House of Zain

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I think it’s a matter of evolution. There are a lot of ‘Madinat Jumeirah’ type exteriors and interiors going up all over town. And then there’s the ‘uber-clean, crisp, chrome and white leather’ happening at the other end.

A lot of it is either coming from replicating traditional architecture or from replicating western architecture. There’s the Mediterranean ‘Knowledge Village’ style that is now broad-brushed all over town. Or the Emaar look, which is very stoic. It’s beautiful but it sits back and is far too reserved.

I don’t think anybody’s getting it right, necessarily. But I think it’s really fun to look at the design discussion that is happening in Dubai right now. We are not far from coming up with our very own design language.

Should the design industry be driving the sustainability debate?

I definitely think we should be driving it. I say this all the time but it doesn’t seem to be hitting home: We need to be driving this. We are educators. If it becomes something that’s easy to talk about then the clients will want it too.

Maybe that’s why I was a little bit nervous about our piece at Index. It wasn’t reactive to what people might have wanted. It wasn’t reactive to a market, or an economic requirement. It was reactive to a brief. I thought that’s what competitions were for, that was the whole idea. You spit out a bunch of ideas and whether it gets built or not is irrelevant. You open up the dialogue.

You have worked across a range of design disciplines. Do you think that if you are truly creative, you can work across the whole spectrum of design?

One thing will inform another. It is a little bit like if you are on the treadmill. If you are just running at the same pace for twenty minutes, your body will stop responding. But if you go fast, slow, fast slow, up, down, up, down, then you’ll get results. That, for me, is a good work analogy.

I’d like to think that our designs are fresh, bordering on interesting, but mostly honest. It’s inspired by anything, from the beggar on the street, to the decoration on a camel, to the sweat coming off an endurance horse, to false eyelashes – everything and anything.

And I think that’s how it should be. Why would you want to put a limit on what you are inspired by? The world out there offers so much. Who knows what will act as a trigger?

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It’s not at all the same place. I’ve just started shooting a 16-episode television series that is all about Dubai and I think one of the reasons that they picked me is that I’ve lived here a fair amount of years, and I see it as home. When I first came here it was a really sexy city. It was just right, growing at exactly the right pace… and then suddenly it hired itself a personal trainer and got onto steroids and it just inflated. What’s happened now is it has had some
sense beaten into it.

I think now is a very charming time to be in Dubai. It’s enigmatic – we have no idea what’s going to happen. Its big brother has said: ‘I’ve got muscles too, which I can also flex’, and that sibling rivalry is going to be extremely healthy.

I think it’s a great place to be. As much as I picked Dubai over New York seven years ago, I would be even more likely to pick it now. I think New York has died. Giuliani cleaned it up but what made New York cool in the 1980s was its grunge, its edginess, its street art and fashion, and that’s all gone. It’s now extremely safe, clinical and civilised, but it lost its art base.

Does Dubai offer you the opportunities that you need as a creative?

It’s carte blanche, as far as I’m concerned. For people like me that are poking their fingers into every pie possible and living life to the fullest, this is the place that has the least boundaries. It’s a really democratic and laissez faire environment, even if its infrastructure doesn’t state that.

You can walk into any government office, pitch a proposal to anybody, and they will look at it. And if they think it works, contrary to their existing mandate, they will fit it in. This is a place where they are open to new ideas and new people coming in.

When it comes to the region’s design industry, what are the key issues that need to be addressed, in your opinion?

There’s got to be a way of doing projects that creates a signature language for us. I’m really keen on having Gulf-based design that can be imported from here. It’s time to start creating a cool, contemporary, forward-thinking Middle Eastern design language. Let’s create our own vocabulary.

Also, the interior design industry needs to come together. There should be a design think-tank at governmental level. Dubai Municipality approves what can be built and what can’t be built, but are they approving on the basis of aesthetics? Have they decided that this is going to be the look for this region? That’s a place that I’d like to be involved in. I live here and I love it, so why can’t I contribute to what it looks like?