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Feature Article, March 2006
Landmark Dubai Project Exceeds Expectations
The Mall of Emirates is thriving in the heart of a new master-planned expansion district.
Susan H. Fishman
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An overview of the complete Mall of the Emirates project when it will be fully built-out.
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One of the world's most impressive retail/entertainment complexes opened late last year in Dubai on the Arabian Gulf. Anchored by the largest Carrefour hypermarket (the French equivalent to Wal-Mart) in Dubai and the largest Harvey Nichols department store outside the United Kingdom, the Mall of the Emirates is filled with some of the most unique shopping, dining and entertainment offerings in the country. It also includes the largest glazed hemispherical dome in the Middle East. Located in the heart of the master-planned expansion district, known as New Dubai, the development is located halfway between Port Jebel Ali and Dubai City Center. The focal point of the complex is the region's first and only 400 meter indoor ski slope and snow park, surrounded by a vast, state-of-the-art retail, hospitality and sports entertainment center.
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The Mall of the Emirates is divided into retail districts that define retailers.
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MAF (Majid al Futtaim) Group, who owns Dubai City Center, one of the most successful shopping centers in Dubai, is developing the project, which is located on Sheikh Zayed Road, the “spine” of Dubai, according to Jeff Rossely, group vice president, property development for MAF Group. “Over the last 5 years, Dubai has been growing at about 150,000 people per year,” he says, “and it's all been happening to the South. The Mall of the Emirates is right in the heart of this new population growth. At the same time, Dubai has introduced freehold title sales to non-Emirates, and these sales are out in this area as well. So we're not just in the center of the new growth that's taking place, we're also right in the center of where new home ownership is taking place.”
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The exterior of the Mall of the Emirates.
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With 2.4 million square feet of gross leaseable area, The Mall of the Emirates is home to Debenhams department store; HomeCenter, a home furnishings offer; CineStar theaters with 14 screens; Magic Planet, the family entertainment center; Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope; Virgin Megastore and close to 400 other retailers. The project encompasses several styles of design, including classical Greek revival, international modern, Italian Mediterranean, and Moorish and Arabic influences. Pasadena, California-based F+A Architects was hired to carry out the demanding design brief, which required a rigorous and extensively researched design process. The company, which also designed the Ontario Mills project in Ontario, California, developed three basic districts or zones within the project: a convenience zone, which includes Carrefour, home and lifestyle retailers and everyday necessities, such as a pharmacy and optometrist; a fashion zone, called The Galleria Court, with very high-end retailers, such as Gucci and Armani; and an entertainment zone, anchored by the ski dome, related retailers and food service.
In rewarding the property to the developer, the ruler of Dubai, Aheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, required a winter experience for the project. F+A Architects drew from its experience in planning an indoor ski/snowboard facility, called The Glacier, in Anaheim, California, back in the late 1990s (which never came to fruition).
“Using the knowledge that we gained over a couple of years of planning and research on that facility, we were able to bring that idea to the table in Dubai to help promote the idea of an indoor ski event,” says Andrew Feola, president and founder of F+A Architects.
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One attractive feature of the Mall of the Emirates is its large glass cupola that surrounds one part of the center.
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The design of the indoor winter resort area is based on the architecture of the European Alpine region with primarily rustic and natural materials, including raw timber and stone. An 18-meter glazed dome skylight, 36 meters in diameter, covers the Milanese Galleria, a luxury shopping area inspired by the Galleria di Milano. In another section, the Moorish Arcade, diffused light filters through timbered fretwork offset by hammered bronze, evoking the drama of an Arab souk, as in Damascus or Cairo. There are 18 skylights and nine clerestory windows that provide approximately 9,000 square meters of natural light. The largest skylight is located over the center court, which alone provides 4,480 square meters of natural light.
The Magic Planet entertainment centre houses indoor rides, simulators and bowling lanes, the largest sports retailer in the region and a 14-screen cinema. The design of the entertainment district is bit brighter and more modern than the rest of the mall, and with so many distinct architectural styles throughout the project, designers were intent on creating a common linkage to unify the development. To that end, they chose an intricately designed granite flooring that extends throughout the entire structure. Three hundred thousand square feet of stone pavement called for 21 different types of granite, much of it quarried in the Amazon Basin.
“It's a very rich, golden granite,” notes Feola. “We traveled around the world to fabricators in Portugal, Brazil, Spain and Italy and finally made the final selection, and it's proven to be a wonderful material.”
There are also two international food courts and a wide selection of restaurants, some of which overlook the ski slope through a 160-meter glazed wall. A performing and fine arts center encompasses a live theater and concert hall, as well as art galleries.
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Along one of the retail corridors at Mall of the Emirates.
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The project began as a purely retail development, and ultimately evolved with additions, such as two hotels, the Kempinsky Hotel and the Marriott, which will be completed later this year. Located at opposite ends of the mall, the hotels have a total of 985 guestrooms. Anchored to the ski dome, The Kempinsky hotel offers some guests a view of skiers racing down the slopes.
“When we started planning the project in this section of Dubai, which is south of the main city, it was pretty much desert,” notes Feola. “This section of Dubai had not really taken off in terms of development, so our client was a little reluctant to move ahead full steam with a major project. So we've evolved the plan from our original concept to something less than the ambition and then eventually going full force with the project as it stands today, which was basically our original thought in 1999 with the exception of the second hotel.”
A major design challenge, among many in such a massive project, was supporting the technical side of each aspect of the development. For example, while the exterior temperature in Dubai ranges from 60 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, the ski slope and winter sports area maintain a constant 28 degrees.
The technical program required several separate energy centers and massive redundant mechanical systems. The equipment employed to create snow and control the temperature in the ski center is similar to the extensive systems used to preserve fresh food at the nearby Port of Jebel Ali. The technology was modified to function at a larger scale in a new context. Refrigerated coils installed in the floor of the ski slope create a base layer of ice, and an electronically controlled apparatus installed in the ceiling atomizes water into mist and then freezes it into snow that falls over the entire sports area. Such technological feats may be the reason the mall is already a huge success.
“It's exceeding our expectations and impacting fairly significantly into a lot of the other centers,” says Rossely. “For example, on the ski dome, we were talking about 500,000 people in the first year. We've done 70,000 in the first month. And in the ski shop, we've achieved 6 months' sales in the first month.”
©2006 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
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