The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago created using land reclamation and is in the shape of a palm tree. It consists of a trunk, a crown with 17 fronds, and a surrounding crescent island that forms an 11 kilometres long breakwater. The island is 5 by 5 kilometres and the crown is connected to the mainland by a 300-metre bridge and the crescent is connected to the top of the palm by a subsea tunnel. The island doubled the length of the Dubai coastline.
The proposed Robinson Club and Iberotel occupy neighbouring plots on the outer crescent, each having beach access to the inner lagoon. We were commisioned to prepare landscape designs for both plots yet create for each an individual character in keeping with the very different architectural styles of the buildings.
The Robinson Club building had the form of an arabian fort, rectangular in form with corner towers. The landscape design is very formal with an inner paved courtyard planted with over 70 mature date palms reminiscent of the palm groves of the region. The remaining exterior parks rely also on heavy planting of mature trees at a scale in keeping with the size of the building. Within this oasis are located all required facilities for a club of this standard,
The Iberotel architectural design is totally different and the landscape design reflects this. It is less formal and centres around a central axis between the reception and the beach facilities. Again the scale of the design is in keeping with the size of the building and uses a wide range of mature, exotic specimen trees and shrubs.