One Za’abeel is a landmark mixed use development located at the gateway to Dubai’s central business district, designed by Nikken Sekkei. LIMAH was appointed by Nikken Sekkei to provide Wayfinding and Signage Design and Supervision services. Commissioned in 2020, and later opened in 2024, the project brings together offices, luxury residences, hotels, and retail within a vertically connected urban destination defined by The Link, a 230 metre cantilevered structure connecting the two towers.
LIMAH developed a comprehensive signage and wayfinding strategy for One Za’abeel, responding to the complexity of an iconic and vertically layered destination. The approach focused on shaping a seamless interface between architecture, movement, and user experience, creating clear navigation across multiple arrival points, vertical transitions, mixed use programmes, and elevated public spaces while strengthening the identity of the development.
STRATEGIC DRIVERS
- Landmark and Urban Context: One Za’abeel stands as a defining landmark at the threshold of Dubai’s central business district, requiring a wayfinding approach that responds to its civic presence, architectural ambition, and role as a major mixed use destination within the city.
- Mixed Use Interface: The strategy was shaped around the interaction of diverse user groups across offices, residences, hotels, retail, and public destinations, ensuring that each journey is clearly understood while maintaining a unified spatial language across the development.
- Architecture as Navigation: The design approach treated the architecture itself as a key navigational framework, using the strength of the towers, podium, and The Link to inform how signage integrates into the environment and supports intuitive movement through complex vertical conditions
