The Symphony

Zaha Hadid Architects has spent three decades building a vocabulary of fluid curves and continuous surfaces, forms that read as aerodynamic rather than assembled. The Symphony is that vocabulary applied to a 160-metre, 42-storey tower in MBR City, fronting a crystal lagoon with the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary directly behind it. The flamingo colony that feeds in those protected wetlands is visible from the upper floors. The facade is an illuminated lattice exoskeleton drawn from two traditional Emirati craft traditions: Al Sadu, the Bedouin weaving practice recognised by UNESCO, and Al Talli, the metallic-thread embroidery practiced by Emirati women for centuries. ZHA translated those textile geometries into a structural mesh at building scale, it provides genuine solar shading by day and is lit from within after dark, the building glowing like embroidered metalwork against the sky. This is ZHA's largest residential commission in Dubai, with 290 apartments ranging from 1-bedroom units at AED 1.9 million to full-floor penthouses at AED 20 million. The starting price makes it the most accessible entry point among architecturally significant off-plan towers currently available in the city.