Konoz ‘Box of Jewels’
Middle East & Africa
View Project
Azizi Venice Boulevard
- Location
- Dubai, UAE
- Client
- Azizi Developments
- Services
- Commercial Strategy, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Wayfinding
- Sector
- Retail
- Size
- 35,000m²
A waterfront destination drawn from Venice.
Azizi Venice Boulevard is a 35,000m2 waterfront lifestyle destination in Dubai, set within the Azizi Venice community alongside a boutique hotel and opera house. Designed from a competition-winning ‘Jewel of Venice’ entry, the scheme combines retail, dining, wellness and entertainment around a performance space on the Crystal Lagoon. The canals of Venice and the shifting reflections of water are carried across façade, interiors and landscape.
At the heart of the scheme, the boulevard pulls back and the water draws in. A stage sits out on the lagoon, framed by amphitheatre seating and tiered terraces stepping up from the water, putting performance and open views at the centre of the experience. A layered metallic façade wraps the three-storey centre, its rippled finish recalling the surface of water. Hexagonal tiles catch and reflect the lagoon as the light changes. A central atrium pulls the levels together: lily-pad forms and cascading water features above, a rainfall of fine metal strands carrying water down to a circular cut-out that opens to the water gardens at basement level.
Retail behind scalloped glass shopfronts occupies the ground and first floors, with a two-level pavilion in the central atrium holding flexible event space and a members-only champagne bar. The second floor holds wellness and entertainment, with cascading terraces overlooking the performance space below. The basement, treated as a second arrival, carries the main vehicular route, a 5,000m2 hypermarket and additional retail, with fluidic soffits and a circular water garden connecting to the ground floor. Beyond the building, the landscape extends the same water language with meandering routes and smaller scaled-replica pavilions providing shade for outdoor dining and pop-up retail.
