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The entrance to Villa Luce at dusk: a double-height marble portal framing a pivoting timber door, with cloud-pruned olives and a black reflecting pool at the threshold.

VillaLuce

A two-volume residence unified by a glazed circulation spine, where book-matched marble, dark walnut and brass detailing carry without a break from the street elevation into every interior space. The entry sequence, a double-height marble portal framing a pivoting timber door, opens directly onto a glass-walled foyer, putting the interior on display before a guest has stepped inside. At the rear, full-height sliding glass dissolves the line between the open-plan living space and the pool terrace, while cantilevered upper volumes provide shade and a floating, sculptural presence above.

Location
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Typology
Single-family residential architecture and interiors
Scale
650 m²
Scope
Architectural designInterior architectureFacade and material specificationArchitectural lightingLandscape coordination
Categories
Architecture · Interiors · Residential
The marble portal seen square on: a recessed reveal lit along its full perimeter, a book-matched black marble blade to one side of the pivoting timber door, and the glazed foyer visible straight through to the interior.

The portal frames the door and the foyer behind it in one opening, so the interior is on display from the street.

Massing

Two rectilinear volumes are split by a transparent glazed core, which sets a solid, void, solid rhythm across the facade and gives the plan a single circulation spine to hang off. The upper volumes cantilever past the ground floor on both elevations, which is what shades the glazing below them and gives the building its floating presence at the top.

The main stair rising through a double-height hall: cantilevered marble treads lit along their nosings, against a full-height book-matched marble wall with fluted metal screens and glazing to the garden opposite.

Recessed linear lighting traces the edges rather than washing the surfaces, so the stone is read by its own figure.

Materiality

The palette shifts deliberately between outside and inside: cool, formal stone on the street elevation, warm timber and stone within. The kitchen is anchored by a monolithic marble waterfall island set against warm oak millwork, a material language that echoes the exterior skin and ties the house together as one gesture rather than a sequence of separately decorated rooms.

The kitchen: a monolithic marble waterfall island with an integrated hob, a walnut dining counter running off its end, and full-height walnut and stone millwork along the wall behind.
The same kitchen and living space seen from the terrace through full-height sliding glass, with an armchair and planted pots in the foreground and the pool to one side.

With the glazing drawn back the terrace and the kitchen share one floor level.

Street to sanctuary

The garden elevation at dusk: stone and timber-clad volumes above full-height glazing, a sunken seating terrace around a fire table, and a lit pool running along the deck.

Pool, lounge and planting are laid out on the same structural grid as the building.

The double-height living hall: a curved sofa on a patterned rug beneath a cascading glass chandelier, with a coffered and cove-lit ceiling above and full-height glazing onto the pool terrace.

Uninterrupted sightlines from the entry through to the pool.