Inside Kengo Kuma's first UAE residence: The experiences of Wedyan

A building can give you square footage, but it takes something rarer to give you a journey. At Wedyan - The Canal, Al Ghurair Collection’s debut project and Kengo Kuma’s first residential address in the Middle East, the two are not the same thing, and the difference here is the 'whole point'.

A project that brings over 65,000 sq. ft. of amenities sits inside this tower, and not one square foot of it is treated as an afterthought. At Wedyan, amenities transcend mere features; they are immersive experiences designed to nurture total wellbeing, creativity, and a life that moves easily between privacy and connection. The building unfolds as a vertical narrative, and a fresh perspective reveals itself on each level, from the moment you arrive to the view at the very top.

And this experience comes with a name: The Journey. Six zones, each named for a feature of the natural landscape Kuma drew the entire tower from - valleys, shorelines, caves, mountains. Here’s what it actually feels like to move through it.

The Oasis: Where the City Falls Away

Every great journey needs a threshold - a moment where one world ends and another begins. The Oasis at Wedyan is that arrival sequence, deliberately designed around a shift from the noise of the city into the privacy of home. This is a space to enjoy moments of solitude: a residential access concourse in a thoughtfully planned basement, with convenience and security handled quietly in the background so you don’t have to think about them.

What’s included:

• Private residential arrival

• Personal storage vaults

• Luxury car stacker, set within a climate-controlled gallery built for serious collections

It’s a small detail with an outsized effect. By the time you step out of your car, you’ve already left the city behind.

The Valley: Where the Body Resets

Now that you have entered, it’s time to step into a new horizon. The Valley is Wedyan’s movement floor, built to support vitality and long-term wellbeing.

The idea here is integration - fitness that dwells into your routine. Whether that means a padel match, a sunrise spin class, or 20 quiet minutes of stretching after a long flight, The Valley has a space built for specifics.

Facilities include:

• Padel court

• Cardio and strength training gym

• Spinning studio

• Yoga sanctuary

• Recovery and stretching lounge

• Pilates studio

• Personal training room

• Boxing and conditioning space

This whole floor is intentionally designed around real human movement.

The Shore: Where Families Actually Gather

The energy shifts again. The Shore is built for connection, aquatic amenities, and social spaces. Picture a Friday evening: the kids in the splash pool, a film starting in the cinema enclave, dinner being prepared by a private chef in a commercial-grade kitchen - built specifically to support that kind of hosting, with its own back-of-house access running throughout the building.

Facilities include:

• Outdoor lagoon pool

• Outdoor canal lap pool

• Children’s splash pool

• Clubhouse

• Juice bar

• Kids club

• Golf simulator

• Cinema enclave

• Games lounge

• Social café

• Commercial-grade kitchen, equipped for private chef teams and full event catering

At The Shore, you get the best of both worlds.

The Cave: A Sanctuary Built for Restoration

Deeper into the building, The Cave strips everything back. This is a sanctuary dedicated entirely to wellness and self-care. It is designed as a complete healing journey rather than a single treatment. You move through heat, cold, water, and stillness, in whatever order your body asks for.

Facilities include:

• Treatment and massage rooms

• Beauty studio and salon

• Gentlemen’s grooming room

• Gradual immersion pool

• Open-air bathing pools

• Steam room

• Sauna

• Ice chamber

• Traditional hammam

• Changing facilities

There’s an indoor lagoon running through this level too, with hydrotherapy and a salt room among its features - all of it built with the same stone-finished, cave-like atmosphere that gives the floor its name.

The Mountain: Where the City Finally Comes Into View

At the very top, The Mountain changes register one last time. This is a space for focus, refinement and meaningful conversation - somewhere between a private club and a quiet retreat, with 360-degree views that put the entire city beneath you.

Bring a business guest. Bring your family. Watch the fireworks on New Year’s Eve from a level most residents of Dubai will never set foot on.

Facilities include:

• Cigar lounge

• Meeting suites

• Reading room and library

• Majlis

• Games parlour

• Conference room

• Podcast studio

Designed for modern living, this space lets residents work, host, and focus without ever leaving the building.

The Retreat: A Reimagined Home

With all these experiences flowing in, every residence in the tower becomes a ‘Retreat’, a close knit community of just 149 homes with Kuma’s design language running into daily life.

Beyond the Six Zones, Comes the À La Carte

That’s quite the journey at Wedyan, a full range of on-demand services to make everything feel like a breeze. From in-apartment housekeeping, laundry and deep cleaning to furniture repair, a private butler and concierge for chefs or events, it’s all covered.

Valet and transport support includes drivers, car care, storage and airport transfers, while wellness services offer trainers, in-home massages and grooming.

Technical help handles smart home setup and automation, and special requests take care of wine cellars, terrace landscaping, pet care and more.

A Trophy Asset

Al Ghurair Collection describes Wedyan as a trophy asset, bringing together an exceptional team: Kengo Kuma & Associates for its architecture; Gustafson Porter + Bowman for its landscape; Brewer Smith Brewer Group as lead consultant and structural engineer; and Turner & Townsend for project management - all backed by Al Ghurair’s six-decade legacy. This is the convergence of world-class design, technical rigour, and trusted delivery.

Together, the project’s six zones will unfold as the CEO envisions: a valley coming out of the water, creating striking shadows and establishing a truly one-of-one address. A a community of like-minded residents, connected not only by their financial standing, but also by their appreciation of art and architecture. The location places Wedyan at the heart of the city, on the Business Bay end of Dubai Canal, within what is known as the Billionaires’ Corridor, surrounded by ultra-prime and super-prime developments.

As the team puts it, “Our competitive edge is not one-dimensional. It comes from multiple dimensions, all centred around the experience of the client who comes into Wedyan and says, ‘This is what I’m buying into. I’m buying into passion, architecture and a truly intergenerational asset - a trophy asset, a collectible asset.’”