Khuan Chew

1 · POSITION

Khuan Chew’s contribution to luxury hospitality lies in the interior world encountered after arrival: colour, surfaces, furniture and the sequence of rooms. Burj Al Arab is the principal anchor, but not the whole practice. KCA’s portfolio also contains resort, urban and restaurant commissions. Read together, they show why the designer of a hotel’s interiors needs a record separate from the architect of its silhouette. [[7]](https://www.jumeirah.com/en/article/stories/dubai/the-story-of-an-icon) [[15]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects)

2 · THE PROFESSIONAL ROLE

KCA identifies Chew as its founder and design principal. This is the role of a commissioned designer and practice leader, not a hotel owner or operator. Her record concerns design decisions and their realisation through a studio. It does not absorb the service delivered by hotel employees, or the work of every specialist involved in a completed building. [[2]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are/our-team)

3 · A MUSICAL BEGINNING

Chew described an early immersion in music, followed by a transition from musical study to interior design. Opera connected sound, performance and stage setting in her account. This gives her own explanation for an interest in interiors that unfold dramatically: a place is encountered through time, movement and changing attention, rather than understood only from a single photograph. [[6]](https://emirateswoman.com/stunned-by-burj-al-arabs-striking-interiors-see-the-design-journey-behind-this-landmark/)

4 · LEARNING ANOTHER DISCIPLINE

Patrick Goff’s profile, originally written in May 2004 and later republished by Hotel Designs, places her design education at the London College of Furniture. The change of discipline matters more here than an unsupported graduation date. The available profile establishes a route into professional design; it does not supply a complete academic record or a verified degree chronology. [[3]](https://hoteldesigns.net/industry-news/kca-international-khuan-chew-interior-designer/)

5 · DALE AND PAT KELLER

Goff’s account records an apprenticeship with Dale and Pat Keller. Both names belong in the story. The period placed Chew inside an established design business before she was known for running her own. Her later professional identity thus emerged through working alongside other designers, with the accumulated experience of an office preceding the responsibility of founding one. [[3]](https://hoteldesigns.net/industry-news/kca-international-khuan-chew-interior-designer/)

6 · THE HICKS YEARS

KCA’s history records her subsequent position as creative director of David Hicks International. Chew later acknowledged Hicks’s influence on her handling of colour and geometry. The connection supplies a specific antecedent for part of her vocabulary. It does not turn Burj Al Arab into a Hicks commission: the later brief, client, team and cultural references were different. [[1]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are) [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/)

7 · A PRACTICE IN LONDON

The history on KCA’s own website dates the foundation of Chew’s London practice to December 1988. Establishing a studio changed the scale of responsibility. Designing an interior was now accompanied by choosing collaborators, coordinating commissions and sustaining a business. A personal approach had to become something that a team could develop and deliver across more than one project. [[1]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are)

8 · TWO FOUNDING YEARS ON ONE WEBSITE

⚑ The same website’s page title says 1989, whereas its history text specifies December 1988. Goff’s earlier account also uses 1988. This entry retains the more precise corporate account but makes the inconsistency visible. No incorporation document was established that would explain the difference as a legal date, a trading date or a later registration. [[1]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are) [[3]](https://hoteldesigns.net/industry-news/kca-international-khuan-chew-interior-designer/)

9 · THE STUDIO IS PART OF THE WORK

The present team page separates design, technical and operational leadership. That structure offers a useful corrective to the habit of making a founder the sole author of a portfolio. A room passes through drawings, technical decisions and delivery processes. A founder’s design direction can be substantial without making the other people who carry it out invisible. [[2]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are/our-team)

10 · THE FIRST DUBAI COMPETITION

In her 2020 interview, Chew recalled an Atkins-organised competition in 1993 and an initial success at Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Burj Al Arab followed through another competition. Her recollection makes the first hotel an important chapter in its own right: the two neighbouring buildings entered the practice through separate decisions, rather than as one undifferentiated commission. [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/)

11 · WHEN THE BURJ COMMISSION BEGAN

⚑ The 2020 account places her involvement at the end of 1996. In a 2024 interview she instead named August 1997 as her appointment. These statements are recorded separately. They might refer to different stages, but the reviewed evidence does not establish that explanation. The master therefore avoids giving one unqualified appointment date or inventing a reconciliation. [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/) [[6]](https://emirateswoman.com/stunned-by-burj-al-arabs-striking-interiors-see-the-design-journey-behind-this-landmark/)

12 · A BUILDING AND ITS INTERIOR AUTHOR

Jumeirah’s design account distinguishes Tom Wright’s architectural work from Chew’s interiors. The distinction is not merely a courtesy credit. The exterior establishes a form in the city; the interior specifies another scale of encounter, where surfaces are near the body and furniture is used. Neither task is adequately described by transferring all credit to the other discipline. [[13]](https://www.jumeirah.com/zh/article/stories/global/in-the-language-of-art)

13 · RESEARCH BEFORE A PALETTE

Chew’s 2020 account describes consulting books and London museums to investigate regional cultural references. Her four-element theme then organised a palette rather than providing an archaeological reconstruction. The significant design step was selection: research became a limited set of relationships that could be carried into rooms, not an attempt to display every reference she had encountered. [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/)

14 · THE ELEMENTS AS AN ORGANISING IDEA

Water, fire, earth and air gave the scheme a framework for contrasting colours and moods. Read as design, the usefulness of that framework lies in variation within a shared premise. One space need not match the next for them to belong to the same interior world. The metaphor is not a claim about the building’s environmental performance. [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/)

15 · COLOUR RATHER THAN A NEUTRAL BACKGROUND

Jumeirah’s account describes saturated colour alongside patterned surfaces and precious finishes. Read spatially, colour becomes part of the room’s structure of attention rather than a final accent on a neutral shell. A strong field can distinguish a surface, announce a transition or set furniture against its background. The interior has a visual organisation beyond the value of its individual objects. [[13]](https://www.jumeirah.com/zh/article/stories/global/in-the-language-of-art)

16 · REFERENCES THAT TRAVELLED

Chew also described Turkish-bath references for the pools and Chinese decorative objects within the Royal Suites. These examples complicate any claim that the interiors reproduced one culturally uniform historical palace. A more precise description is an assembled contemporary environment drawing on several traditions. The reference belongs to the design account; object dating and provenance would require a separate catalogue. [[6]](https://emirateswoman.com/stunned-by-burj-al-arabs-striking-interiors-see-the-design-journey-behind-this-landmark/)

17 · MATERIAL AND LIGHT

The operator’s history records marble and gold-leaf treatments as defining components of the interiors. Their role is not exhausted by quantity or cost. Polished stone, reflective finishes and patterned surfaces change with the angle of light and the movement of the viewer. In this reading, material contributes to the experience of passing through a room as well as to its still image. [[7]](https://www.jumeirah.com/en/article/stories/dubai/the-story-of-an-icon)

18 · THE SUITE WAS A TWO-LEVEL DWELLING

Jumeirah’s published Duplex One Bedroom Suite description separates living and sleeping accommodation by a staircase. It supplies a concrete reminder that the interior was also an arrangement of daily life. The guest did not simply occupy a decorated bedroom: the accommodation placed living, working and sleeping within a sequence of connected spaces. Layout belongs in the design history alongside colour and material. [[14]](https://www.jumeirah.com/id/stay/dubai/burj-al-arab-jumeirah/accommodation/deluxe-marina-suite)

19 · PRIVACY HAS A PLAN

The duplex arrangement introduces an internal threshold between receiving someone and withdrawing to sleep. That is a different kind of luxury decision from selecting a stone or textile. Read as a spatial device, the staircase allows one suite to contain more than one degree of privacy. The interior can therefore be understood through patterns of occupation, not only through its decorative density. [[14]](https://www.jumeirah.com/id/stay/dubai/burj-al-arab-jumeirah/accommodation/deluxe-marina-suite)

20 · A NETWORK OF MAKERS

Chew’s 2024 account describes a compressed fit-out period, extensive overseas sourcing and coordination by fax. It identifies an essential aspect of the work: finding and coordinating makers. A visual concept had to become instructions, orders and installed objects. The material history of the hotel therefore also belongs to the workshops and suppliers behind its surfaces, not only to the drawings produced in London. [[6]](https://emirateswoman.com/stunned-by-burj-al-arabs-striking-interiors-see-the-design-journey-behind-this-landmark/)

21 · THE CONTRACTOR RETAINS ITS NAME

Depa identifies Burj Al Arab among the projects whose interiors it delivered. That provides a separate execution credit beside KCA’s design work. Manufacture, procurement, joinery and installation are not interchangeable with the originating design brief. Keeping the contractor visible makes the account more concrete: an interior was built by an organised delivery team, rather than materialising from a designer’s image. [[8]](https://depa.com/about-us/key-business-units/depa-interiors/)

22 · OPENING DID NOT COMPLETE EVERY KIND OF AUTHORSHIP

Jumeirah dates Burj Al Arab’s opening to 1999. From that point, the installed design became the setting for an operating hotel. Housekeeping, maintenance, restaurants and service practices continued to shape what guests encountered. The opening marks a transition from project to use; it does not make the designer responsible for every later commercial decision or service outcome. [[12]](https://mediahub.jumeirah.com/jumeirah-burj-al-arab-to-undergo-phased-restoration-programme-to-preserve-the-legacy-of-the-icon/?lang=eng)

23 · NOT ONE COMPULSORY STYLE

In her 2008 interview with Haute Living, Chew resisted the idea of a single stylistic hallmark and described a wider range of work. Burj Al Arab’s visibility can obscure that range. A recognisable commission need not become a template; the later projects deserve to be read through their own briefs. Difference, rather than resemblance alone, helps explain the continuity of the practice. [[4]](https://hauteliving.com/2008/09/khuan-chew/3569/)

24 · MADINAT AS ANOTHER BRIEF

KCA’s portfolio includes Mina A’Salam, Al Qasr and Dar Al Masyaf within Madinat Jumeirah. The setting changes the interior problem: these are parts of a connected resort environment, not rooms inside an isolated tower. The hotel interior participates in a larger collection of places. This broadens the Jumeirah connection from one memorable building to a resort with several identities and scales of accommodation. [[15]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects)

25 · AN EVOCATION, NOT AN ANCIENT TOWN RESTORED

DSA’s project record describes the documentation and delivery of Madinat Jumeirah in conjunction with Creative Kingdom. The distinction between new development and inherited fabric is important. A resort can evoke regional building traditions without being a restored historic settlement. Interior references should be read within that commissioned environment, not presented as evidence that guests are occupying an unchanged piece of old Dubai. [[9]](https://www.dsa.design/experience/madinat-jumeirah)

26 · A ROOM WITHIN A LARGER ROUTE

DSA records a resort organised across a substantial site with connecting waterways. Read architecturally, the interiors participate in repeated movement between accommodation and shared places. Arrival is not the only significant transition: returning from a restaurant or moving towards another part of the resort also gives the room a setting. Chew’s work sits within that larger architectural and landscape organisation. [[9]](https://www.dsa.design/experience/madinat-jumeirah)

27 · A COLLABORATOR ON THE RECORD

IDP’s retrospective credits Omar Zaher with project-management work at Madinat while he was with KCA. The account describes design development and implementation rather than a new commission to his later practice. Naming both the individual and the original employment context preserves a useful distinction: a later portfolio can document someone’s earlier contribution without replacing the firm that held the work. [[16]](https://idp-int.com/projects/madinat-jumeirah-dubai/)

28 · RETURNING TO AL QASR

Hospitality Design reported a guestroom refresh by Chew and KCA in January 2019, describing navy, orange and blue patterns, arabesque ceiling treatments and mosaics in the suites. The return documents another intervention in an established house. Continuity here meant reworking an existing identity. It could accommodate changed materials and details without pretending that every original finish had to remain indefinitely. [[17]](https://hospitalitydesign.com/news/jumeirah-al-qas-guestroom-refresh/73502/)

29 · A NEIGHBOURING HOTEL CHANGED TOO

Jumeirah’s October 2018 release described the refurbishment of Jumeirah Beach Hotel and announced its intended reopening later that month. It outlined a changed interior environment but did not assign that work to Chew. Her earlier connection to the hotel is therefore not extended automatically to this later phase. Each intervention needs its own design credit, even when the property name remains familiar. [[18]](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jumeirah-beach-hotel-invites-guests-to-create-20-more-years-of-memories-as-it-reopens-after-a-five-month-refurbishment-886336736.html)

30 · SAADIYAT AND A QUIETER REGISTER

The 2019 identity awards description of Saadiyat Rotana identifies KCA’s design and foregrounds the relationship between the lobby, pool and sea. A limited range of finishes supports several kinds of shared space. This documented scheme offers a different presentation from Burj Al Arab’s saturated interior world: the landscape becomes part of the composition rather than something screened out by it. [[19]](https://identity.ae/id-design-awards-2019-shortlist-hospitality-hotel/)

31 · THE VIEW CAN LEAD

At Saadiyat, restraint can be read as an active choice. The interior holds attention on the pool, landscape and sea rather than competing with them. The contrast is not simply a reduction in ornament. It is another balance between what a room supplies and what lies beyond it. The example makes Chew’s stated interest in stylistic variety visible at the level of a hospitality setting. [[19]](https://identity.ae/id-design-awards-2019-shortlist-hospitality-hotel/) [[4]](https://hauteliving.com/2008/09/khuan-chew/3569/)

32 · A RESTAURANT INSIDE THE RESORT

The project record for Si Ristorante Italiano & Bar in Abu Dhabi credits KCA in collaboration with Depa. A display kitchen and pizza station give food preparation a visible place in the room. Teal booths and high tables provide different positions from which to experience it. Here the interior’s subject is more immediate than a hotel image: it is the relationship between eating, conversation and watching food being made. [[20]](https://www.lovethatdesign.com/project/si-ristorante-italiano-bar-abu-dhabi/)

33 · WATCHING OR WITHDRAWING

The restaurant’s booths sit towards the back of the dining space, while high tables overlook the kitchen. Read as hospitality planning, the arrangements offer a choice between a more contained conversation and proximity to preparation. The designer organises the conditions of the encounter. The restaurant team then supplies its pace, sound and activity, making the interior a working setting rather than an unchanging scene. [[20]](https://www.lovethatdesign.com/project/si-ristorante-italiano-bar-abu-dhabi/)

34 · ADDRESS AND THE MIXED-USE BUILDING

KCA’s account of Address Beach Resort places its interior work within a development containing hotel accommodation, serviced apartments and residences. These are related but different uses. The project extends the studio’s record beyond a stand-alone hotel interior and raises a practical question: how does a shared design identity accommodate people whose stay, access and relationship to the property are not the same? [[21]](https://www.kca-int.com/news/Completion-of-Address-Beach-Resort-Hotel-Spec)

35 · MORE THAN ONE FORM OF STAYING

The mixed-use Address programme brings a short hotel visit and a longer residential occupation under a related identity. Read as a design problem, that demands more than repeating one room at different sizes. Privacy, storage and ordinary domestic routines can have a different weight for someone living in a place. A shared aesthetic has to leave room for different relationships to the building. [[21]](https://www.kca-int.com/news/Completion-of-Address-Beach-Resort-Hotel-Spec)

36 · GUANGZHOU AND ANOTHER CULTURAL REFERENCE

KCA describes Jumeirah Guangzhou through a Tang-dynasty reference and a pair of symmetrical lobby lights made from floral elements. The practice associates the arrangement with enduring love and a flowing river. That is the designer’s symbolic reading of a contemporary installation. The cultural point of departure changes, while the method still works through the combination of composition, crafted object and an account of place. [[22]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects/jumeirah-guangzhou)

37 · A PORTFOLIO YEAR IS NOT AN OPENING CERTIFICATE

The Guangzhou project record carries a 2020 year. That is retained as a date within the practice’s portfolio, not converted into the hotel’s opening date. Design, completion, publication and first guest arrival are different milestones. A People entry can establish the designer’s connection to the house without pretending that one project field settles every stage of its operating history. [[22]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects/jumeirah-guangzhou)

38 · THE MARMARA SEA COMMISSION

KCA’s account of JW Marriott Istanbul Marmara Sea describes collaboration across its London and Dubai teams and a concept linked to surrounding water. The project shows how a recurring reference can produce a different interior. Water here belongs to the setting and atmosphere of an urban waterfront hotel, rather than serving as a reason to reproduce the colours or scale of an earlier Dubai commission. [[23]](https://www.kca-int.com/news/KCA-International-completes-JW-Marriott-Istanbul-Marmara-Sea-Sleeper-Magazine)

39 · AN OPENING ON THE OPERATOR’S RECORD

Marriott announced the opening of JW Marriott Istanbul Marmara Sea on 9 May 2022 and explicitly named KCA as the interior design firm. The announcement therefore connects a design attribution to an operating milestone. It is stronger evidence of an opened hotel than a studio photograph or project teaser, while remaining the operator’s own description of its property. [[10]](https://marriott.pressarea.com/en/news/09052022/jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens-along-turkeys-beautiful-waterfront-oasis)

40 · THE LIGHT FITTING NEEDS ITS OWN CREDIT

Marriott’s opening release names Lasvit in connection with bespoke lighting; a syndicated version on Hospitality Net instead names Chew. Both versions exist. KCA’s interior credit is clear, but the exact division of concept, specialist design and manufacture cannot be reconstructed from those sentences alone. The master preserves the difference rather than silently assigning every lighting object to one person. [[10]](https://marriott.pressarea.com/en/news/09052022/jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens-along-turkeys-beautiful-waterfront-oasis) [[25]](https://www.hospitalitynet.org/announcement/41007988/204-key-jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens)

41 · THE HOTEL BRAND ALSO SUPPLIES A BRIEF

Marriott’s opening account presents the Istanbul interiors alongside gardens, places for quiet reflection and its own wellbeing-oriented brand programme. That introduces another participant in the design equation: an operator has an intended way of receiving guests. The commissioned interior has to work within that programme. KCA’s authorship and the hotel brand’s operating proposition are connected, but remain distinguishable. [[10]](https://marriott.pressarea.com/en/news/09052022/jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens-along-turkeys-beautiful-waterfront-oasis)

42 · THE HOTEL BECAME AN EXHIBITION SUBJECT

KCA includes the Burj Al Arab tourism experience in its portfolio. The later commission changes the audience: a visitor comes to interpret an interior rather than necessarily to inhabit a suite overnight. Read as a design problem, this is a new brief within an existing place. Explaining a hotel’s making and organising a hotel stay are different activities. [[15]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects)

43 · INTERPRETING THE BUILDING

In January 2022, experience director Andy Nicholson described the tour, opened on 15 October 2021, and the involvement of museum consultants Barker Langham. His interview also identified Chew’s participation in new public areas. This is a documented collaboration between interpretation and interior design, not evidence that she created the entire attraction alone. [[11]](https://blooloop.com/brands-ip/in-depth/burj-al-arab/)

44 · A STUDIO THAT LOOKED TOO TIDY

Nicholson recalled that Chew wanted the display representing her studio to look less tidy. She also contributed a jacket associated with her work on the project. The anecdote is his account. Its interest lies in showing design as a working process with personal traces, rather than presenting the finished room as an object without a history of making. [[11]](https://blooloop.com/brands-ip/in-depth/burj-al-arab/)

45 · A METHOD RATHER THAN AN INVENTORY

Across these commissions, a useful editorial thread is the passage from reference to composition and from composition to use. Burj Al Arab organises a vivid interior world; Saadiyat gives the view greater authority; Si Ristorante differentiates ways of dining. The work is not explained by an inventory of costly finishes. Its continuity lies in decisions about how a particular hospitality place should be encountered. [[7]](https://www.jumeirah.com/en/article/stories/dubai/the-story-of-an-icon) [[19]](https://identity.ae/id-design-awards-2019-shortlist-hospitality-hotel/) [[20]](https://www.lovethatdesign.com/project/si-ristorante-italiano-bar-abu-dhabi/)

46 · THE PRESENT PRACTICE HAS SEVERAL AUTHORS

KCA’s current team page names Rakan Jandali as design principal and creative director, Amanda Barrett in creative operations, Ben Bello in technical leadership and Graham Benton in global operations. Their roles make the continuing organisation visible alongside its founder. The list does not establish personal responsibility for every past commission; project-specific credits are still needed before attaching individual names to particular rooms. [[2]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are/our-team)

47 · WHAT THE REPRODUCTION TEST CAN SUPPORT

The portfolio establishes repeated commissions and the application of design work across several hospitality formats. It does not establish a documented chain of outside designers copying a distinct Chew model. Her LHL record is anchored to completed interior authorship, with that evidentiary limit retained. Fame, scale and a long client list do not resolve the separate question of demonstrable influence on named successors. [[15]](https://www.kca-int.com/our-projects)

48 · ENVIRONMENTAL INTENTION AND EVIDENCE

KCA publishes environmental intentions as part of its practice approach. Such statements are not substitutes for project-level material accounts, energy data or certification evidence. The four-element imagery at Burj Al Arab should especially not be mistaken for an environmental assessment. The master discusses design references and documented work; it does not certify a sustainable performance that the reviewed record has not measured. [[24]](https://www.kca-int.com/what-we-do)

49 · A LATER RESTORATION HAS A DIFFERENT AUTHOR

On 15 April 2026, Jumeirah announced a phased Burj Al Arab restoration led by Tristan Auer and planned for approximately eighteen months. The announcement changes the future of the interior record, but does not document a completed result. Chew’s original authorship remains historical fact; Auer’s later appointment remains a separate intervention. Neither credit should be erased to make the house appear to have one designer for all time. [[12]](https://mediahub.jumeirah.com/jumeirah-burj-al-arab-to-undergo-phased-restoration-programme-to-preserve-the-legacy-of-the-icon/?lang=eng)

50 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ The practice’s founding year and Chew’s Burj appointment date are inconsistent across the reviewed accounts. Much of the creative history is retrospective testimony. The Istanbul opening and design reports differ on lighting attribution and room count. Portfolio dates do not reliably establish hotel openings, and current photographs may include later work. Neither complete appointment files nor a project-by-project allocation of individual studio authorship was established. Architectural readings here are interpretations of the documented commissions, not evidence of commercial causation, universally shared guest reactions or named outside imitation. The 2026 restoration is recorded as an announcement, not a completed interior. [[1]](https://www.kca-int.com/who-we-are) [[5]](https://identity.ae/burj-al-arab-designer-khuan-chew-shares-the-story-behind-the-interiors-of-dubais-iconic-landmark/) [[6]](https://emirateswoman.com/stunned-by-burj-al-arabs-striking-interiors-see-the-design-journey-behind-this-landmark/) [[10]](https://marriott.pressarea.com/en/news/09052022/jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens-along-turkeys-beautiful-waterfront-oasis) [[12]](https://mediahub.jumeirah.com/jumeirah-burj-al-arab-to-undergo-phased-restoration-programme-to-preserve-the-legacy-of-the-icon/?lang=eng) [[25]](https://www.hospitalitynet.org/announcement/41007988/204-key-jw-marriott-hotel-istanbul-marmara-sea-opens) [[26]](https://www.sleepermagazine.com/stories/projects/kca-international-completes-jw-marriott-istanbul-marmara-sea/)