering whether there was any point going into the office the following day.

When Tom came in the next day, he had to walk pass my desk to get to his office. And he saw this sketch on my desk. When he called the meeting, he brought the sketch with him and said: ‘Look guys, this is the helipad, isn’t it amazing!’