Home Integrator
Designing Homes That Anticipate Life
Exclusive Interview with Muayad Simbawa, Managing Director of Nemetschek Arabia
Nemetschek Group has long been a pioneer in digital design and construction software. How do you see your solutions reshaping the modern home in the UAE?
We see our solutions reshaping the modern UAE home by focusing on three core pillars: intelligent design, sustainable performance, and operational excellence. Instead of just modeling a home, our platforms, like Graphisoft and Vectorworks, allow architects to simulate how a home will actually perform in different conditions, ensuring maximum energy efficiency and indoor comfort from day one.
In construction, tools like Bluebeam enhance collaboration, speeding up delivery and ensuring quality. Critically, we reshape the modern home’s operational life. Our Digital Twin solutions turn the design data into a live asset management tool, allowing seamless integration with smart home technology and predictive maintenance. This ensures the home is not only built efficiently but remains comfortable, sustainable, and high-performing for decades. Ultimately, our goal is to help developers and designers deliver homes that reflect the UAE’s vision for a future where technology enriches everyday living in meaningful, intuitive ways.
With the rising demand for smart living, what role does Nemetschek play in helping architects and designers create more intuitive, tech-enabled homes?
As smart living becomes an essential part of the UAE lifestyle, our role at Nemetschek is to bridge the gap between architectural design and technological integration. Creating truly intuitive, tech-enabled homes requires designers to integrate systems like HVAC, security, and smart lighting before construction even begins.
Our BIM solutions enable architects to design the digital infrastructure for these systems directly within the model. This allows for early clash detection and ensures the building fabric seamlessly accommodates all the smart technology. Furthermore, by promoting open standards, we ensure the data generated by design is easily consumable by all home integrators, guaranteeing a smoother installation and a unified, future-proof platform for the homeowner. In essence, we empower designers to deliver homes where the technology is invisible, intuitive, and truly enhances the living experience without overwhelming it.
As the Managing Director, what excites you most about the future of homes and spaces in the UAE?
What excites me most about the future of homes and spaces in the UAE is the incredible convergence of innovation, sustainability, and human-centric design. This is a country that doesn’t just adopt new ideas, it imagines what living could look like in 10 years or even 50 years from now and then builds it. We are entering a new era where homes will be more adaptable, energy-efficient, and seamlessly connected. Spaces will anticipate residents’ needs, reduce environmental impact, and enhance wellbeing through smarter design and technology.
At Nemetschek Group, I am inspired by how our digital solutions are helping bring this vision to life, from AI-assisted design and precise BIM modelling to digital twins that optimize comfort and performance. What truly motivates me is the opportunity to support developers, architects, and designers as they shape homes that are not only technologically advanced, but also warm, livable, and deeply rooted in the UAE’s forward-looking spirit.
You recently announced a strategic partnership with Concerted Solutions to boost AEC/O digital transformation across the GCC. Can you walk us through a few early projects or pilot deployments under this collaboration and how they align with regional home-and-infrastructure development trends?
Our partnership with Concerted Solutions is deeply aligned with the region’s digital transformation ambitions. Together, we want to accelerate the adoption of smarter, more connected, and more data-driven workflows across the GCC’s construction and infrastructure sectors. Concerted Solutions brings strong regional expertise and an extensive network, which will help us engage more closely with government entities, developers, and consultants who are looking to advance their digital capabilities.
The partnership is also designed to support national agendas such as Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s We the UAE 2031 vision by enabling organizations to improve efficiency, enhance collaboration, and make more informed decisions through integrated digital tools. Ultimately, our joint mission is to unlock new opportunities for innovation and help shape future-ready built environments whether in homes, communities, or major infrastructure projects.
How are you tailoring your software and digital workflows specifically for large-scale residential developments in the GCC through this partnership?
Through our partnership with Concerted Solutions, we are tailoring our software and digital workflows to meet the unique needs of large-scale residential developments in the GCC – a market defined by rapid growth, ambitious national visions, and rising expectations for smart, sustainable living. Together, we are helping developers move from traditional, siloed processes to fully connected digital ecosystems that support better planning, coordination, and long-term asset performance.
Our joint approach focuses on enabling clearer design communication, improving construction quality, and ensuring that energy efficiency and sustainability targets are embedded from the start. With tools such as BIM, digital twins, and data-driven collaboration platforms, residential developers can simulate community layouts, optimize material use, streamline handover, and enhance the resident experience through smarter building operations.
Since your expansion into Saudi Arabia, you’ve signaled a focus on giga-projects under Vision 2030. What are some of the major developments (residential, infrastructure, or hospitality) you are already involved in, or planning to be involved in, in the Kingdom?
Our focus in Saudi Arabia is strategically aligned with the core pillars of Vision 2030, including the massive residential, infrastructure, and tourism giga-projects. We are proudly engaged with developments that are setting a new global benchmark for sustainable construction. Nemetschek Group is actively supporting the digital transformation goals of major developers behind flagship projects like the ones by Public Investment Fund. Our solutions are providing the digital backbone for design and construction in the Kingdom’s next generation of cities, whether that’s using Graphisoft for residential master-planning, Bluebeam for site collaboration, or dTwin to power the long-term, sustainable operation of the Kingdom’s emerging hospitality and infrastructure assets.
The Nemetschek Group has an impressive global footprint. How are you tailoring your growth strategy for the UAE’s unique home and hospitality markets?
Our global strategy is always executed with a deep commitment to understanding the needs and expectations of the local market. The UAE’s home and hospitality markets are uniquely dynamic, blending cutting-edge design with a strong emphasis on comfort, sustainability, and guest experience. To help developers create spaces that are both technologically advanced and deeply human-centric within this region, our strategy focuses on three areas. First, service localization to ensure our support and consulting services are delivered by local experts who understand the unique regulatory environment and climate challenges. Second, ecosystem collaboration, which means strengthening ties with key local system integrators and property technology providers to ensure our design and operation platforms integrate seamlessly with the specific smart home technology favored here. Third, specialized solutions, where we champion brands like Spacewell and dTwin that deliver immediate, measurable value in facility management – a critical factor for the region’s high-end, long-term asset owners in both the residential and luxury hospitality sectors. Through this strategy which combines global innovation with local partnerships and on-the-ground expertise, we ensure our solutions truly reflect the UAE’s forward-looking vision.
Home Integrator
NATUZZI ITALIA ILLUMINATES THE SOUL OF THE HOME WITH THE POETRY OF LIGHT

Natuzzi Italia, the global ambassador of Italian lifestyle, invites the world to see the home in a new light. In a masterclass of craftsmanship and atmospheric design, the brand unveils its latest lighting ensemble—a collection where functional illumination evolves into pure, radiant sculpture.
These pieces represent more than just a new product line; they are a dialogue between the heritage of Italian artisanal mastery and the avant-garde of modern luxury.
The Collection: Sculptures of Luminosity
Aura Suspension:
Architectural Harmony Aura embraces space with ethereal grace, spreading a soft, diffused glow that envelopes a room in a harmonious atmosphere. Its refined, essential shapes interact seamlessly with architecture, creating a perfect equilibrium between raw matter and weightless light. Available in various compositions, Aura enriches grand spaces with a timeless allure, transforming surroundings into pure emotion.


Elsa Table Lamp:
A Timeless Embrace Elegance and purity find their form in Elsa. This masterpiece features a charm carved from artisan glass, playing against the natural, sophisticated veins of Calacatta marble. Topped with a decorative accessory in brushed light gold, Elsa is not merely a lamp, but a precious jewel for the contemporary interior.


Tea Floor Lamp:
Floral Grandeur: Standing with the poise of a curated bouquet, the Tea lamp features three slender stems rising in a rhythmic interplay of heights. Each stem culminates in a satinated blown-glass sphere, casting a soft, encompassing glow that mimics the gentle transition of dusk.


Rosé:
The Icon of Grace Inspired by the delicate silhouette of an inverted chalice, Rosé pays homage to the warm, shimmering hues of a desert sunset. With its refined finish and iconic silhouette, it transforms light into a radiant expression of Mediterranean beauty.


Solene:
The Luminous Secret of Solene is where tradition meets innovation. Featuring a hand-carved crystal heart nestled within blown glass, it filters light to create a sanctuary of intimacy. It is a quiet masterpiece, a secret whispered in the language of light.


Nola:
Ethereal Weightlessness Suspended with the quiet dignity of a bell, Nola brings a brilliant yet delicate presence to any room. Its minimalist form serves as a statement of lightness, proving that true refinement often speaks in a whisper.


Bossanova:
The Rhythm of Reflection Dynamic and fluid, Bossanova appears to dance within the air. Its vibrant transparency and undulating lines create a play of reflections that evoke joy and movement, capturing the timeless spirit of Italian celebration.


Experience the Glow
Discover the collection at Natuzzi Italia showrooms across the UAE, where the poetry of light meets the art of living.
Natuzzi store are located near you in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, visit the website.
• Natuzzi, Sheikh Zayed Road between 2nd and 3rd interchange, Dubai
• Natuzzi, near Al Maktoum Bridge, Umm Hurair Road, Dubai
• Natuzzi, The Galleria, Abu Dhabi
Home Integrator
THE RETURN OF BROWN: A NEW NEUTRAL FOR INTERIORS WITH MINOTTI
Grounded in nature and materiality, brown is returning to interiors as a calming, contemporary neutral.
Brown is re-emerging as one of the defining tones of contemporary interiors. Once associated with the nostalgic interiors of the 1970s, the colour is now being reinterpreted through a more refined lens, introducing depth and material richness to modern living spaces. After several years dominated by pale neutrals and cool greys, designers are increasingly introducing a spectrum of warm brown tones – from deeper shades such as espresso and cocoa to softer hues including caramel, tan and walnut – bringing greater character and contrast to current interior palettes.
Used thoughtfully, brown acts as a versatile neutral within contemporary spaces, adding structure while softening lighter schemes. Layering deeper chocolate tones with caramel or tan shades introduces subtle depth, while softer tones such as off-white or cream keep the composition light and balanced. Accents in bronze or brushed metals, alongside rich woods and textured fabrics, further enhance the layered quality of the palette.
Reflecting this shift, Minotti explores these richer tones across its latest collections. At the Minotti Dubai flagship store in Jumeirah, sculptural seating and refined finishes illustrate how brown tones can shape contemporary interiors.

Sculptural Foundations: Bézier seating system and coffee table
Statement seating is one of the most effective ways to introduce brown into a space. TheBézier seating system by Marcio Kogan / Studio MK27 embodies this approach through its fluid, organic silhouette and generous proportions. Inspired by the parametric curves developed by French engineer Pierre Bézier, the sofa’s rounded volumes create a sculptural presence that feels both architectural and inviting.
Upholstered in warm tones, the design anchors the living area while maintaining visual softness. Its modular configuration expands into island-like compositions that encourage relaxed gathering and conversation. Paired with the Bézier coffee table, featuring a Canaletto walnut top in light brown veneer, the composition highlights how brown can extend through both upholstery and natural materials.

Layered Upholstery: Coupé and Libra
Brown tones are equally effective when introduced through layered seating arrangements. The Coupé seating system by Giampiero Tagliaferri reinterprets the aesthetic language of 1960s and 1970s interiors through a contemporary lens. Its overlapping rounded volumes and tone-on-tone stitching emphasise softness and craftsmanship while maintaining the understated elegance characteristic of Minotti.
Also designed by Giampiero Tagliaferri, the Libra armchair introduces a sculptural accent. Inspired by seventies aesthetics, the design is composed of overlapping padded volumes upholstered in leather or fabric, creating a balanced interplay between seat, backrest and headrest.

Architectural Balance: Riley seating system, Andrée and Stage coffee tables
Where softer silhouettes introduce warmth, more architectural pieces bring structure and contrast. The Riley seating system by Hannes Peer reflects this balance through its geometric form and precise detailing, with vertical quilting adding rhythm to the upholstery.
Alongside the seating, the Andrée coffee table, also designed by Hannes Peer, introduces a decorative counterpoint. Inspired by the facades of 1970s Milanese architecture, the design pairs glazed ceramic surfaces with chrome-plated brass trims, adding texture and reflective depth.

The Stage side table further extends the palette through wood and metal finishes, with tops available in Canaletto walnut-stained light brown or glossy Moka lacquer.
A Contemporary Neutral
Far from being a passing trend, brown’s return reflects a broader shift toward interiors that prioritise depth, materiality and balance. When layered thoughtfully through furniture, finishes and textures, the colour introduces a quiet sophistication that feels both timeless and relevant today.
Home Integrator
Object 1 hits major milestone: project completion with RA1N Residence in JVC

Object 1 has officially announced the 100% completion of RA1N Residence, the developer’s residential project in Dubai. The delivery signifies the company’s evolution from project launches to the successful handover of homes, solidifying its reputation as a reliable player in the city’s fast-moving real estate sector.
Located in District 12 of Jumeirah Village Circle (JVC), the 25-storey tower features 144 units, ranging from one- and two-bedroom apartments to exclusive top-floor apartments with jacuzzi for extra comfort. The project meets a surging market demand for ready-to-move properties. JVC remains a top-tier choice for residents and investors alike, currently capturing 61% of sales searches and 80% of rental searches for apartments in the mid-market segment.
RA1N Residence provides a comprehensive suite of amenities designed for modern urban life:
A spacious lobby with lounge area and co-working spaces, a dedicated clubhouse, indoor and outdoor fitness areas, 2 swimming pools – for kids and adults-only, on-site retail outlets, children’s play zones – both indoors and outdoors.
Designed for immediate comfort and functionality, the apartments feature bright, ergonomic layouts and high-quality materials with contemporary finishes sourced directly from European factories, complemented by built-in appliances and premium plumbing fixtures from leading manufacturers.
There is direct access to Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, linking the community to Dubai Marina, JLT, and Dubai Internet City. The Roads and Transport Authority’s Hessa Street Phase II project, will double road capacity and reduce travel times while serving nearly 650,000 residents across surrounding communities, further strengthening accessibility for the district.
The announcement comes as Dubai’s property market demonstrates unprecedented momentum. In January 2026 alone, total transactions reached circa Dh108.0 billion – nearly doubling the figures from the previous year.
Tatiana Tonu, CEO of Object 1, commented: “Delivering RA1N Residence is a defining moment for Object 1, as we move from vision to tangible reality. While the world watches regional shifts with caution, our faith in Dubai’s investment climate remains absolute. This city is more than just a market; it is a global safe haven that consistently turns challenges into growth opportunities. By completing our project, we are sending a clear message to our investors: we are here for the long term, contributing to the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan and building high-quality communities that thrive regardless of external pressures.”
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