Golden opportunity

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Golden Beach will be a gathering point for visitors from Fujairah and Sharjah.

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Burt Hill’s beach resort in Fujairah aims to unite expats and nationals in a search for tranquility.

Some travel to escape life, others to invigorate it and still others travel to simply experience a life they never knew existed. But a truly transformative trip has the power to do all three.

When Burt Hill set out to design an exclusive resort development in Fujairah, UAE, on a coastal site where the Hajar Mountains and Indian Ocean meet, it was not without challenges.

But in the case of Golden Beach Resort, Burt Hill found that the opportunity to create a truly transformative experience far outmatched the cultural challenges of the region.

A resort development differs from other projects because, by its very nature, it is designed to deliver an escape; a ‘world apart'. The design challenges that an architect faces when taking on a resort project are also a world apart from those encountered in more typical projects.

The features of a vacation site that distinguish it as an escape from the real world make the architect's role invaluable-it is the architect's design and vision that ultimately create the inspiring, eye-opening experience for which travellers yearn.

Vision: looking to the past to shape the future

For Golden Beach to deliver a ‘world apart' to its guests, it took a critical analysis of the existing culture, but also, an analysis of the world the way it once was in Fujairah. The first thing the Burt Hill design team examined in shaping the future of the resort was in fact the history of the region. 

The team learned that the most common and oldest profession in an emirate that boasts more than 90km of coastline was, not surprisingly, fishing. But in Fujairah, fishing was historically much more than just business; it was a social foundation that shaped the emirate.

Thus, the Burt Hill vision emerged from studying old fishing villages where a sense of intimacy was created by incorporating narrow alleyways and closely set buildings to bring it down to human scale.

In studying these fishing villages, Burt Hill learned that the density of the buildings and the low building height allowed residents to sense the gradual movement in space from narrow passageways to larger piazzas.

Above all, it inspired a sense of discovery within the space.  This sense of discovery would be a key element in creating a resort that was truly transformational.

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