Top Interior Designs: Public Sector/Institutional

SEE THE LISTS: Top Interior Designs: Hotels | Top Interior Designs: Offices | Top Interior Designs: Retail | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment 2 

Location: The City Hospital
Design: Ellerbe Becket

Healthcare design often single-mindedly focuses on the comfort of patients – entirely forgetting the distraught families, friends and carers that surround them.

So when Ellerbe Becket was called in to design The City Hospital, the first multi-disciplinary healthcare provider in Dubai Healthcare City, it decided to address this discrepancy.

As a result, the sixth floor of the hospital features a fully-enclosed health club, work-out area and health and beauty facility that offers hair styling, make up and massage therapies. A pool area has been designed to offer a relaxed leisure setting, with a hot tub and plunge pool at either end.

“The family is often a key part of the care-giving support in this region and there is often inadequate attention paid to their needs and interests,” explained Jim Lewison, interior design director, Ellerbe Becket, Minneapolis.

These leisure facilities also highlight how healthcare design is increasingly calling upon hospitality design for inspiration. With The City Hospital, the aim was to create a unique, top-end facility, with finishes, materials and retail and F&B facilities to rival a five-star resort.

The 353,900ft² hospital was designed to appeal to international patients, as well as UAE locals who might otherwise travel to the UK or US for their healthcare.

“The interior design is more contemporary and international in style. This communicates to the client that the healthcare provided will be world-class and will include all the latest technologies and practices,” said Lewison.

Ensuring that the project was culturally sensitive called for extensive research, as well as workshops with the owner and close communication with in-house staff of a similar cultural background.

“One challenge was finding the correct balance between culturally sensitive design while reflecting the more progressive and forward-looking attitude of Dubai,” Lewison maintained.

Next page: Al Jawhara Centre and Enrico Botta

SEE THE LISTS: Top Interior Designs: Hotels | Top Interior Designs: Offices | Top Interior Designs: Retail | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment 2 

Location Al Jawhara Centre
Design: Enrico Botta

Bahrain-based Enrico Botta Architecture and Interior Design was responsible for designing an auditorium, pre-function hall and VIP areas within the Al Jawhara Centre for Molecular Medicine and Inherited Disorders.

“The architectural concept represents a mother (the main building) embracing a child (the auditorium). In developing the interior design concept, this was taken into account.

“This subtle metaphore was maintained by keeping continuity amongst the different spaces, both in terms of materials as well as in terms of lines and visual perception,” said Enrico Botta, founder of Enrico Botta Architecture and Interior Design.

“The design of the access corridor and pre-function hall suggests an organic and concave shape as a metaphore for an umbilical chord connecting the mother and child. The lines are thus smooth curves flowing freely on the floor, marking the transition among the different materials and avoiding any abrupt transition between the spaces.”

The same lines characterise the ceiling and add to the general perception of the entrance and reception areas as a spatial continuum. The circular shape of the room and the organic dome-like shape of the ceiling contribute in making the space overwhelmingly welcoming.

Moving on from the pre-function hall, visitors experience the “soothing embrace” of the auditorium, Botta explained. “The utmost attention was given to the study of sound reverberation to ensure the best speech intelligibility in this space, which is designed for scientific activity. The ceiling and walls combine technical efficiency with a design that wants to address and preserve the warm, feminine feel of the entire project.”

From the gentle contrast of the colour scheme, to the tangible quietness and the soft, gently-perfumed Poltrona Frau leather of the 500 seats, the auditorium was designed to offer its visitors a comfortable, enriching experience.

Next page: Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Bluehaus

SEE THE LISTS: Top Interior Designs: Hotels | Top Interior Designs: Offices | Top Interior Designs: Retail | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment 2 

Location: Dubai Chamber of Commerce
Design: Bluehaus

When Bluehaus was commissioned to oversee the refurbishment of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce offices, it had one clear objective: to create the best chamber in the world, a facility that could comfortably compete with the likes of London and New York.

Bluehaus’ scope of work included workplace consultancy, design, design co-ordination and project management. The project – which covers 12 floors and a total area of 9,000m² – was carried out in a series of phases, in order to minimise disruption.

The space was triangular in shape, which created challenges, but also opportunities.

The main challenge was utilising the floor space to its maximum efficiency. At the same time, the shape presented the opportunity for the lift-lobby to open up into a deep central area, and encouraged a sub-division of the space into two separate wings. It also allowed for the creation of a central hub, which encouraged maximised interaction.

As part of the revamp, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce also wanted to promote a more transparent and communicative working environment.

Bluehaus responded with centralised break-out areas to encourage interaction, and phone-rooms and glazed manager’s offices to create more transparency. All meeting rooms were contained on two levels, as opposed to the office floors themselves, to manage security and encourage better management of meeting use and times.

Sustainability was another priority for the Chamber of Commerce, which can now claim to have the first ‘LEED for Existing Buildings’ certified offices in the Arab world.

Next page: Command & Control Centre for DP World’s Container Terminal and Broadway Interiors

SEE THE LISTS: Top Interior Designs: Hotels | Top Interior Designs: Offices | Top Interior Designs: Retail | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment 2 

Location: Command & Control Centre for DP World’s Container Terminal
Design: Broadway Interiors

When it came to a new command and control centre for its Container Terminal, DP World wanted a sophisticated, contemporary, forward-thinking, cost-effective control room that would become the flagship of the operation.

In response, Broadway Interiors created a space that combines ultra-modern materials with the very latest in audio-visual technologies.

The design concept follows a monochromatic theme, using black and white as the primary colours, complemented by hues and accents inherent in DP World’s corporate colours.

To achieve the functionality required, Broadway introduced bespoke, futuristic-looking, custom-made operator consoles, which were designed to contain a range of telecommunications equipment, including 22” plasma screens suspended on fully manoeuvrable monitor arms.

Ergonomic chairs enable users to successfully and comfortably carry out their day-to-day responsibilities, helping DP World to achieve its organisational goal of becoming a leader in container terminal cargo operations.

A highlight of the space is the operation’s control room, which features a controllable, electrostatic glass that can be transformed from clear to opaque. In addition, a Barco digital screen was used, which is ideal for control operation centres and consumes less power.

To further minimise energy wastage, all offices were equipped with occupancy or motion sensor lights, and also use biometric technology for total security.

Next page: Dubai Metro and KCA International

SEE THE LISTS: Top Interior Designs: Hotels | Top Interior Designs: Offices | Top Interior Designs: Retail | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment | Top Interior Designs: Leisure & Entertainment 2 

Location:  Dubai Metro
Design: KCA International

According to John Carolan of KCA International, the company responsible for designing the trains and stations for the Dubai Metro, the emirate now boasts one of the most unique and groundbreaking public transport systems in the world.

“I think it will set new standards for people to follow. Stations do not have to be cold, hard and unfriendly. They don’t necessarily have to be glamorous, but they can be rich. And that’s what we were trying to do. We were trying to add a degree of richness and vibrancy,” he said.

“It was interesting. When we first started, one of the engineers was saying: ‘These are stations, people will have their heads down, they won’t be interested’. But why not make them look up? People do walk around with their heads down all the time; but when you look up, your whole world changes,” he added.

Before KCA started designing, it examined metro systems in other parts of the world, including Moscow, London, Singapore and Paris. In many cases, stations were hard-edged and unfriendly, and dominated by concrete, glass and steel. The aim was to make the Dubai Metro very different.

“Our philosophy worked around the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. The great thing about this was that you had design and you had colour, so you could mix and match and get quite a lot of variables. When we were doing historical sites, such as Union Square or Al Ghubaiba, we also looked back at historical references to the place. One of the other things that we did was include historical imagery.

“We also had a long discussion with the client about whether they wanted decorative light fittings in there. We showed them examples initially, just to put it out there. We expected them not to like it, but they did, so in the main underground, we’ve got chandeliers,” Carolan noted.