At the high end

Malak studied in the US and started his career doing residential and retail work.
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Abboud Malak’s interior design career began in the US, in the midst of a frenzied, dot com-driven boom.

Fresh from university, Malak set up his own studio in west Hollywood, initially focusing on the residential sector. After a successful six years, he started hearing about an up-and-coming city halfway across the world: Dubai. Being a Canadian citizen of Palestinian origin, and having lived in Qatar as a youth – before moving to Europe and, eventually, the US – Abboud was drawn to the region.

He moved to Dubai to take on the role of in-house designer for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and was responsible for the interiors of the iconic Gate building. Once his work with the DIFC was done, Abboud again branched out on his own, setting up Studio M, a design consultancy that has enjoyed particular success in the high-end corporate governmental sector. We caught up with Malak to talk about about the dangers of being pigeon-holed, the importance of promoting local talent and the definition of good design.

How did you get into design?

I think there was always an interest, ever since I was a little kid. But it became serious after I finished a Fine Arts degree and I realised that I was going to end up being either a painter or a university professor – and that neither was for me.

I studied in Los Angeles. I graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, with a BA in Fine Arts and then I attended the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, California, and studied Interior Architecture. In the US when you are starting out and you want to open your own studio, you normally start off in the residential sector – unless you go and work for a big firm, which I didn’t want to do.

From the get go, I started off on my own. It was a bit harder, of course, but I think I started off at the right time. It was the late 1990s, so the dot com, ‘boom’ years. I opened my own studio in west Hollywood. I had a partner and we worked there for about six years. We did a lot of great work, mostly residential, but also a lot of retail stores.

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Yes, I came specifically for DIFC. I was hired by them to be their in-house designer and to handle their image. Interestingly enough, when I arrived, DIFC was just about to get started. The Gate building was barely under construction. None of that existed.

I came here when the market was still quite young and even shopping for furniture was difficult.

There were a couple of furniture stores and that was it. I have to say it was quite hard sourcing the right materials, finding the right suppliers, and getting the right manufacturers and contractors. It was a huge learning curve for everybody.

The first year was very difficult for me because I had to deal with shifting countries and starting all over, while getting used to a new way of working. For example, I had to shift from the empirical system to the metric system, which is a big deal, even though you don’t even realise it. And on top of all those issues, you had to deal with finding the right people to build things, so it was definitely tough.

I was the lead interior designer for the DIFC Authority at the Gate building. When we completed that project, the international crowd thought that it was the most interesting corporate work to come out of Dubai. And equally, residents of Dubai were amazed by the new style of design and the unique architecture of the Gate. They embraced it, and look where we are today.

Were there cultural differences to contend with when you first arrived?

Once you understand the reasoning behind it, it becomes just another challenge to embrace. Being of Arab origin and speaking the language helped me a lot in dealing with this environment from a different perspective. I understand the nuances. You pick up things that you might not, otherwise.

It’s like when you translate a joke into another language. It loses something. You have to speak the language to get the joke. It’s like that. It helps a lot.

You have to be aware of the cultural differences, even in your choice of colours. Here people prefer their woods to be dark. They don’t like light woods. They don’t like white, so you tend to be a little bit more colourful and more vibrant. Here people prefer polished, mirror finishes. They like marble. In the west, the preference is for finishes to be more honed, muted, matt. You have to be aware of these things.