A carved teak mirror hangs between these two artworks, bouncing light around the room, and opening up the space. There’s also an oversized, stylised image of the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara on the wall, which was brought back from Bali by a friend. “It kind of won me over she has tuned into my tastes pretty quickly,” he smiles. His new wife commissioned a painting of the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, and kept it hidden until it was delivered on the morning of her husband’s birthday. Sebbar married last year, and he and his wife are now expecting their first child. The interior of the apartment is seasoned and masculine, with heavy wood furniture and leather, yet the overall mood is brightened with hanging artwork and soft furnishings. A love of jazz is evident, yet what Sebbar has done is take vintage items and give them art status by putting them on display in interesting ways. On observing the trombone, saxophone and trumpet in the apartment, and hearing the soothing jazz from an LP on his turntable, you might make the assumption that this is the home of a musician – Sebbar actually works in hospitality. The apartment’s interior is also an homage to Sebbar’s passions and interests – its vintage pieces act as a three-dimensional scrap book of items sourced from trips behind the former iron curtain, as well as South East Asia and the Americas. Now, these are flourishing, alongside a collection of herbs that includes mint, rosemary, oregano and basil. When Sebbar’s mother came to visit, she noticed that potatoes and beetroots purchased at the supermarket had begun to sprout, so suggested planting them out. Other established pots include specimens of aloe vera, ficus, bougainvillaea, lemon tree, cactus, monkey tree, cycas and wild fig. A large olive tree in a terracotta pot is a recent addition, purchased locally for Dh800. The external terrace effectively doubles the entertainment area of the ground-floor apartment, providing an outdoor room for socialising, as well as an enhanced view. The second area features an ornamental bird cage with two pairs of contrasting lounge chairs and a low table (from The One on Sheikh Zayed Road), creating an informal corner from which to enjoy an after-dinner cigar and reflect on the progress of the garden’s many plants. The first enjoys dappled shade, and is set on a wooden deck that he installed specifically for dining. Sebbar has created two zoned seating areas within his garden. As he waited for company, he added some plants to the areas around his terrace, and also took responsibility for watering the adjoining landscape to help it become established, having observed that it wasn’t receiving much attention. As one of the earliest residents to move in to the development, about 18 months ago, Sebbar found it was almost six months more before he had any neighbours in the buildings surrounding his own. Because it’s on the Abu Dhabi side of the border, it qualifies for the housing allowance awarded for jobs based in the emirate.Įxcited by the prospect of his new home, and wanting to get things done as quickly as possible, Sebbar began buying furniture and plants before his mortgage application had even been completed. The area offers him the best of two cities, being 25 minutes from Dubai Marina and 45 minutes from the centre of Abu Dhabi. Sebbar bought into Aldar’s Al Ghadeer development in July 2014, in one of the first phases of its release. It’s a perspective that can be enjoyed from inside and out – the eye is drawn to the greenery beyond the formal boundaries of the property. The principles that work well in Japanese garden designs and the great estates of Europe are just as successful when scaled down and given a domestic interpretation, as seen at Sebbar’s home, where the illusion of borrowed landscape makes his terrace and the connected living space appear much larger. Consequently, the garden is enhanced and appears larger when blended with the wider vista beyond. Where the created garden or planting is designed to blend with the wider natural landscape beyond its borders, the true extent of a property or estate – where its borders begin and end – becomes less clear. It was later adopted by the great landscapers of Europe, and can be found in the work of the 18th-century English landscape architect Capability Brown. In doing so, he has created a greener backdrop for his community and the illusion of a larger garden for himself.īorrowed landscape is a concept first recorded in East Asian garden design, and was used by both Japanese and Chinese designers it’s mentioned in 17th-century texts on the subject. Reda Sebbar has not only created a charming garden on the expansive terrace of his home in Al Ghadeer Village, Abu Dhabi, but he has also done his neighbours a favour by planting and greening some of the surrounding public realm.
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