For decades, luxury residential design has been closely associated with visual impact: monumental spaces, statement furniture and interiors conceived as expressions of status. Yet an alternative understanding of luxury is gaining relevance, one that places greater emphasis on privacy, personal identity and the experience of inhabiting a space.
This is the philosophy behind Lair, the new residential design studio founded by Dubai based designer Pallavi Dean, whose established practice, Roar, has built an international reputation across hospitality, workplace and commercial interiors.
Unlike Roar, Lair is conceived as an intentionally intimate practice, accepting only four or five residential commissions annually. Dean remains directly involved throughout each project, while Kathryn Athreya oversees the client experience.
“Out in the world, everyone gets a version of you. Your home should get the real one,” explains Dean. “At Lair, we don’t start with style. We start by watching how you live.”
The distinction raises an interesting question about authorship in contemporary interiors. If a designer’s aesthetic is immediately recognisable, to what extent does the resulting home genuinely reflect its inhabitants?
For Dean, the answer lies in resisting a predetermined visual language. Domestic routines, personal collections, family relationships and individual preferences become the foundations of the architectural brief. Materials are selected for their tactile qualities and longevity, while bespoke furniture and spatial arrangements respond to specific ways of living.
The name Lair itself suggests a place of retreat, removed from the expectations of public life. In a city where residential luxury is frequently communicated through scale and spectacle, the studio proposes a different measure of distinction: a home whose value resides less in how it appears to others than in how it serves those who live within it.
