Six Senses: rising high in a ‘global lab for smart, sustainable vertical living’

What are the current trends in tall building design in the UAE?

Laura Dianu, Select Group: The appetite for tall buildings in the UAE is not only strong, it’s evolving. Dubai embraced verticality as both a symbol of ambition and a practical response to urban density. We’re now seeing a maturation of that mindset, and the UAE is becoming a global lab for smart, sustainable, meaningful vertical living.

From the city’s perspective, there’s a growing emphasis on vertical urbanism that reduces reliance on transportation and saves time. The regulatory environment is gradually aligning to support this shift, especially when projects demonstrate integration with public transport and district cooling, and minimise infrastructure strain. 

From the market side – especially in the ultra-luxury segment – residents want panoramic vistas, exclusivity, and to live in buildings that reflect their values. For developers like us, the logic of going vertical is rooted in gravity-driven services infrastructure efficiency and market differentiation. Land is finite, views are infinite. Tall buildings unlock premium sky-level experiences.

Six Senses Residences Dubai Marina – designed by Woods Bagot and currently under construction, with completion expected around the end of 2028 – reflects a combination of influences that will shape the design of high-rise buildings in UAE. First, location and connectivity are key; proximity to public transport, pedestrian pathways and cycling infrastructure are shaping how we plan towers, as nodes in a larger urban ecosystem. Sustainability is also non-negotiable; aggressive waste reduction policies and operational water reuse systems are going to be standard.

Wellness is now an architectural imperative, and towers of the future will be vertical retreats. We’re designing for communities that want it all on-site: yoga studios, gyms, cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, biophilic gardens and nutrition programmes. Our Sky Garden on Level 109 and Longevity Clinic are physical manifestations of this ethos. Likewise, community is the heartbeat of all great design going forward. Buildings must foster connection, support mental health, and provide social infrastructure. It's not just about height or skyline presence anymore: it's about elevating quality of life.

In terms of technology, AI-led building management systems, occupant-focused climate control and real-time energy analytics will be expected features, not luxuries. Smart homes integrated with the building ecosystem are both efficient and personalised. Another emerging frontier is air transportation integration. Whether it’s helipads or speculative links like ziplines connecting to destinations like the Palm, mobility technologies haven’t yet become mainstream – but will.

Designing the next generation of towers is about weaving together innovation, resilience, and humanity. That’s the standard we’re setting, and I believe it’s one the region will increasingly embrace.

At 517m, Six Senses will be the world’s tallest residential building. How does it relate to its environment?

Patrick Daly, Woods Bagot: Dubai's an amazing place to do a tall tower in general, but the dense-packed masterplan of Dubai Marina brings specific opportunities for urbanity, or what we would call an urban ecosystem. The preeminence of the Six Senses Tower within the masterplan is established through its height and purity of form, allowing it to reorganise the urban fabric and create a new focal point at the northeastern edge of the Marina. 

The tower accentuates the broader urban significance of the Palm Jumeirah, reinforcing its role as a catalyst for both current and future development in the area. Owing to its height, a significant portion of the tower enjoys direct visual connectivity to the Marina, enabling it to act as a visual anchor along the Marina’s full extent.

Architecturally, the tower is designed as a dual-aspect structure, offering northern views toward the Palm Jumeirah and southern views over the Emirates Golf Club and Emirates Hills. Key residential spaces and balconies are oriented along this north-south axis, maximising premium views. 

In contrast, the east-west orientation is expressed through a sheer, radiused glazed facade, which not only enhances oblique visibility from every interior space toward the principal views but also mitigates privacy concerns by reducing direct sightlines into neighbouring buildings’ orthogonal facades. This softened form also provides measurable structural advantages, most notably in reducing wind loads across the tower's surface. 

At ground level, the tower is situated along a significant urban traffic corridor, demarcating the perimeter of the masterplan. The Six Senses Tower is thus conceived not only as an iconic vertical form but also as a key threshold marker – an anchoring presence.

What were the main design challenges?

Patrick Daly Our scheme supersedes one for a different tower with a different form, whose construction had already begun and halted in 2011, with the core complete up to 15 storeys. We set out to reuse that structure, but double the number of units. 

We worked very closely with the engineers to resolve the form with what I call a biaxial symmetry, which creates a natural kind of timelessness by reducing complexity. That kept paying off in terms of a reduction in structural requirements, and an ability to be much more repetitive in the footprint, maximising efficiency in the planning of apartments and increaing the amount of amenity in the building.

Orienting the building towards the key views also gave us great benefit in terms of wind loads, which are very high in a tower this tall. Work with the structural engineer WSP showed a signficant advantage in the curvature of the facade. We also wanted a primarily glazed facade –

The client insisted on floor-to-ceiling glazing in every room, and I’m glad they did because every resident is going to have spectacular views. Creating a primarily glazed facade that meets our sustainability objectives would have been a real challenge 20 years ago, but the technology continues to evolve. We spoke to the top glass producers and were able to achieve high energy efficiency using glasses that are already in the market.

How have you arranged communal facilities in the tower? Does it reflect a new kind of vertical urbanism in the city?

Priya Mrinal, Woods Bagot: Our vision is to create a holistic vertical retreat that seamlessly integrates luxury, wellness, and sustainability, reflecting the Six Senses brand’s commitment to wellbeing and human connection. Public and communal spaces are distributed across the podium and Level 109, totaling to about 5,690m², each designed to support the residents' physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. These spaces are designed to foster a balanced lifestyle, which we believe is key to the new era of vertical urbanism in Dubai.

Podium levels offer landscaped social spaces, fitness and wellness facilities, all set within a verdant podium deck. These include yoga studios, gyms, IV therapy, cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, Longevity Clinic and so on. On the 109th floor – the Horizon Level – we’ve created a serene retreat with a jacuzzi and the world’s highest residential pool, alongside a yoga deck in landscaped gardens.

In line with Six Senses’ belief that wellness is central to the luxury offer, the design aims to awaken the senses, fostering a deeper connection with nature, community, and self. Biophilic design plays a key role, bringing nature into the heart of urban living. Achieving this in the dense context of Dubai Marina required a clear commitment from the very beginning of the design process. Some highlights include lush green porticos creating a serene welcome, landscaped podiums that combine fitness and social spaces, and the Horizon Level.

We brought some of that programme up into the height of the building, because we needed to open it at two specific locations to ease the wind load. Solving a functional problem created an additional social or aesthetic opportunity.

In terms of architectural expression, how does your approach compare to other towers in the city?

Patrick Daly Every building is unique, with varying degrees of success. Many of Dubai’s iconic towers are defined by their complex articulation – tailored responses to both site and program. For this particular project, however, we recognised early on that its greatest potential lay in a form of timeless simplicity. This approach allowed us to channel our design efforts into amplifying the site’s inherent qualities – its verticality, its urban context, and its capacity to support a sustainable and vibrant lifestyle. By stripping the form to its essence, we were able to invest more deeply in meaningful aspects: sustainable strategies, generous amenities, and a design that embraces the richness of its urban environment.

A lot of recent high-rise buildings in the city have relatively elaborated ‘crowns’. We realised we didn't have to have to play that game; we could do something I would call timeless, and more more driven by functionality and the client's aspirations. 

In many cases the crown of a tower is very tall – perhaps 100m. In ours, the crown is roughly the last 40m and is perforated so the wind can push through, but we were able to bring apartments all the way up to that point. The additional units that we’ve achieved are effectively in the upper parts of the tower, which have the best views and thereby deliver the high values needed to build this tall.

Laura Dianu is head of design at Select Group
Patrick Daly is principal and San Francisco studio chair at Woods Bagot
Priya Mrinal is a principal in the UAE studio of Woods Bagot