For Emre Osmanlar, founder of the eponymous Emre Osmanlar Design Studio, the transformation of this Meadows residence began not with an aesthetic brief, but with a feeling. The young couple who had purchased the villa were thinking ahead to family life and searching for something increasingly precious in Dubai: a place in which to slow down.
“They spoke to me much more about how they wanted to live than how they wanted the house to look,” Osmanlar recalls. “Dubai is an incredibly exciting city, but it is also fast and intense. Very early on I felt the house should be the opposite of that. Once you entered, everything should slow down.”
Sanctuary became the project’s organising principle. Rather than separating architecture, interiors and landscape, Osmanlar developed them simultaneously, considering views, light, sound and planting as components of a single experience. “I think about what you see through a window while sitting on a sofa, how the light enters a room, what is happening immediately outside that room, and even what you hear.”
The garden was fundamental. Determined to avoid the pristine appearance of newly installed landscaping, the designer searched the nurseries of Warsan for mature specimens. “I became slightly obsessed with finding the right mature trees!” he admits. Flowering Millingtonias and frangipanis were introduced alongside bonsai olive trees and dense greenery. “I wanted the garden to appeal to more than just the eye. You should smell it, hear the water and feel surrounded by it.”
A new swimming pool and water features extend that sensory landscape. “The sound was almost as important to me as the appearance,” says Osmanlar. Positioned in relation to the principal living spaces, water remains visible from inside. “In Dubai there is also something psychologically cooling about being surrounded by water and greenery.”
Inside, warm timber, stone and tactile fabrics establish a restrained backdrop, but serenity is deliberately disrupted. Inspired by the owners’ “understated rock-chic sensibility”, Osmanlar juxtaposed cotton-linen blend sofas with leather cushions, while graphic black accents, sculptural objects and contemporary art introduce sharper notes. “I never wanted ‘rock chic’ to become a theme,” he explains. “There is softness, but always with a little edge.”
That tension informs the entire interior. “If everything is making a statement, nothing really has any importance,” he says. Instead, stronger pieces act “almost as punctuation”, creating rhythm without compromising tranquillity.
Art adds another personal layer. Osmanlar curated works from different international sources, including Georgian contemporary artist Gogi Chagelishvili, whose presence subtly references one owner’s Georgian heritage. “I always think art should have a relationship with the people living with it rather than simply filling a wall.”
Now, with the couple expecting their baby, the house’s original premise has acquired new resonance. The nursery was conceived in anticipation of their future child, while the wider home was deliberately designed to withstand change rather than remain immaculate and static.
“I didn’t want to create a house that was too precious or fixed,” Osmanlar says. “For me, a family home should collect memories and evolve with the people inside it.”
Ultimately, its luxury lies less in spectacle than in atmosphere. “The house was never designed simply to photograph beautifully. It was designed around how this young couple wanted to feel when they came home. I think that is ultimately where its sense of sanctuary comes from.”
