Al Fakher HQ, Dubai

VS design studio were the starting point of Al Fakher brand’s reformation and market repositioning. A shell and core commercial floor plate measuring 22,000 square feet located on the 7th level of the Dubai Festival office tower, was provided as a design canvas. The offices needed to represent the world of shisha and embody the values and brand personality while inspiring the employees. It was important that the employees were able to express themselves through personalization and have a sense of pride to their working spaces.

VS design studio donned the responsibility of a design and build scope of work in partnership with a reliable contracting company. The design concept for Al Fakher office HQ is an artistic interpretation from formations of smoke. The free flowing, organic shapes create artistic layers of shades and tones, and inspire custom designed furniture, floor patterns, colour schemes, and an overall spatial experience. Textures and materials follow a simple, ingenuous, unpretentious and organic direction. Use of materials and textures of semi-plastered brick walls, real concrete columns inherited from the building structure, exposed ceiling soffits, concrete textured floors and walls, imperfections inherited by raw wood, and industrial metal claddings are seen through the design language. Feature walls are created from scaffolding planks at the office reception. Metal ‘I’ beams and columns are used to create closed offices and meeting rooms. There are spaces that are warm and welcoming, and also spaces that lend an edge through material contrasts, such as a green wall along metal columns, concrete block tables placed on woven vinyl floors and exposed brick walls on a polished concrete floor. The ceiling light installation has been designed in collaboration with Capsule Arts and is the main feature, flowing organically across the reception counter with alternating heights interlaced to one another. Games popular in shisha cafes, such as backgammon and playing cards, along with oversized chunky letters with a concrete finish add whimsy to the interior.