Appointing an architect for a private residence in Dubai is a decision you live with for years, long after the drawings are approved. Portfolios tend to look similar at first glance, so the useful questions are not about style. They are about how a practice works: who designs what, when the climate enters the conversation, and how a very large house is kept comfortable to live in. Here is what we would look at, drawn from how we work on our own Dubai and Abu Dhabi projects.

1. Find out whether architecture, interiors and landscape sit under one roof

On many residences, the building, the interiors and the garden are designed by three different teams at three different moments. The house works on paper, then feels disconnected once it is lived in: a pool that faces nothing in particular, joinery that ignores the line of the façade, a garden that is whatever is left over.

Ask how a firm handles that split. At JA Architecture, architecture, interiors, landscape and water are developed together from the first concept. On DU58 in Dubai, a water feature runs through the grounds and continues into the main living room, which is only possible when the landscape and the interior are drawn by the same people at the same time.

2. Ask when the climate enters the design

If shading and orientation are discussed after the plan is fixed, they become corrections. In Dubai they should be design inputs from the concept stage, through orientation, shading, façade design, glazing, landscape and outdoor planning.

A concrete example: for the DU58 exteriors, timber was ruled out because of the climate and the maintenance it would demand. Rather than lose the warmth it brings, the team worked slats and strips into the stone to get the same effect without the upkeep. Metal pergolas run along the buildings to limit solar gain, the envelope is thermally insulated, and the landscape is designed to help regulate temperature around the house. Ask a firm for that kind of example on one of their own projects.

3. Look at how they handle scale

Large residential programmes carry a specific risk: rooms that impress on a first visit and feel empty on an ordinary Tuesday. Scale is controlled through light, circulation, materiality and spatial hierarchy rather than by making rooms smaller.

In the main DU58 residence, a glass lift wrapped by a monumental stair stands against an all-glass façade, so moving between floors becomes part of the house rather than a trip down a corridor. Ask to be walked through how a firm made a large house feel human, and what they did specifically to achieve it.

4. Ask them to describe the arrival and the privacy strategy

In a family residence here, how the house is entered matters as much as how it looks. Arrival sequence, privacy, family areas, reception spaces and service circulation are part of the architecture, not something to be solved later by furniture.

At DU58, staff accommodation and security sit at the entrance of the property, the majlis receives guests under a glass ceiling that fills it with daylight, and an underground car park links the main residence to the rest of the estate so service movements stay clear of family life. A firm that has thought about this will describe it without being prompted.

5. Ask who the house is being designed for

Some practices apply a recognisable style to every project. The alternative is a house shaped by how one family actually lives. DU58 began with the client asking for a collection of buildings that read as one residence rather than a single block, and the curved glass that defines its façades was chosen with the client. The plan follows from those decisions, not from a house style.

6. Check they work on existing houses, not only empty plots

A good deal of high-end work in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is reconfiguration: re-planning circulation in a complex residence, reorganising reception and family zones, adding wellness or entertainment spaces, rethinking the relationship with the garden. It is a different discipline from a new build, and worth confirming a firm does both.

7. Look at the level of detail in their interiors

Ask to see interiors at close range, not only wide renders. What to look for: natural stone and timber used with a controlled palette, custom joinery rather than bought-in units, storage designed into the walls from the start, and lighting layered so a room works for family evenings as well as for receiving guests.

A Dubai reference: DU58

DU58 is our main named Dubai project and a fair test of everything above. It is a private residence of more than 3,000 m², built from the ground up and organised as a group of independent buildings that read as one composition, with curved façades in natural stone, glass and textured metal. The programme includes double-height reception spaces, panoramic living areas, private terraces, wellness spaces, a cinema, guest pavilions and landscaped outdoor areas.

See the DU58 project page, or read the full DU58 story.

Six questions worth asking at the first meeting

• Who designs the interiors and the landscape, and are they in the room from the start?
• Show me a climate decision you made at concept stage on one of your projects, and what it changed.
• How do guests, family and staff move through one of your houses without crossing paths?
• What in this design would be different for another client on the same plot?
• Which parts of the joinery and lighting do you design yourselves?
• Can I visit or see close-up photography of a completed project, not only renders?

Talk to us about your project

JA Architecture designs high-end private villas, large residences, duplexes and luxury apartments in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Explore our projects in the UAE, read about our architectural design services in Dubai, or contact the studio.