Designing Stillness on the Sea | 5-Star Single Residence Winner | Nellis Architecture

Miraia was awarded the 5-Star Single Residence at the International Property Awards. For our studio, it was more than recognition. It was a moment of stillness. A reminder of why we design the way we do. Miraia was never just a project. It was a question, an intention, and a place shaped to hold calm in a city that rarely pauses.   At Nellis Architecture, we believe homes should breathe, expand, and restore. Miraia is that belief made physical. A home shaped by rhythm, guided by landscape, and representative of a new generation of residential architecture in the Middle East.  

A New Frontier, A New Intention

  When we first stepped onto the site, there was nothing but sand, sea, and horizon. The island was new, the plot untouched, and the opportunity rare.   “It is twice the size of Palm Jumeirah,” says Ben Rutsaert, Design Lead. “It gave us something Dubai does not offer often, the chance to begin with a blank page. Not just to design a home, but to define the type of life this home could make possible.”   Miraia was never about scale or grand gestures. It was about emotion. About creating a home that felt like a soft exhale the moment you arrived.   As you leave the mainland and drive onto the tree-shaped island, the noise slips away. The air shifts. The pace slows. We wanted the house to extend that transition. A threshold between intensity and calm. “We designed Miraia as a gentle release,” Ben explains. “A home that feels rooted, flowing, natural.”  

Designing the Flow of Water

  At the heart of Miraia is a sunken courtyard, a quiet anchor where water, light and shadow meet. You experience it before you understand it. It creates a sense of internal balance that guides the whole spatial composition.   “From every room, you see something living,” Ben says. “Water, garden, light. That connection was intentional. We did not want it to feel like you were inside a structure. We wanted the architecture to move with you.”   The name Miraia carries this intention. Derived from a Latin root meaning reflection, combined with Aya, a soft, feminine suffix. It describes both the architectural language flowing, layered, curved and the atmosphere it holds.   “It is not a static home,” Ben adds. “It holds rhythm. It invites stillness.”    

A Moment That Changed the Project

  Early concepts explored a minimal approach: a grounded villa with a strong relationship to the landscape. But the turning point arrived the moment the client leaned in wholeheartedly.   “They told us to go all the way,” Ben recalls. “That changed everything. The project shifted from potential to purpose, from villa to architecture.”   The upper levels were expanded without losing intimacy. Circulation became fluid. Rooms opened into one another with quiet confidence. The goal was never to stack form. It was to layer experience. “Once we saw the facade curve come to life, that is when it clicked,” Ben says. “Everything connected. Every level. Every idea.”    

Designed by One Studio, End to End

  What makes Miraia uniquely meaningful is that it was designed entirely in-house by Nellis Architecture: architecture, interiors, landscape, all shaped by the same team.   “There were no handovers,” notes Lee Nellis, Principal, Architect and Founder. “The intent stayed whole from start to finish, and that makes a profound difference.”   Every detail from the material palette to the position of a handrail to the way a terrace opens to the sky comes from a single narrative. Nothing was appended later. Everything was composed from the beginning.   “We did not want a collection of parts,” Ben says. “We wanted a single composition.”  

Recognition, and What Comes Next

  For a young studio, Miraia represents more than an award. It signals a direction. A commitment to homes that feel reflective, calm, and intentional.   “This is not about spectacle,” says Lee Nellis, Principal Architect. “It is about creating work with clarity and care. Miraia shows what happens when trust, thought and precision come together.”   As a 5-Star winner on an international stage, Miraia sets a benchmark for what residential architecture in the region can become. But beyond the award, it affirms something far more important for our studio.   The best homes are not built to impress. They are built to hold life.