Abu Dhabi tends to want its interiors calmer than its neighbour does, which suits how NYKS works. A common brief is a family villa on a generous plot — in Al Bateen or Khalifa City, or in the island communities of Saadiyat and Yas — with a majlis for receiving guests, rooms for more than one generation and a service wing that has to work as hard as the formal rooms. Large volumes are the gift and the risk: without planning, they read as empty rather than composed.
NYKS is a studio in Jaipur, and we take on an Abu Dhabi villa as a whole; our built work is in Jaipur and Udaipur. The drawings and the craft are made in Jaipur, and the TAMM-classified Abu Dhabi consultant and contractor we bring onto the team submit, permit and build, while we lead the design and inspect on your behalf. Nishtha Kandoi leads the design. Yashvardhan Singh, who runs operations and the studio’s craft networks, plans the sequence and keeps the site disciplined, which matters most on a villa with several buildings and a family still living in it.
AD Middle East featured Sum, Jaipur — a boutique hotel in a 100-year-old manor house. Architecture: Gagan Sharma · Interiors curated by NYKS. Read the feature. Sum is a house for receiving people: arches, niches and objects placed so that a guest is shown something at every turn. That is also the brief of a good majlis, and it makes a hotel in Jaipur closer to an Abu Dhabi family villa than it first appears.
Abu Dhabi runs an hour and a half behind Jaipur, so almost all of the local working day overlaps with the studio’s. Nonstop flights between the two cities take about four hours. Compound work is usually phased across several buildings, with a brief that has to satisfy more than one household, so the sequence and the shared decisions are settled before design begins.
Building work in the emirate is regulated by the Department of Municipalities and Transport through three municipalities: Abu Dhabi City, Al Ain City and Al Dhafra Region. Contracting companies and engineering consultancies must be classified through the TAMM platform, and engineers registered, with their registration cards attached to every construction transaction. Since March 2026 the same classification covers the ADGM zones on Al Reem and Al Maryah islands.
Modifying or renovating a home needs a municipal permit. The municipality and the Abu Dhabi Civil Defence Authority have warned owners against unlicensed alterations, stressing clear escape routes, extinguishers and smoke and heat detectors. In master-planned communities, such as Aldar’s on Yas and Saadiyat, the developer’s no-objection and design guidelines apply as well. NYKS leads the design and specification and stays accountable for the rooms; the classified consultant and contractor on the team submit the drawings, hold the permits and build.
At home in India the studio carries a project through to handover itself; in Abu Dhabi it designs, commissions and inspects — more on how the studio works.
July and August highs average above 40 °C, coastal humidity pushes the felt temperature higher still, and sandstorms can cut visibility to a few metres. From November to March the weather turns mild and life moves outdoors. A villa has to be comfortable in both seasons.
UNESCO lists the majlis — where a community gathers to talk, settle matters, receive condolences and hold wedding receptions — as intangible cultural heritage shared by the UAE and its neighbours. It is also the room where craft earns its place. A hand-carved stone jaali screens a family sitting room or a women’s majlis while letting light and air through. Flat-woven durries sit naturally beside Al Sadu, the Bedouin weaving UNESCO lists for urgent safeguarding; both are geometric, hand-made and meant to be used. Carved stone friezes and hand-forged brass finish the room without adding shine.
Commissioned pieces are made in Jaipur and shipped from Mundra or Nhava Sheva, which have direct services to Khalifa Port; the sea leg takes days, not weeks. Duty follows UAE rules — 5 per cent of CIF value as standard, with preferential rates for qualifying Indian-made furniture under the India–UAE CEPA — and 5 per cent import VAT is added. All of it is planned into the budget.
The licensed members of the team: a contractor and, where the work needs one, an engineering consultant, both classified through TAMM. They submit the drawings, obtain the municipal permit and any developer no-objection, and answer to the inspectors. NYKS leads the design, commissions the craft, coordinates them and inspects on your behalf. Keeping the roles clear protects you: the people who sign for the site are the people licensed to do so, and one studio stays responsible for the finished rooms.
Al Reem and Al Maryah are regulated by ADGM, and since March 2026 engineering firms and contractors there have been classified through the same TAMM system as the mainland. Towers on the island also usually have their own building rules on working hours, deliveries and deposits. We read those rules at survey, before design is fixed, so nothing in the drawings depends on a permission the building will not give.
From the arrival outward. Guests should reach the majlis without passing through family rooms, often by their own door. Seating runs around the walls so everyone faces the room. Coffee and food need a service route that does not cross the guests. Then sound: soft surfaces, rugs and upholstered panels so a full room stays conversational. Lighting is layered so the room works for a morning visit and a wedding evening.
Usually, if the work is phased. We plan the villa as a sequence — a wing or a floor at a time — with dust-sealed boundaries, a separate entrance for workers and the kitchen and service areas kept running. Exterior phases go in the cooler months, partly for comfort and partly because outdoor work stops between 12:30 and 15:00 from mid-June to mid-September. The phase plan is agreed before design is final.
Yes, if the roles are clear. Nonstop flights link Jaipur and Abu Dhabi in about four hours, and Abu Dhabi is only an hour and a half behind the studio, so the working days overlap. Site visits are tied to the moments a photograph cannot judge — first fix, craft installation, handover — and between them we review the contractor’s weekly photographs with you. The advantage is direct access to the workshops making your pieces.