Festival Plaza mall in Jebel Ali will soon be home to Dubai’s largest IKEA store when doors open at the centre in July this year. Owned by the Al-Futtaim group, Festival Plaza will be home to multiple big names such as ACE Hardware, M&S and Lulu Hypermarket plus a further 120 stores.
The new IKEA store, the second in the UAE, will be over 30,000m sq with an added focus on sustainability and an international training centre for IKEA employees. The new store will ‘embrace digital integration and allow for a more intuitive shopping experience for its customers”.
Leonard Design were responsible for the design of the concept masterplan stage of the Festival Plaza project. The key driver of the project was to design Festival Plaza such that external features e.g terrace/pocket gardens could be brought into the internal space, whilst connected by large openings to allow free passage from inside to the outside. The environmental design was required to minimise the amount of air-conditioned area.
Timothy Earnest, group director of Al-Futtaim Malls, said: “Festival Plaza is built around its customers’ needs, which were identified through extensive research; so, this truly is a mall that directly addresses customer demand. The convenience of its location gives it a distinct advantage as well as providing customers with access to anything they may need in their everyday lives. With this destination, we are bringing to life the Festival City brand of celebration, but in a lively and convenient way that appeals to the community that surrounds it.”
Take a look at our project page to see the concept masterplan information and CGI’s. Following the completion of the concept design Brewer Smith Brewer Group continued the design process through to completion. Visit the official Festival Plaza Mall for more info here.
