At Athar Café, located within Chefs Society at Mirdif City Centre in Dubai, the architecture of the traditional Emirati house provides the foundation for a contemporary interpretation of hospitality. Designed by Studio Duaa Abukhalaf, the project draws on the spatial and social conventions of domestic architecture, examining how elements historically associated with gathering and welcoming guests can find new relevance in a commercial setting.
Central to this approach is the dekka, a built in bench traditionally positioned along the exterior of Emirati houses, where neighbours and residents would gather over coffee or tea. At Athar, this architectural feature is reinterpreted as a continuous seating element extending along the café’s main elevation. Neither conventional furniture nor purely decorative reference, it establishes a connection between the interior and the surrounding public space.
The studio’s research into traditional Emirati façades informed a restrained architectural vocabulary of solid surfaces, recessed openings, horizontal divisions and carefully defined thresholds. Inside the café, walls are treated as internal façades, articulated through vertical ribbing, niches and arches. Rather than reproducing historical details, the design abstracts their proportions and geometry, allowing texture, shadow and architectural depth to define the space.
This language extends to the central counter, where semicircular metal elements and rounded display volumes reinterpret the arch at the scale of furniture. Ceramic vessels and natural arrangements introduce references to domestic life, while the visible preparation of coffee recalls its significance within Emirati traditions of hospitality.
Materiality introduces another dimension to the project. Alongside limestone, dark timber and mineral finishes, the studio incorporates Leukeather, an innovative, locally produced biomaterial made from dried Leucaena leaves. Developed in the UAE, the material offers a plant based alternative to conventional surface finishes. Its distinctive reddish brown texture covers the main counter, display pedestals and sections of the fascia behind the café’s signage, introducing an additional expression of regional identity through contemporary material innovation.
The choice also relates to the café’s name. Athar, meaning “trace” or “impression” in Arabic, finds architectural expression in the repeated grooves, recessed lines and textured surfaces that characterise the interior.
Through these interventions, Studio Duaa Abukhalaf establishes an architectural identity that acknowledges Emirati heritage without resorting to historical imitation. At Athar, hospitality is understood not simply as a cultural reference, but as a principle capable of shaping the architecture itself.
