Landscaping & pools in Hudayriyat Island — designed, previewed, built.

Hudayriyat: the first gardens on a new island

Hudayriyat Island is Abu Dhabi's newest major villa address, built around an active, outdoor way of living, and its first villa communities are handing over now. Early owners arrive to a sand plot and a sea view, which is the best possible starting point for a garden: nothing to work around, every level and service placed correctly from the beginning, and the chance to set the standard on a street rather than match it.

The flip side of a new island is that the ground is reclaimed sand with a shallow, saline water table. A pool here is dewatered during construction and engineered for uplift; planting beds need imported soil and drainage; and anything that touches the ground has to be specified for salt. None of this is difficult when it is designed in. All of it is expensive when it is discovered later.

Shade first, then the pool

Hudayriyat plots are exposed. The sea view that sells the villa also means sun and wind with little in the way. The design therefore starts with shade and shelter: where the family will sit in the evening, which direction the breeze comes from, and how to cut the afternoon sun without losing the view. The pool follows, often wide and shallow-terraced so that it is used by everyone rather than swum in by one person, with a plant room placed out of sight and out of the wind.

Lighting near the shoreline is governed by community rules, and planting that frames the view without blocking it is a matter of choosing the right species and heights. We bring the coastal palette and the lighting rules to the first visit so the design is right the first time.

Approvals: Modon community requirements and the municipal permit

Works on Hudayriyat follow the community developer's requirements and no-objection process, after which the Abu Dhabi Municipality building permit applies to the pool and any structure. Shoreline and lighting rules apply near the beach. We prepare both submissions together as part of the project, with drawings and calculations, and attend the inspections. Timelines belong to the community and the municipality, so we do not promise dates for them.

Designing for an active household

The island's whole identity is movement: cycling, running, water sports. Owners here tend to want gardens that support that life rather than gardens to look at from inside. In practice that means an outdoor shower and a rinse point by the gate, storage for boards and bikes that does not look like storage, a pool with a long edge for laps and a shallow end for play, a shaded outdoor kitchen, and surfaces that are cool underfoot in August. Porcelain terraces, light tones, and planting that gives shade in a few seasons are the usual answers.

Because the plots hand over as sand, drainage and levels are designed first, then services, then the pool shell, then everything you see. Done in that order, the garden is finished once. Done in reverse, it is finished twice.

How a Montera project runs here

A designer visits the plot, usually within two days of your call, measures it, checks the orientation and the breeze, and listens. The design is built in 3D and you walk it in VR at full scale during the design stage. A bill of quantities follows, line by line with agreed rates for the defined scope. During the build you see daily photographs and a record of the day's work, from the first dewatering pump to the last light fitting.