You can tell a lot about where a city is headed by the changes being wrought on its skyline. Dubai’s rapid rise and increased affluence is reflected in its built environment, composed of glass-clad towers and grand, palatial villas. Yet as more people put down roots in the Gulf city there is a growing market for a different style of development, which is human-scale and decidedly more grounded.

ARM Holding is one developer betting on such blueprints. The firm is redefining the housing stock of a city that has pitched itself to the world as offering luxury residences. When Monocle meets ARM’s CEO, Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, at the firm’s H Residence project in the Al Safa neighbourhood, the Emirati entrepreneur tells us how the city’s architectural and lifestyle habits are changing.

“Dubai is maturing,” says Al Shehhi, adjusting his ghutra headdress, as we look out over verdant lawns from a panoramic window at H Residence. “People want more intimate day-to-day experiences and a greater sense of community.” These are the pillars that have made H Residence and its sister development, The Fold in Jumeirah, sought-after addresses in the city. In May, Al Shehhi upped his game: ARM signed an agreement with renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to create a vast megaproject in Dubai that could rewrite the rules of property development in the desert. “Together we want to build environments, not buildings,” says Al Shehhi.

The formula for ARM’s properties is simple: low-rise developments with crisp lines and natural materials, typically mixed-use with retail and dining positioned around pleasantly landscaped public spaces. In Dubai, this feels novel. When Monocle visits H Residence, the development’s Cipriani Dolci restaurant has a healthy crowd on the terrace, and there’s a mid-morning bustle at nearby Café Kitsuné. An enviable collection of art is scattered around the properties. All this creates a lived-in atmosphere – “village-like” is how Al Shehhi describes it.

“When a developer comes to you willingly sacrificing valuable floorspace for landscaping and public areas, it really means something,” says architect Tariq Khayyat, whose eponymous firm was commissioned to create ARM’s first two residential projects.

Al Shehhi admits that his vision was partly inspired by the clutch of pre-2000 bungalows dotted around the older parts of Dubai. Some of these houses are showing their age (many were built for oil workers) but they remain highly sought-after by UAE residents, yet are in dwindling supply.

The CEO has seen first-hand how the sands have shifted in the UAE’s market. After a stint at the helm of the Dubai Design District, he is currently secretary-general of UAE Media Council and runs the Emirates Racing Authority, which oversees the horse races that are deeply entwined with Emirati culture. This has put him in the room with both the city’s leadership and its creatives.

“When I started Huna, one of ARM’s premium property brands, in 2020, I looked at what real estate lacked in this city: greenery and community stood out,” says Al Shehhi. The UAE is no stranger to big name architects – both Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid’s glassy works dot the skyline – but Ingels was yet to make his mark. ARM Holding’s eagerness for green, public spaces caught the attention of the architect and his Copenhagen-based firm.

We’re told that the new, as yet unnamed megaproject will be on Hessa Street and feature residential units as well as retail, cafés, restaurants, art installations and more. The overall scale of the project is yet to be revealed but Al Shehhi’s team hint at multiple neighbourhoods that will occupy a sizeable footprint beside the Jebel Ali Racecourse. ARM has proven that it can build greener spaces with a sense of community, “but for our megaproject we want to be even more generous,” says Al Shehhi. The renders of the project reveal a terraformed plot, where rooftops are blanketed in greenery and apartments peek out from the treeline. All this is set inside a 5 sq km parkland that, according to the CEO, will be larger than London’s Hyde Park.

“I believe that for Emiratis and those who call the UAE home, living in a park is true luxury,” says Al Shehhi. “While pockets of this park remain private for residents, this is a gift for the wider community.” In a desert, this is a bold piece of urban planning. One may wonder at the environmental cost of keeping all those lawns looking sprightly. But the CEO is reassured by the principles of sustainability that have defined Ingels’ work to date, citing the carbon-zero credentials of Google’s new HQ in California.

There’s no doubt that it is a monumental urban intervention. “Bjarke’s designs so often feel utopian but, once delivered, they’re pragmatic and practical,” says Al Shehhi. “We’re both future-focused and we’ll judge its success 30 to 40 years down the line.” He adds that improving the health of residents and getting people moving in this car-centric city is a key part of the mission. “Any essential services will be within a 10-minute walk and cycle lanes will connect its neighbourhoods.”

ARM’s first developments were much smaller but this megaproject has the potential to redraw the city’s map. Many starry-eyed architects have worked in the Gulf’s fast-growing cities over the past few decades, often gazing upwards. Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, looms over the metropolis but even its shadow fails to shelter Dubaians from the sun’s rays. This vast residential development will change that – inviting all to bask in its natural shade, enjoy a cooling lake and native flora. As the city continues to attract and keep residents for the long-term, blue-sky thinking doesn’t look so fresh any more.