Once a modest trading and pearling port along the Arabian Gulf, Dubai’s early economy revolved around fishing, pearl diving, boat building, and trade with India, Persia, and East Africa. In just half a century, this coastal settlement has transformed into one of the world’s most visionary urban landscapes. At the heart of this evolution lies a bold commitment to design - and to architects who have embraced the city as their blank canvas, fusing heritage, innovation, and ambition into structures that defy convention.
From the wind-shaped sails of Jumeirah Burj Al Arab to the sinuous lines of Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab, these creators have not only shaped Dubai’s skyline, but also its identity – a city where imagination meets engineering, and the impossible is simply another design challenge. 
Here, we celebrate the visionaries - architects and studios alike - whose bold designs continue to sculpt Dubai’s story in steel and glass. 

WS Atkins: Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Before the sail of Jumeirah Burj Al Arab rose against the horizon, there was a wave. When Jumeirah Beach Hotel opened in 1997, designed by British firm WS Atkins, it etched itself into the heart of Dubai’s skyline as the first property of the Jumeirah brand  - and the city’s first architectural ode to the sea. Its sweeping, wave-like silhouette broke new ground in form and ambition, curving both in plan and elevation to ensure every room looked out to the Gulf. 

Inside, the 100-metre atrium rises like a living artwork. Columns inlaid with glass beads shimmer with a quartz-like brilliance, while The Meadows - a kinetic installation by Studio Drift - blooms in motion overhead. Reimagined interiors by KCA International draw on the calm palette of sand and sea, accented by Maya Romanoff’s handcrafted glass mosaics and a bespoke scent created in Grasse that drifts through the air like a sea breeze. Embodying modern Arabian elegance, Jumeirah Beach Hotel continues to shape the story of Dubai’s coastline, the first in a nautically inspired trilogy that sails onward through Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab.

Tom Wright: Jumeirah Burj Al Arab

When commissioned under HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision and developed by Jumeirah, British architect Tom Wright was invited to design a new landmark in 1994, and the brief was disarmingly simple: create a building that would define Dubai on a global scale. Wright turned to the Emirate’s maritime heritage for inspiration, drawing on the graceful silhouette of the dhow, the traditional Arabian sailing vessel that had long carried trade across the Gulf. 

On a paper napkin he sketched the sweeping, sail-like outline of the future structure, its soaring form seeming to billow in the sea breeze. Rising from its own man-made island, the structure was designed to symbolise a nation setting sail from its past toward a visionary future. When it opened in 1999, the hotel instantly became an icon of modern Dubai – as recognisable to the world as the Eiffel Tower or the Sydney Opera House. 

Inside, Wright’s vision extended beyond the façade. The interiors, a symphony of light, colour, and scale, embodies the optimism of a city on the brink of transformation.

Hazel Wong: Jumeirah Emirates Towers

The success of the opening of Jumeirah Burj Al Arab ignited a wave of creative ambition that swept across Dubai in the mid-1990’s. Among those inspired was architect Hazel Wong, who, as part of an international design competition, was appointed to design what would become one of the city’s most enduring landmarks - the twin Jumeirah Emirates Towers, rising in the heart of Dubai’s financial district. 

Opened in 2000, the twin structures – one a hotel, the other an office tower – were conceived as two ships passing in the night. The design pays tribute to Dubai’s maritime roots while capturing its dual identity as both a global business hub and a destination of leisure.

Wong infused the design with deeper cultural resonance: she adopted equilateral triangular geometries - a form that alludes to the Islamic triad of Earth, Sun, and Moon - and clad the towers in aluminium panels and reflective glass that shift with the changing desert light - a visual dialogue between movement and stillness, commerce and culture. 

Shaun Killa: Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab

Completing Jumeirah’s nautical trilogy alongside the sail-inspired Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and the wave-like Jumeirah Beach Hotel, for Shaun Killa, the guiding idea behind Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab was flow - the movement of water and wind, both physical and emotional. He envisioned an architecture that would feel alive, with sweeping curves that emulate the fluid lines of a superyacht gliding across the sea. Working alongside architects Eduardo A. Robles and Thanu Boonyawatana, Killa translated this concept into a structure defined by motion and balance: one wing inclines forward, the other bends back, creating a sense of perpetual movement even in stillness.  The result is a building that appears to breathe with the landscape, where every angle catches the shifting desert light, and according to recent design insights are intrinsically tied to feelings of ease, calm, and elevated wellbeing.

The entrance is framed by a striking steel arch that weighs more than 3,000 tonnes, guiding guests through a cinematic reveal of Jumeirah Burj Al Arab beyond. Inside, the sense of flow continues, with soft curves, fluid lines, and expansive glass framing panoramic views of the Gulf. Killa also ensured that innovation and sustainability were inseparable: shelf-shading balconies reduce energy by up to 40 percent, while solar panels, wind turbines, and greywater recycling systems work quietly in the background to minimise the resort’s environmental footprint. 

Step into the story of Dubai’s architecture and the innovators behind it, with Jumeirah as your host.