Interior architecture · Dubai & Istanbul · Est. 2019
Rooms that holdsilence beautifully
An interior architecture studio working between Dubai and Istanbul. Residences, boutique hotels and places in between, designed slowly and built precisely.
Handed over as a bare white shell in Jumeirah Islands. Fourteen weeks later: walnut joinery, layered lighting and a kitchen that finally faces the light.
Scope: full interior architecture, FF&E and site supervision. Budget band AED 480,000.
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Shell · 2024Delivered · 2025
Before, the developer shellAfter, photographed at handover
The approach
No. 03 · five movements, no shortcuts
i.
Listen
Two long conversations before a single line is drawn. How you wake, host, argue, rest. The brief is written from your days, not from references.
ii.
Measure
A full survey of light, sound and sightlines. We record where the sun lands at 7am in January, because that corner becomes the reading chair.
iii.
Compose
Plans, then volumes, then materials, in that order. You see three honest options, never thirty decorative ones.
iv.
Detail
Every junction drawn at full scale. Shadow gaps, skirting returns, the reveal around each door. This is where quiet comes from.
v.
Deliver
Our own site architects supervise weekly, in Dubai and Istanbul. We hand over with a maintenance book and one candle lit.
A short material vocabulary
No. 04 · six words we keep using
i. stone
Travertine
Unfilled, honed, laid in Roman pattern. It ages the way linen does, gracefully.
ii. timber
Smoked walnut
For joinery you touch every day. Oiled, never lacquered, so it darkens with your hands.
iii. metal
Unlacquered brass
Taps, rails and edges that record every year of the room's life in their patina.
iv. wall
Lime plaster
Breathing walls with a soft mineral depth no paint can imitate, tinted on site.
v. textile
Raw linen
Curtains cut generously and left unlined where the light deserves to come through.
vi. light
2700 kelvin
Warm, low and layered. Five small sources beat one bright one, every single time.
Marina Walk, ten minutes from the studioDXB
The studio
Two cities, one tempo
Founded in 2019 by Defne Aksoy and Karim El Sayed, the studio keeps one foot in Alserkal Avenue and the other above a carpenter's workshop in Karaköy. Fourteen people, four languages, one shared library of samples that travels by suitcase.
DubaiAlserkal Avenue, Warehouse 61
IstanbulKemankeş Caddesi 41, Karaköy
Typical engagement5 to 14 months, design to handover
Projects fromAED 350,000, interiors and FF&E
In print
No. 05 · kind lines from kind editors
The rare Gulf studio that designs for Tuesday mornings, not launch parties.The Gulf Review, 2026
Rüya's rooms photograph well and live even better, which is the harder trick.Maison Quarterly, 2025
Their Karaköy café proves restraint can still feel generous.Studio Paper, Istanbul, 2023
They removed more than they added, and the house finally exhaled. Eighteen months in, our favourite room is still the quietest one.
Selin & Omar A. · Villa Sera, Emirates Hills
Start a project
Have a space that deserves more?
Write a few lines about the space and where it stands today. We reply within two working days, usually with three questions of our own.
studio@atelier-ruya.com For briefs, press and collaborations
Alserkal Avenue, Warehouse 61 Studio visits by appointment, Tuesday to Thursday
