Notes on designing and delivering interiors in Dubai - budgets, approvals, materials and the decisions that shape a project before it reaches site.
Budgets rarely fail on the headline number. They fail on the items nobody priced: approvals, long-lead joinery, and the fortnight of site coordination that keeps the rest honest.
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Authority approval is not a formality at the end of design. It is a sequence with its own dependencies, and it decides when you can start on site.
Heat, glare and a hundred degrees of temperature swing between a shaded terrace and an air-conditioned room will find every weak specification in a scheme.
Most villa layouts fail on circulation rather than square metres. The fix is a set of decisions taken before a single wall is drawn.