Azizi Developments rethinks Creek Views II’s interior design to better fit today’s clients’ needs
Azizi Developments has increased the unit sizes in its Creek Views II project to better suit the needs of today’s investors and end-users, with a keen eye for detail and an emphasis on creating more functional, curated and well-though-out spaces.
Among the enhancements are larger living areas, suitable for those who are now spending more time at home than ever before as an after-effect of the pandemic. Studios have been upsized from 275 to 450 square feet, while one-bedroom homes have been enlarged from 370 to 660 square feet. Two-bedroom apartments have also increased in size, from 496.21 to 1,085 square feet.
Creek Views II’s design philosophy represents Dubai’s remarkable transition from a traditional past to a modern, reinvented future. Home to 587 families, this exceptional project will comprise 116 studios as well as 436 one- and 35 two-bedroom apartments. With a focus on enriching lifestyles, Creek Views II will feature two swimming pools, a sauna, a steam room, a fully equipped gym, and a children’s play area.
Farhad Azizi, CEO of Azizi Developments, said: “The pandemic has taught humanity a lot, with the importance of one’s home, and especially its layout and design, being what we as a developer are focusing on. We, much like most business across all industries, are adapting to the changes in buyer preferences, and are doing our very best to lead the way in developing homes that meet and exceed the aspirations of investors and end-users in a post-pandemic era. Remote work, for example, has become a reality for many, which has led us to increase our unit sizes. We want to make sure that our residents and their visitors are spending the greater part of their day in a comfortable, spacious and convenient environment that truly contributes to the enrichment of their lives.”
The project is situated in the beautifully landscaped and well-thought-out DHCC, the emirate’s health and wellness destination, with direct access to Al Khail Road. This community is home to a wide variety of leading, high-tech medical centres and comprises an abundance of lifestyle and shopping options. Creek Views II will grant picturesque views and present elegant, ultra-modern design and finishing.
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THE RIGHT FIT – Design Middle East
Dimitri Papakonstantinou, managing director at Al Shafar Interiors, on why he puts people first, the role of disruptive technology in the fit-out business model, and his leadership style in the COVID-19 crisis
By Roma Arora
Photography by Ahmad Khader
He considers the organisation’s peoples as its greatest asset. His focus has always been building a strong culture ever since he joined as a managing director of Al Shafar Interiors (ASI), one of the leading fit-out firms in the region. Meet Dimitri Papakonstantinou who joined ASI in October 2018, and has taken the business to another level of success. Papakonstantinou wears many hats and he loves every bit of it— from being a boss to mentor, leader, friend and guide—he does it all with perfection. He is called people’s person because that’s the kind of emotions and values he is made up of. “I have a wonderful team and I do everything in my capacity to inspire and motivate them. From my side, I ensure that everyone in the company is aware of what we want to achieve and how we’re doing. There is full transparency and constant communication with the entire team.”
Papakonstantinou wants to take ASI, a subsidiary of ASGC Construction to the numero uno position and he knows what all it takes and that’s why he calls ‘people as his power’. He explains: “To get there we had to focus on our strategy, our clients, the sectors, the region, and our competition. We then put the right people in the right places and that’s my mantra. The overarching focus on all of the above however is building our culture. It’s ensuring that we are the best at what we do all the time, especially when someone is not looking over our shoulder. I am fortunate to have an amazing team around me that is committed to ASI and our values. More than ever, this was demonstrated during the lockdown due to COVID-19 when part of the team had to work from home.” As the COVID-19 outbreak has shaken and jolted every possible business in the world at an alarming rate, there is no industry which is spared by its adverse effects. The coronavirus crisis is unlike any previous crisis and has made the business leaders take a different course of action. Due to this pandemic, Expo 2020 has been postponed to the next year.
Both ASGC and ASI are also doing various pavilions for the mega event. How has this crisis affected the staff members, workflow, and overall business? Papakonstantinou answers: “When the COVID-19 restrictions were in place, we assisted our office teams such as the estimation department, finance, and technical departments to get set-up at home and work from there. Obviously, this was something we had never done before and we were apprehensive as to how effective it would be. Surprisingly, we realised that we were in a much better position than we thought and adapted quickly to support the other functions of the organisations.”
Talking about the business, Papakonstantinou further elaborates: “We’ve set out a five-year plan with regards to our growth and expansion which we keep circling back to every year to tweak and adjust. This year I think everyone had to relook at their plans and adjust their expectations. Nonetheless, we’re fortunate to still have had very positive growth year on year despite the effects of COVID-19.” Papakonstantinou is a firm believer of ‘looking ahead of the curve’ and has key targets and milestones in the five-year plan are: maximise ASI’s presence in Expo 2020 projects, focus on hospitality projects—new and refurbishments, digitising the processes in the factory, start a new trading division of materials from Europe and Asia and ultimately regional expansion beyond the UAE. Despite the current situation, ASI is on track with several projects across Expo 2020 and hope to continue to remain involved until the event is held next year. Papakonstantinou updates: “We’re involved in the turnkey construction of several pavilions such as Australia, Ukraine, Egypt, and Azerbaijan to name a few. This has been an amazing experience for our teams as these projects involve much more than just our usual scope of works as a fit-out contractor so the learning curve has been fantastic. With regards to our projects underway at Expo 2020, the majority of our clients decided to push ahead with the construction of the pavilions so we faced little interruption of our workload.”
It takes a village to run a business and Papakonstantinou is well aware of the fact that without the hard work and dedication of the team members, the business probably wouldn’t be where it is today. He is proud of his incredibly dedicated team and for his team and doesn’t shy away from admitting it all over again. He tells: “I couldn’t possibly find enough praise for our site teams for their immense support during the pandemic and continued to work, ensuring our projects are delivered whilst protecting everyone as much as humanly possible. At the same time, our office staff got the set-up as quickly as possible at home and managed to support the site teams despite the obvious challenges. I believe it demonstrated the spirit and culture of the company which we can all be proud of.” Papakonstantinou has made of a long to-do list and one of the most important priorities for him is to make sure that technology is adopted and people are made comfortable enough with technology to push for transformative changes in all the areas of the company. He feels that the important thing is to rethink what our real challenges are as fitout contractors and designers and see if there is a technology to offer a solution.
Papakonstantinou says: “Starting from the design stage BIM is making things easier however I don’t believe, it’s the end of all coordination issues. VR is certainly a technology which can be used more to provide a more realistic image to all stakeholders and potentially reduce redesign at a later stage. In the factory, we’re now in the implementation stage of CAD+T software for the design and cutting list preparation as well as barcoding and digitising the entire process. This allows the production team to have live information on the status of production of each item, productivity of each person, and utilisation of all machines. This has taken almost a year of preparation, so we’re very excited to see this to go live now.” Papakonstantinou knows the reality and admits that there are multiple challenges onsite for the contractors. From coordinating between several contractors and suppliers to getting feedback from internal departments, to ensuring that quality and productivity is measured and captured. “We are currently looking at developing software that can help us centralise this information and data to make the site teams every function more seamless. We’re working towards having this ready by the end of this year as several stages of implementations are required. It’s easy to sideline these projects as we all get busy with day-to-day responsibilities, which is why we’ve set up a department focussing only on transformation. The team aims to carry out specific projects across all departments to either adopt new technologies where possible or simplify processes.”
With the hospitality projects, ASI is currently involved in six hotel projects which are in various stages of completion— Address Dubai Creek Harbour, H2B, Aloft Hotels Garhoud and Al Riffa, and now soon-to- start Marsa Al Arab project. This will be a new landmark hotel next to the Burj al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel.
All the uncertainty due to coronavirus poses a tremendous challenge for strategy making. But this has not dampened the spirits of a visionary in Papakonstantinou. “Even though ASI’s work is mainly focussed on hospitality lately, we have a very broad portfolio of previous projects ranging from residential to commercial projects. I’ve never seen the reason to limit our offerings to a smaller segment of the market but rather to expand our know-how and presence.” Papakonstantinou signs off with a goal in his mind. He states: “I want to focus on our reputation as a fit-out contractor and build our relationships. We are looking to diversify our offerings with the introduction of bespoke construction materials which we will be starting soon and eventually grow our presence in the region.”
Finding a fit design for gyms
Industry experts on how the gyms will look and function in the future
As COVID-19 is defining the new normalcy in the world, the fitness industry would also change forever. As governments in many countries are easing lockdown restrictions, fitness facilities are getting ready to re-open and welcome back customers. After the pandemic, health has certainly risen to the top of the list of consumers personal priorities, especially after so many weeks of lockdown. Now more than ever the importance of movement and exercise, with the support and motivation of fitness professionals, will be in high demand.
NEED TO RESTRUCTURE THE SPACE
Gyms and fitness centres today are faced with a great challenge. Struggling with balancing the safety of their guests while still trying to provide the most essential of well-being resources in a post COVID-19 era. During the confinement period, online training and technology-based workouts took the lead. Those newfound initiatives appeared to be very interesting. However, replacing going to the gym by home training is not an easy task; going to a health club which represents a professional space with professional gear is essential for gym-goers. The human experience has to be taken into consideration, the motivation ‘in-person’ communities bring is a great factor in favouring going to the gym and experiencing the social energy it brings.
Rabih Geha, founder of Rabih Geha Architects explains: “We as designers propose we adapt to the new conditions and start by restructuring health clubs. We have to work to ensure social distancing by rebalancing the future floor plan with a design-first approach. This can be achieved with personalised functional training pods, digital workout guidance, smart storage solutions, guided flooring, controlled traffic flow, visual aids, effective signage, to name a few. We should also strongly incorporate visual guidance regarding hygiene protocols and best practices to support the fitness floor. These challenges may bring unique opportunities to define the future of a new fitness experience where space optimisation and the incorporation of safety measures will help deliver the best workout experience for gym-goers.”
TECHNOLOGY IS AT CENTRE
Technogym, one of the leading manufacturers of fitness equipments is focussing on technology. The current time has also given a strong acceleration to the digital revolution in all sectors. During such times, Technogym’s Mywellness app is making things easier for people to return to gyms post lockdown and during the pandemic, so it is what a lot of operators will be using. During lockdown fitness facilities connected with consumers using Technogym’s Mywellness platform by engaging and coaching them and offering training experiences and support services, at home, digitally. In the re-opening phase technology will continue to play a key role to help operators both to offer engaging experiences and a safe environment.
Social distancing will represent a key consideration for clubs to be compliant to local regulations as well as protect members whilst training. Partnering with Technogym at this current time will ensure you have a comprehensive re-opening strategy, The platform is also introducing brand new features for booking facilities services such as gym floor, classes, swimming pool. Members will be able to easily book, from home or while travelling to the club, their preferred training spot. This will streamline reception operations and ensure member a seamless customer experience, creating confidence to customers at the same time. The heart of any fitness business is its community. Especially during an unsettling and unknown time, keeping the community connected to the business—and to one another—is more important than ever. The coronavirus pandemic has raised concerns about working out in a public gym in the presence of other people, including instructors. That means it’s time to re-think gyms.
SOCIAL DISTANCING IS THE NEW NORM
Rasha Alkady, principal architect and founder at Studio KAD, says: “One entrepreneur developed a system to open his group classes back up while following social distancing guidelines. He assembled PVC pipes, shower curtains, and zip ties to create three-walled workout shields for gym members to attend class. Those qualms aside, the design is in line with some best practices we’ve already seen, in that it’s notably similar to a well-researched project called ‘the COVID Shield’, developed by a leading healthcare architecture firm, CannonDesign. The COVID Shield places healthcare workers inside three-walled plexiglass cubes. While these workout pods certainly aren’t foolproof when it comes to spreading COVID-19, the design gets a nod for thrift and ingenuity, and for being used in combination with other health-screening efforts.”
In this uncertain time, business owners will need to do everything possible to ensure their adjusted-models are viable for the longterm commercially. As the fitness-industry design adopts new guidelines and harsh post- COVID circumstances, owners might eliminate showers and locker facilities to enable social distancing. “They might also stagger gym attendance to allow for housekeeping sessions throughout the day. During the pandemic, many people took classes online. While online fitness may remain appealing to many, it won’t replace the traditional space where people get-together. Brick-and-mortar gyms will look different, however, future gyms will instead be divided into sections that are independently equipped with modular tools, equipment that can be replicated across the gym. That way, each person can exercise without sharing any equipment or getting too close. The design community has also been galvanised in a search of solutions to help restore social life and heal people’s mental health. While the pandemic forced us to reorganise our shared spaces, the lockdown has given us the time to rethink what we want our social life to look like. And although we may have to wave goodbye to the lively, crowded spaces including gyms that we used to love, at least for some time, we also have the unique opportunity to rediscover what togetherness means in new spaces – and to reimagine those spaces from scratch,” feels Alkady.
Fit for digitisation – Design Middle East
Laurent Farge, general manager at ALEC FITOUT, on how digital transformation is the key to success in the future and how a solid crisis management plan must be put in place for uncertain times
By Roma Arora
The first impression is the last impression. For this, clients rely on fit-out services more than ever. Fit-out sector is considered as the backbone of the construction as well as design industry. One of the most promising and leading names in the MENA region is ALEC FITOUT— they specialise in the fit-out and refurbishment of five-star hotels and resorts, cultural, immersive, and luxury mixed-use developments.
Leading the brand to the highest standards of leadership and workmanship is Laurent Farge, general manager of ALEC FITOUT, who has been with the company since 2008, bringing with him 24 years’ experience of delivering luxury interior fit-out projects in Europe, the Levant, and the GCC. Over the years, Farge has played a crucial role in the growth and development of ALEC FITOUT across the region. The COVID-19 outbreak is an unprecedented situation for governments, companies, and societies. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has affected everyone globally, no matter what industry we are in.
Farge says: “Many projects across the region will suffer delays due to COVID-19. ALEC FITOUT operational teams are working closely with client and consultants on a project-by- project basis to mitigate time impact wherever possible. We will continue to focus on delivering luxury fit-out and refurbishment interior solutions for five-star hotels, mixed-use developments, and cultural projects in UAE as well as targeting new projects across the MENA region.”
In such challenging times, the events have been put on hold and postponed like Expo 2020. ALEC FITOUT was doing large-scale exhibition fit-out contracts for Expo 2020, including Mobility Pavilion, KSA Pavilion, Opportunity Pavilion, as well as building the ENOC Pavilion. What is the current situation now and how is it affecting your business? Farge answers: “ALEC FITOUT is very proud to be involved with EXPO 2020 and our teams are delivering a variety of exhibition fit-out contracts where our scope of works combines traditional fit-out with AV, media, theming, and content. Thankfully our projects there such as Mobility Pavilion, KSA Pavilion, Opportunity Pavilion, and ENOC are continuing with all project stakeholders keen to complete the works. In terms of impact, there will obviously be a time impact due to COVID-19, however, our site and support teams are working closely with Expo 2020 and our respective client teams to mitigate wherever possible and focus on delivery of world-class immersive and experiential solutions that will be a major part of the overall Expo 2020 visitor experience” The fit-out firm is working on a variety of projects at Dubai International Airport as well as luxury fit-out at the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel at Wasl Tower.
The firm is also completing major fit-out packages at Address Skyview by Emaar and also the luxury residential project, Marina Gate in Dubai Marina. In terms of COVID-19 measures, the ALEC FITOUT core value is their people and their safety. The operational teams are working very closely with the ALEC Group Health and Safety team to ensure a safe working environment and preventative practices are carried out on all projects irrespective of size or location. “We maintain consistent communication with project stakeholders including client and consultant teams to ensure all practical measures are in place and are strictly adhered to on-site,” informs Farge.
Amid the outbreak of coronavirus all over the world, digitisation is gaining prominence and is crucial for innovation. A large majority of players in the industry today recognise how digitization is affecting every part of their business too. Farge echoes the same and believes that digitisation is the key to succeed. ALEC is driving a number of initiatives to accelerate its digital transformation. In addition to having an innovation department which capably drives and assists with over 100 innovative initiatives per year, they have numerous developments occurring in our Digital Transformation space. Farge shares: “We are digitising our core through the implementation of an ERP process which aims to connect over 53 applications, 219 core processes, scores of departments/business units/sites and employees. The pandemic has forced us to introduce technology not previously considered for our industry. This technology has shown great potential to provide long term benefits.”
IT spend will change to incorporate digital advancements post COVID-19 situation and some of the technologies use cases are:
• Video and audio conferencing (Microsoft Teams) will replace the physical meetings as it showed huge productivity increase during this situation
• Enable mobility solutions will digitise all physical paper processes at project sites.
• AI and computer vision will provide a new frontier in the construction across multiple use cases like automating construction labour attendance, detect social distancing between labour, safety detection features and progress updates using images’ comparison
• IOT (Internet of Things) and wearable will provide new sensors’ solutions to track all construction projects’ objects (workforce, machines, cranes, hoists).
Farge has great business acumen and he foresees that there will be some interesting changes in the field of fit-out in the coming years. A major trend in the coming years will be the combination of traditional fit-out with immersive technologies such as AV, media, theming, and content. Farge elaborates: “A memorable visitor user experience is highly valued by operators and clientele and as such we will see immersive experiences integrated across retail, hospitality, and leisure solutions. As a result of this new emerging trend, we also expect to see more negotiated design-build projects with repeat clientele. Already we are working closely with our clientele to create (or receive an approved concept) and then ALEC FITOUT develops the design intent, budget and specialist packages as part of a single contract – thus facilitating timely delivery of a highly bespoke and specialist solution for the client to an agreed target budget.”
Farge’s focus is on quality and working on various kinds of projects that are challenging and exciting. They’ve been recently awarded a major luxury five-star hotel fit-out in Dubai. Farge is optimistic that there will be a lot of hotel refurbishments projects that would boost the business. He comments: “With the unfortunate delay of Expo 2020, we expect to see some more hotel refurbishment projects in Dubai in particular in the coming months. Our team is also targeting new projects in KSA – we expect to see a variety of large-scale fit-out projects there across hospitality, leisure, and entertainment sectors.” The global outbreak of the coronavirus is creating significant challenges for the organisations of all sizes. Farge is a visionary and feels that once this pandemic is over, the world would come out stronger. He says there some great learnings here as well.
“The foremost lesson to learn is that we have to have a solid crisis management plan in place that prepare us for all scenarios. A dedicated crisis team and a solid structure to support them is very crucial. Also, there have to be the measures in place to make all the employees feel at ease including a communication structure to be transparent with the situation and the decisions taken by the company. Last but not the least, develop and implement different tools and technologies to help your employees and your whole supply chain navigate through this challenging time.” “We believe employees will become more agile and comfortable with technology. Innovation will be a key driver and we will all develop a better sense of urgency and become more efficient. Speed will increase and we will become less wasteful,” signs off Farge.