TL;DR: Aedas is an international architecture practice of around 1,000 people, with a Dubai office in Dubai Design District. It designs towers, masterplans and large commercial interiors, including Fit Republik and the Immersive Tower at DIFC. For a villa, an apartment or an office under roughly 1,000 m², a residential design-and-build studio is the closer match.
Who Aedas is, and the scale the practice works at
Aedas is a global architecture firm founded by the Welsh architect Keith Griffiths, employing about 1,000 staff across offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Dubai, Riyadh, Delhi and Seattle. The Dubai studio sits in Dubai Design District, in the same cluster as most of the region's design consultancies.
The services list covers architecture, interiors, landscape, urban design and masterplanning. Read that list carefully and the client type becomes obvious: someone who needs all five at once is building a district, a transport hub or a 300-metre tower, not renovating a three-bedroom flat in Marina.
That matters because Aedas shows up in "top interior designers in Dubai" listicles next to studios that fit out apartments for a living. The two do not compete. They are answering different briefs from different buyers, and the listicles rarely say so.
What Aedas Interiors actually takes on
Aedas Interiors is the interiors arm of the same practice, and its centre of gravity is corporate and hospitality space. Think workplace floors inside towers the firm or someone else designed, hotel and leisure interiors, and large public-facing environments where the interior has to carry a brand across thousands of square metres.
Work at that scale is mostly coordination. You are resolving base-build constraints, life-safety requirements for public assembly, procurement volumes that need a supply chain rather than a supplier, and an operator or landlord who signs off on every material. The fee buys a process that has survived this before.
None of that helps on a villa. A house is decided by where the morning light lands, how the majlis opens into the family room, and whether the wardrobe joinery suits how one family lives. That work rewards a small senior team that revises quickly, not a coordination machine.
What Aedas has built in the UAE
Four projects worth knowing, all publicly documented by the practice or the client:
- Fit Republik, Dubai. A 9,000 m² sports facility created by converting two existing buildings, with interiors by Aedas Interiors. Exposed concrete, rusted mild steel, reclaimed timber and shipping-crate offices give it a deliberately raw industrial character.
- SLS Dubai Hotel & Residences. Aedas is credited as architect of the 75-storey tower in the Burj Khalifa district. The interiors there are publicly credited to Bishop Design, which is a useful reminder that on Dubai towers the architect and the interior designer are often two different firms.
- Immersive Tower by DIFC. A 37-storey mixed-use tower with concept design by Aedas, announced by DIFC and scheduled for completion in 2027.
- Rixos Financial Centre Road Dubai Residences. A 329-metre branded residential tower carried on the Aedas project list.
The common thread is not style. It is contract size. Every one of these is a multi-year development with an institutional client behind it.
Who Aedas is genuinely the right call for
If you are a developer, a master developer, a bank taking a full floor, or a hotel group pushing a brand standard into a new build, an international practice removes real risk. It has drawn this building type before, it has done the authority coordination, and it has staff depth to survive a two-year programme without the project stalling when one person leaves.
The same is true for large commercial interiors. An office of several thousand square metres, a flagship retail environment, a leisure destination like Fit Republik: those need a firm that can hold design intent across a big contractor team.
Where the mismatch appears is at the small end. A practice built around towers is not set up to price, staff or care about a 180 m² apartment, and the honest ones will tell you that on the first call.
The three tiers you are actually choosing between in Dubai
Most owners think they are choosing between companies. They are choosing between three business models.
- International architecture and design practices. Aedas, and the handful of firms in its league. They design, they specify, and they hand construction to main contractors. Fees are staged or percentage-based, budgets run into the millions, and programmes are measured in years. Right for buildings, districts and large commercial interiors.
- Large fit-out contractors. The firms that deliver mall units, hotel floors and corporate headquarters. Strong procurement, real site capacity, tender-driven pricing. Below roughly 1,000 m² a job is too small to get their attention, and you feel it in the response times.
- Boutique design-and-build studios. Design plus an own crew under one contract. Villas, apartments, small offices, clinics, boutiques. Programmes in months rather than years, and one accountable party when the tiling needs redoing.
Tier two deserves a fair hearing if your office fit-out is over 1,000 m² and your landlord has a strict fit-out guide. Below that, tier three usually gives you more senior attention per dirham.
What design and fit-out cost in Dubai in 2026
These are market bands we see in Dubai, not a rate card. Design fees are quoted per square foot and construction is often quoted per square metre, and one m² is 10.76 sqft, so check the unit before you compare two quotes.
Design fees run from about AED 75 to over AED 600 per sqft. The budget tier at AED 75–150 buys moodboards, a space plan and renders. Standard residential and small commercial sits at AED 200–400. Premium, with joinery detailed to fabrication level, runs AED 400–600, and luxury bespoke passes AED 600. As lump sums, a studio lands at AED 10,000–25,000, a one or two bedroom apartment at AED 25,000–60,000, and a three to five bedroom villa at AED 80,000–250,000 and up. Full detail on which model favours you sits in our breakdown of interior design fees in Dubai.
Construction is separate. Category A base build runs AED 220–450/sqft, occupier Cat B AED 280–600, premium AED 600–900, and luxury turnkey AED 900–1,500+. Offices sit at AED 350–550/sqft standard and AED 600–1,500 premium. The full split by category and space type is in our guide to fit-out cost per square foot.
Our own contracts are quoted in AED/m²: from 1,500/m² for cosmetic work, from 3,000/m² for a capital renovation, and 8,500–16,000/m² for turnkey with furniture, appliances and decor. A standalone design project starts from AED 10,000 over three to six weeks.
One thing that costs us money to say: if the flat is going out on a rental listing, cosmetic work almost always returns better than a capital renovation. Tenants price a clean, current-looking unit. They do not pay a premium for a rebuilt MEP layout they cannot see.
Practice or studio: the test that settles it
Ask what happens after the drawings are signed. An architectural practice hands them to a contractor and supervises. A design-and-build studio picks up a hammer. Both are legitimate, and the seam between designer and builder is where most residential pain in Dubai actually lives.
The second test is authority familiarity for your specific address. Dubai Design District and other TECOM free zone clusters go through the Dubai Development Authority, while DIFC runs its own building control, separate from DDA. Palm Jumeirah and other Nakheel waterfront developments typically go through Trakhees, and JLT goes through DMCC. Standard freehold districts answer to Dubai Municipality, and you still need an NOC from building management plus Civil Defence sign-off for anything touching fire systems, kitchens or egress. A firm that cannot name your regulator on the first call has not worked your building.
Third, ask how many projects of your exact type and size the firm closed in the last two years. Count villas, not hotel keys. If the answer arrives as awards instead of a number, you have your answer. The distinction between drawing a building and detailing an interior is unpacked further in our piece on when you need an interior architect.
Where DOMECO fits
We are a Dubai design and fit-out studio with a Russian-speaking in-house team and our own crew rather than subcontractors hired per job. Completed projects include a fur boutique at Dubai Hills Mall, an apartment at Dubai Creek Address, an office fit-out at Platinum Tower in JLT, a spa in Media City and villa work on Palm Jumeirah and The Meadows.
We are not an alternative to Aedas on a tower or a masterplan. That is a different discipline at a different scale. We are the right call when the project is a villa, an apartment or a commercial space you want finished, quoted at a fixed price in the contract, with a daily penalty on our side for delay and a one-year workmanship warranty. Bring your drawings, your building's fit-out rules and your real budget, and we will tell you on the call whether we fit.
Written by Artur Gall, DOMECO Design and Fit Out.
FAQ
Is Aedas an architecture firm or an interior design company?
Both, with architecture as the core. Aedas provides architecture, interiors, landscape, urban design and masterplanning, and Aedas Interiors is the interiors arm within the same practice. Its interior work concentrates on corporate and hospitality space rather than private homes.
What has Aedas built in Dubai?
Publicly documented UAE work includes the interiors of Fit Republik, a 9,000 m² sports facility converted from two existing buildings, and the architecture of SLS Dubai Hotel & Residences. The practice is also behind the 37-storey Immersive Tower at DIFC, due for completion in 2027, and the 329-metre Rixos Financial Centre Road Dubai Residences.
Can Aedas design the interior of my villa?
A single private villa sits well outside the model. The practice is structured around buildings and large commercial interiors, with fee structures and team sizes to match. For one home, a residential studio that both designs and builds will give you more senior attention for less money.
What does working with an international practice cost compared with a local studio?
An international practice prices for the complexity it normally handles, which is a different economy from a Dubai apartment. Local design fees run roughly AED 75–600+ per sqft by tier, with fit-out at AED 220–450/sqft for base build and AED 900–1,500+ for luxury turnkey. A firm sized for towers rarely quotes competitively on a single residence.
What are the alternatives to Aedas for a residential project in Dubai?
Look at design-and-build studios and residential interior specialists rather than global practices. Check the firm's completed residential work from the past two years, confirm the trade licence covers interior design or fit-out contracting on the public Department of Economy and Tourism register, and ask who employs the people on site.
What is the difference between an architectural practice and an interior design studio?
An architectural practice works on the building: structure, envelope, planning and authority submissions, then hands construction to a contractor. An interior studio works inside a completed shell on layout, finishes, joinery and lighting. On a villa or an apartment the second job is the one you actually need, and a studio that also builds removes the handover gap between the two.