Eome Residences

Eome occupies one of the largest plots on the Palm, and the villa is laid out to spend that space rather than subdivide it. Double-height seating runs through the house, so the volume reads from the entrance to the water rather than arriving in one room and stopping.

The design is the work of Paul McClean, with interiors by Alexandra Fedorova and landscaping by Johann Matthysen. What that produces here is restraint: stone, timber and glass held to a small palette, with the sculptural stair and the sea doing the work that ornament usually does.

It is finished and furnished to move into. More than AED 35 million was spent on the furniture alone, from Minotti, B&B Italia and Poliform among others, and it stays with the house. For a buyer who wants the Palm without a two-year fit-out, that is the whole argument.

Six bedroom suites, a cinema and media room, a techno gym, a home office, a chef's kitchen and a double-sided lift. Staff accommodation and a driver's room sit apart from the family areas, which is the detail that separates a villa built for entertaining from one adapted to it.