Read the scope, not the mood board
A fee that covers concept work buys a direction. A full-scope engagement carries the design all the way to a finished home. In Dubai, a luxury villa combines architecture, interior design, permitting and contractor coordination, and the gaps between those stages are where cost and delay appear.
At Ganggaan, a full interior design engagement runs from spatial concept and material palette to complete documentation, FF&E and custom furniture, and on-site supervision through to handover. Use the four parts below as a benchmark for any proposal.
1. Spatial concept and material palette
This is the concept design stage: planning and circulation, how each room is used, and the palette across floors, walls, ceilings, joinery, stone, timber, metals and textiles. Everything later derives from it.
Check that the layout responds to the plot, orientation, daylight and views, and that the palette names real materials rather than adjectives. A palette that cannot be priced becomes an assumption at tender. Sign off the concept in writing before documentation starts, so a late change does not cascade through drawings and orders.
2. Complete detailed design documentation
The approved concept has to become a set a contractor can measure, price and build from: dimensioned plans, reflected ceiling plans, lighting and power layouts, joinery details, finishes schedules, sanitaryware and ironmongery schedules, and a written specification package.
"Complete" carries the weight. Ask for the drawing schedule: what is issued at each stage, who coordinates the structural and MEP consultants, and how revisions are tracked. The documentation is what the contractor prices against, what the supervisor checks against and what the FF&E is scheduled against.
3. FF&E and custom furniture
FF&E covers furniture, fixtures and equipment: everything specified, sourced and installed beyond the fixed building fabric. When the studio that specifies a piece also sources it, the piece arrives matching the drawn dimensions, the palette and the lighting.
Ask who holds each supplier relationship, how shipping, clearance and installation are coordinated, and what happens if a specified item is delayed or discontinued. Locally made joinery and upholstery can be checked in the workshop; imported pieces need early ordering. See FF&E sourcing and custom furniture.
4. On-site supervision through to handover
Supervision runs from contractor prequalification and tender through site attendance, checking the work against the documentation, snagging and handover. Without a supervisor holding the drawings as the benchmark, finishes get substituted, details get simplified and the villa drifts from the design.
Ganggaan is not the building contractor. It prequalifies, tenders and supervises the contractor, so the team protecting the design is not the party building it.
Where permitting fits
Alongside the four parts sits permitting. A design set and a permit set are related but different outputs, and the authority needs drawings prepared by an Architect of Record. When the design studio also acts as Architect of Record, design and authority comments are handled by one team.
Which authority approves your project depends on the community and zone your plot sits in, and it's confirmed from your plot documents. Ask in writing who is named as Architect of Record, who submits, and who answers the comments.
Seven tests for a design proposal
- Scope by stage: deliverables named for each of the four parts, not one design fee line.
- Drawing schedule: how many drawings, in which packages, covering joinery, lighting, finishes and FF&E.
- Permitting: who signs as Architect of Record and who owns each submission.
- FF&E terms: what is specified, sourced and installed, what is excluded, and who carries procurement risk.
- Supervision: attendance, reporting, sample and mock-up approvals, snagging and handover deliverables.
- Exclusions and assumptions: listed, so changes are predictable.
- Fees mapped to stages: so you can see what each stage costs and what you lose by removing one.
Why documentation drives price
Contractors price what they can measure and read. When every bidder receives the same complete set, the bids cover the same scope and can be compared like for like. Gaps are filled differently by each bidder, either as contingency or as assumptions, and both shift cost back to the owner.
Decisions deferred during design reappear on site as variations. So when comparing fees, compare the documentation each fee buys: a lower fee with a thinner drawing set is not the same service.