The Build Sessions podcast brings you conversations with industry leaders, experts and innovators shaping the future of design, renovation and construction across the UAE and beyond.
Audio Episode 
Featuring Claudia Baliyan, Design Director & Co-Founder of Creating Homes
Claudia shares how she approaches designing and delivering luxury villa renovations — translating a client’s personal story into a concept, curating materials and holding every project to a European finishing standard.
Joakim on why K4 keeps every trade in-house, from joinery to marble, and what it takes to turn a shell into a livable, high-end home without ever handing a project off to a subcontractor.
Joakim Kihlström · K4 Fitout
Founder & CEO, K4 Fitout
Founded K4 in 2020 with a vision to deliver fully integrated design and build, in-house.
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Raji on building DMDC around five in-house divisions, why he still visits every site personally, and what a design-driven, quality-first approach to construction actually looks like in practice.
Raji Daou · DMDC
Founder & Group CEO, DMDC
Leads DMDC with a hands-on approach to quality, precision and team culture.
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Bruno on moving from a New York design studio to founding his own practice in Dubai, and how BG Group folds architecture, interiors, pools and smart-home technology into a single turnkey process.
Bruno Guélaff · BG Group
Design Director & Managing Partner, BG Group
Brings a global perspective to creating seamless, design-led homes in the UAE.
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Murat on developing signature villas on Palm Jumeirah’s Billionaires’ Row, the standard required to compete at the very top of Dubai’s property market, and what changed after Casa Del Sole’s record sale.
Murat Ayyildiz · Alpago Group
Founder & Chairman, Alpago Group
Chairman of Alpago Properties, developing some of Palm Jumeirah’s most exclusive signature villas.
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Ben on the philosophy behind MACS — trust, transparency and understanding a client’s needs before a single drawing is made — and what separates a good fit-out from a forgettable one.
Ben Mackintosh · MACS
Founder & Managing Director, MACS
Founded MACS in 2015 on a philosophy of trust, transparency and understanding every client.
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Ryan on keeping design, construction and maintenance entirely in-house, and why a landscape studio with its own Dubai Municipality-approved engineers can promise more than most.
Ryan Houldershaw · Secret Gardens
Managing Partner, Secret Gardens
Managing Partner at Secret Gardens, personally involved from first design through to final installation.
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MDO’s co-founders on why they cap themselves at eight to ten live projects at a time, and how a shared background across environmental design and project management shapes every garden they build.
Matt & Miguel · MDO Landscape & Pools
Co-Founders, MDO Landscape & Pools
Co-founded MDO to treat landscape and pools as one connected design, not two separate trades.
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Zeid on founding Villa & More as an architect first, and why he sees every villa as a chance to create an experience for the family living in it — not just a building to hand over.
Zeid Maoulawi · Villa & More
Founder & Creative Director, Villa & More
Founded Villa & More in 2014, designing villas as experiences, not just buildings to hand over.
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