DSA Digest Q3 2017 | DSA DIGEST | ISSUE 9
A ROYAL INVITATION To: ‘One&Only Seef’ - Bahrain
By invitation from His Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain, DSA Architects’ Design Principal, Floris Smith, attended a video shoot at the One&Only Seef, Bahrain, on 24th September in anticipation of the development’s upcoming November 2017 opening. DSA are proud to have acted as design architect and lead consultant on this landmark project. Set in one of the world’s most beautiful locations, One&Only Seef, Bahrain, has been individually and beautifully designed to reflect the styles and influences of its surroundings. The resort features a remarkable collection of luxurious guest rooms, suites and villas, and offers access to a spectacular private beachfront. The stunning One&Only in Seef will also feature world class dining and retail choices, along with a sublime Givenchy spa.
In this issue: • Welcome from the MD
• Al Zahia Team Lunch
• Onwards & Upwards
• Reflection of Excellence
• New Project Award
• GREEN DSA - EmiratesGBC Report
• DSA Wellness Clinic
• Cityscape 2017
• The DSA Draw
• Burj Square Central Development, Dubai
• One to One with Pierre Nel
• UAE Year of Giving Donation
• DSA Open 2017
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WELCOME TO DSA DIGEST A very warm welcome to the 9th Edition of DSA DIGEST and I think you will notice that we have a lot to report on, which clearly reflects the high levels of business, social and community activities undertaken over the last few months across our global office network. New project awards are the lifeblood of our business and it is great to report that we have recently been commissioned for the Burj Square Central development in Dubai for Nshama, as well as our first hotel project in Musandam, Oman. The high regard held by our clients of DSA’s quality work is perfectly illustrated on the front page, with the report on Design Principal, Floris Smith’s personal royal invitation from His Highness, the Prime Minister of Bahrain to the opening video shoot for the One&Only Seef, Bahrain. It is also important for us to reflect on the excellent assignments already completed that have been instrumental in strengthening and building our reputation and in this issue we feature the Four Seasons Resort in Dubai. In the context of reputation, Cityscape Global 2017, one of the world’s largest real estate exhibitions, took place in Dubai from 11th -13th September and DSA Architects International were well represented. This expo enables us to meet both existing and new clients and underlines DSA’s leading international status and we were delighted to be joined by our Chairman Clive Shepherd for this high profile event.
Also during September, DSA were honoured to host the DSA Open 2017; a day of golf and entertainment designed to raise funds and awareness for local UAE cancer charities. With ex-Leeds United and Liverpool legend Gary McAllister in attendance, we are delighted to report that a fantastic amount of $25,000 was raised on the day and this will go towards the 2017 ‘Swing Against Cancer’ series total. This event underlines our commitment to supporting worthy causes and there can be none more so than the fight against this dreadful disease. We commissioned a short video to capture the day’s proceedings and invite you to enjoy it at: http://www.dsa-arch.com/dsa-open-2017/ Finally, it is great to see that at DSA Architects we make the time to celebrate our successes. This is important in building morale and team spirit and is also a hard earned reward for our valued staff. Our success is built upon teamwork and on that note, a big thank you to all staff who donated towards the care packages for our colleagues in Sharjah. This is the spirit of community and care that drives our organisation. Thank you. Steve Kelshaw, MD Middle East
Onwards & Upwards Congratulations on 10 years service to: SUJI SUGATHA Senior CAD Technician – Suji Joined on 5th August 2007
Best wishes for a healthy & happy retirement to Carol Norris. Carol Norris joined the practice in September 1999 on a temporary assignment. After two weeks Carol’s ability and bubbly personality convinced the partners to offer her a permanent placement. Carol has been an integral part of DSA Architects, having been the PA to Clive Shepherd and Rob Low for the past 15 years. Carol has always been very family-oriented and now in her retirement she will be spending quality time with her children and grandchildren in the UK, Australia and Zambia. Our sincere thanks go out to Carol for her dedication and contribution to the company during this time. You will be missed.
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DSA Architects International Chairman, Clive Shepherd wishing Carol a happy retirement.
DSA DIGEST | ISSUE 9 | Q3 2017
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NEW PROJECT AWARD Musandam Upscale Hotel, Khasab, Oman The Musandam Hotel Project sees DSA Architects providing the lead design service in the development of land in the Khasab Port Development Masterplan in Northern Oman. The project is an upscale hotel with 215 Keys to be accommodated within a G+3 building with a total BUA of 13,838m2. Also, featuring a roof top Pool & Gym, the main concept of the hotel is to create a modern and efficient destination for leisure, business and families that can respond to the high demand for tourism in this Omani enclave on the Arabian Gulf Peninsular, with the materials specified also inspired by the beautiful surrounding mountain areas.
GOOD HEALTH AT DSA WELLNESS CLINIC
The DSA draw Test your knowledge of DSA Architects International and win a night out on us. 1 The Four Seasons, Dubai at Jumeirah Beach opened in which year? 2 Which Scottish footballing legend attended the DSA Open 2017? 3 In which year was the DSA Middle East office established? 4 When did Suji Sugatha join DSA Architects?
Saudi German Hospital staff ‘Wellness’ checking DSA staff
Working with our partners at Mednet and Generali, DSA were delighted to provide a free ‘Wellness Check-Up’ for our staff during August. The health tests were carried out in the Dubai office by medical staff from the Saudi German Hospital and included checks on body mass index (BMI), blood sugar and blood pressure levels. This was a great opportunity for colleagues to check that their health is in tip-top condition.
5 Which DSA Architects Associate ran the 2017 Comrades Marathon in South Africa?
Prize: USD 250 voucher Email your answers to: jam.jakosalem@dsa-arch.com. The draw for all those answering five questions correctly, will take place at the next DSA Middle East staff meeting.
www.dsa-arch.com
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One to One with ... Pierre Nel Associate, DSA International - Africa Office A passion for architecture, the great outdoors and South Africa exude from Pierre Nel. He is undoubtedly a man on the move and at the vanguard of DSA’s Africa operations. From an early age, Pierre loved buildings and clearly remembers a ‘Standard 9’ school project where he sketched and photographed buildings in his home town. The seeds for a life in architecture were sown and with an artistic mother and mechanically inclined father, perhaps there was no doubt as to Pierre’s future. On graduating from The Technikon Witwatersrand in 2000 with a BTech in Architectural Technology, Pierre made his professional debut with NPN Architects in Johannesburg before joining DSA Architects International in 2004. Thirteen years on, Pierre has seen a lot of change in architectural working practices, from physical drawings in a one-man practice, to 2D Autocad and now the latest 3D design technology. He is a firm believer in ensuring he and his colleagues across DSA Architects International are at the cutting edge of available technology and best practice and Pierre is head of the DSA Revit portfolio and sits on the company’s Technical Committee. It is this international capability and depth of experience, particularly in the hospitality sector, that Pierre believes gives DSA its market leading position and global reputation for excellence. Additionally, this aspect of professional life as an associate of DSA Africa Office has enabled Pierre to travel for projects as far afield as Turkey, Rwanda & Dubai.
When pressed to reveal his most memorable project so far with DSA, Pierre points to his current development for Sun International in Pretoria, Times Square Arena & Casino. This project came to DSA via word of mouth recommendation underlining the company’s standing as an architect of choice. The casino opened in April this year and the arena is due for completion in October 2017. The most satisfying aspect of this project for Pierre is his ability to manage through hands-on site supervision and close liaison with all the consultants involved. The Vision Hotel in Rwanda was another favorite due to his responsibility on the development from 2010 to 2014 and the opportunity to travel.
Pierre’s busy professional life is balanced with an equally busy personal life. He and his wife Charlene have two young children, an eight year old daughter and five year old son and keeping fit in order to keep up with them is both a passion of Pierre’s and a necessity one suspects.
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The running bug has bitten Pierre and clearly not one to engage in things by half, he joined a running club last year and has since completed a marathon in November 2016 in Nelspruit, and impressively the world famous ‘Comrades Marathon’ in June this year, along with 17,000 other runners. This is an 88 km race (or two normal marathon distances) from Durban to Pietermaritzberg. For good measure the first 42km is uphill. Add to this a half marathon in the Kruger National Park in August with armed escorts to keep the animals away and you start to understand Pierre’s drive and stamina. Hiking is a family activity that both Pierre and Charlene enjoy and South Africa is a wonderful place to get away into the wilderness for a few days and the famous 44 km ‘Otter Trail’ in the Western Cape region was their most recent adventure in January this year. Whatever projects Pierre ‘runs’ in the future we wish him every success in completing them on time!
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The DSA OPEN 2017 raises $25,000 in support of ‘SWING AGAINST CANCER’
DSA Managing Director Steve Kelshaw with former Scotland, Leeds United FC and Liverpool FC footballer, Gary McAllister
The DSA Open 2017, held on Thursday 14th September at the iconic Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club, underlines the commitment of DSA Architects in supporting outstanding local community causes. Golf lovers, UAE business leaders and a famous International footballer, Gary McAllister, joined together to help in the fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases by taking part in the DSA OPEN 2017 and supporting the Swing Against Cancer series.
Creek Golf & Yacht Club with the region’s corporate and golfing communities uniting in increasing numbers to raise funds and awareness for local cancer charity, Friends of Cancer Patients, while enjoying a unique day of golf, business networking and enjoyment.
The series, which is open to both amateurs and professionals is run by Worldwide Golf magazine in partnership with Sixteen10 and has gained significant momentum since launching the 2017 series of events at Sharjah Golf Club with the Worldwide Golf Open in April 2017.
As Steve Kelshaw explains, “Cancer is a dreadful disease that has most likely in some way touched most of our lives and the pursuit of a cure and the support of those affected by cancer is a cause that DSA Architects is committed to.”
Since then there have been events at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, The Els Club and Dubai
Watch our DSA OPEN 2017 video at: http://www.dsa-arch.com/dsa-open-2017/
Football legend, Gary McAllister on the 1st tee at the DSA Open 2017
Al Zahia Project Team Lunch After weeks of successful hard work on this prestigious residential project in Sharjah for Majid Al Futtaim Properties, the Al Zahia project team enjoyed lunch at the Hala Organic Restaurant, Dubai World trade Centre on 22nd August. This was thoroughly well-deserved and enjoyed by all.
www.dsa-arch.com
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Reflection of Excellence Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach On behalf of our client HH Developments, DSA Architects were very proud to act as lead consultant and lead architect, in conjunction with WATG California, on this prestigious luxury beach resort property, which opened in November 2014. This project, occupying a prime location on Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach, is positioned as a 5-Star urban resort & spa. The development blends Spanish-Mediterranean architecture with Arabic accents, creating an atmosphere of light and sophisticated luxury, comprising a hotel, food & beverage village and a luxury pearl spa with the complex managed by the world class luxury hotels operator ‘Four Seasons Hotels.’ The hotel building includes a basement, ground level, 6 storeys, and comprises 188 guest rooms and 49 suites with other in-house facilities such as restaurants, banqueting, meeting rooms, hotel retail, business centre, fitness facilities, beach club, recreation centre, water sports pavilion and tennis courts. In 2014 the project won the prestigious South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) International Development Award for design exellence.
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Energy & Water Benchmarking for UAE Hotels As a member of the Emirates Green Building Council and a registered EEP consultant (Energy Efficiency Program), DSA Architects continuously support the EmiratesGBC in achieving their goals in spreading awareness of good sustainability practices and technical solutions. This is a summary of the report prepared by the EmiratesGBC, ‘Energy and Water Benchmarking for UAE Hotels’, which reveals strong potential for significant savings in energy and water use with viable and affordable existing technologies. As an in-depth analysis on the UAE’s hospitality sector vis-à-vis sustainability initiatives, it draws on information gathered from 46 voluntarily participating hotels across the country on their property’s general, physical and operational characteristics as well as annual energy and water consumption data. The report studied energy and water consumption data over a three-year period (2013-2015) for the comprehensive study. An expert panel, including members of EmiratesGBC, evaluated the data, with the key findings of the study showing that UAE hotels have unequal energy and water performance compared relative to global standards, with a high potential for significant savings using viable and affordable existing technologies. This correlates with a recent report that Dubai’s five-star hotels consume up to 225% more energy compared to their counterparts in Europe. The study finds that poor performing hotels consume three times the amount of energy and 7.4 times the water compared to the best performing properties, which is a staggering amount of additional operating cost and lost profit.
More recently constructed hotels were found to benefit from newer technologies and efficient design as well as more stringent legislative codes and regulations, underlining the need for older properties to consider retrofit as a solution to reduce their carbon footprint. Globally, tourism contributes to 5% of the total world carbon dioxide emissions. The United Nations has now declared 2017 as the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.’ The benchmarking exercise and follow-up action by EmiratesGBC is just in time to support the global focus on promoting best green practices in the tourism and hospitality sector. DSA Architects’ extensive experience in Hotel and Hospitality design contribute daily in achieving and exceeding the benchmarks in sustainability, in conjunction with hotel operators who will eventually monitor performance through the years of operation. DSA Architects have recently been involved in several hotel refurbishments, which provide opportunity to upgrade building performance through re-specifying the equipment,materials and components, therefore reducing the carbon footprint. Several of these have achieved high tiers of accreditation through the USBG (LEED), BREEAM and Estidama. For more information on the report go to: http://emiratesgbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EmiratesGBCEnergy-and-Water-Benchmarking-for-UAE-Hotels-2016-Report.pdf
DSA Architects at Cityscape Global 2017 Cityscape Global is recognized as the annual barometer for the real estate industry in emerging markets and is one of the largest and most influential real estate events held globally. The exhibition promotes real estate growth worldwide to an international audience, highlighting iconic architecture, significant developments and unparalleled investment opportunities. This 3-day event ran from 11th - 13th September in the Dubai World Trade Centre and provided an ideal platform to showcase DSA Architects International and to develop new business whilst meeting and strengthening existing client relationships For DSA, the show was very successful with steady footfall and opportunities for new projects aplenty. We noticed particular interest in Saudi Arabia, Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai.
Left to right: Steve Kelshaw, Managing Director; Clive Shepherd, Chairman; Peter Davison, Director
www.dsa-arch.com
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Burj Square Central Residential development, Dubai DSA Architects are delighted to have been appointed as design architect & lead consultant on the exciting Burj Square Central Residential Development in Dubai. The project is located alongside the Dubai Canal within The Burj Square Masterplan, which holds unique aspects from the surrounding context of attractive waterfront and downtown Dubai views with a thriving inner-city connectivity.
The development theme will reflect the context of other high-rise residential towers in Dubai, with modern façade design, linear openings creating multi-aspect views from residential units and a series of terraces and horizontal wrapping elements.
The overall Burj Square development will be a new, vibrant urban environment with a coherent variety of mixed-use, residential, commercial office, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education and community facilities.
The 17-floor residential tower sits on a podium of G+3 levels and 2 basements. The podium integrates parking levels wrapped by Residential and Retail units activating the waterfront side and basement levels accommodating all engineering service supports. The L shape tower wraps around the landscaped podium roof providing
The residential and retail tower location, adjacent to the Dubai Canal Waterfront edge and promenade provides guaranteed views towards the water, but also of the Dubai building skyline and iconic Burj Khalifa tower on the boulevard side.
residents with facility spaces such as a gym, pool deck, kids play ground and lush private gardens.
UAE Year of Giving 2017 As part of the UAE’s ‘Year of Giving 2017’ initiative, DSA were humbled and honoured to share care packages with our brothers at Sajja Labour Camp, Sharjah. DSA staff kindly donated to raise funds to buy the care packages, which included foodstuffs and other essentials to help improve the lives of the men.
DSA Architects International (Middle East) address: tel: fax: mail: web:
Office 204, Convention Tower, Zabeel, Dubai, UAE +971 4 329 2288 +971 4 329 2289 dsa.dubai@dsa-arch.com www.dsa-arch.com @DSAarchitects DSA Architects International @dsaarchitectsintl
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