The Palm Jumeirah villa designed by SAOTA was sold for $82 million, making it the most expensive villa in Dubai to date.
The villa, named Casa Del Sole, is located in Frond G on the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island in Dubai shaped like a palm tree.
The Palm Jumeirah boasts multi-million dollar luxury residences and some of Dubai's top luxury resorts, including the St. Regis and the Waldorf Astoria.
The 17,000-square-foot residence, which has 18 bathrooms and 15 garages, as well as amenities such as a bowling alley and home theater, is still under construction and is expected to be completed by early 2023.
Cape Town-based design studio SAOTA, with projects around the world, has designed luxury residential, commercial, and hospitality projects in 86 countries across six continents.
Referencing South African modernism in an international style, SAOTA's projects take advantage of the beautiful environment of the wilderness and are rooted in the local area through the relationship between architecture and site.
Currently most active in the urban markets of Dubai and Miami, SAOTA began working in Dubai in 2010 and has since been involved in over 80 projects in the city, 13 of which are located on the Palm Jumeirah and 5 on Frond G: a piece of land known as Billionaire's Row.
In projects on many continents, SAOTA has designed buildings for different contexts, locations and climates, with consideration being at the heart of the design ethos.
For Casa Del Sole, SAOTA deliberately deviated from the typical modern style of the palm trees in pursuit of a more sculptural concept.
The design draws inspiration from the ever-changing desert landscape to create an aggressive, striped complex.
It is a cube looking stack of elements with a limited color palette of stone covering the surface, inlaid with bronze, and the interior is seen as an ornament creating a geological stone-like experience.
Dubai's previous real estate record was set in early April through the sale of a $76.2 million villa, also located on the Palm Jumeirah.
Other SAOTA-designed villas have made news for their high prices, including Ocean View Drive in Bantry Bay, Cape Town, which was sold in 2016 for $20.2 million, reportedly making it the most expensive private residence in Africa at the time.
