Dubai: Amidst all the activity round recreating Abu Dhabi's real estate space, it's easy to overlook what's being done with the emirate's many villa-schools.
In many ways, this is a category unique to the emirate where residences have over several years functioned as full-fledged academic institutions with hundreds of students on the rolls.
But Abu Dhabi's authorities say this will soon be a thing of the past. Some of the villa-schools have already been shuttered and the rest are to be phased out.
In a chat with Gulf News, Nathan Hones, general manager at the architectural firm Stride Treglown's Abu Dhabi office, spells out his thoughts on what can be done with the villa-schools once they cease to be an academic setting.
GULF NEWS: How many such villa-schools are we talking about? Do you think a majority of these would be demolished to make way for new constructions?
Nathan Hones: Following the closure of six villa-schools by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) earlier in the year, that leaves approximately 65 villa-schools in Abu Dhabi catering for a current intake of around 40,000 students. These will be closed on a case-by-case basis from now until 2013.
Over their 20-year plus history, their form and function no longer resemble a residential villa. As such, yes, we predict the old villa-schools will be demolished to make way for private residences.
Your firm has proposed an alternative use for these properties. How would that work out?
Our primary goal at this point in time is to work with villa-school owners and qualified education professionals through the Adec school licensing process. We do that by putting together a business plan and school design that meets their profit making requirements, whilst still delivering the required level of education required by the parents and by Adec.
What happens to the old villa-school following the departure of the students is a separate matter which we can address with the land owner at another point in time.
You talk about creating ‘low-cost' properties from these villa-schools. But aren't the majority of such properties located in upscale locations?
Yes, some of them are in prime locations. As a way for villa-school owners to better afford to build a brand new school facility, Adec is working with them on a case-by-case basis to offer alternative plots which are of an appropriate size for the number of students being housed in them.
The downside of this is that any students of a villa-school which is being closed needs to transfer to often a location which is quite a way off the main Abu Dhabi island. Obviously this leaves the land owner with a plot and building in a good location for further re-development.
Wouldn't that create a situation where replacing them with low-cost housing seems more or less improbable?
Like any re-development site, either in a good location or bad, property development fundamentals and feasibility analysis need to be undertaken. Landlords will investigate current demand/supply, return on investment, payback periods, zoning and building functions permissible under UPC's Abu Dhabi 2030 plan and design a structure to suit.
It may be another large residential villa, it may be lower cost housing, it really depends in the landowner and their social and financial preferences.
There seems to be a large gap between with the level of education facility required by Adec for new private schools and the facility the villa-school owners are able to afford. How are you addressing this problem?
This is the biggest issue of all. Adec is — quite rightly — establishing a benchmark for all public and private schools to meet in order to have a consistent minimum level of education in the emirate.
Unfortunately, in order to transfer say 1,000 children from a villa-school to a new purpose built facility to Adec standards means school construction costs are around Dh30-Dh35 million.
Add on top of this new furniture, books and highly qualified teachers and the new school owners have quite an investment cost to find.
To address this issue, we are working with some top education professionals in Abu Dhabi and with Adec to satisfy each side's requirements.
We interrogate the curriculum so that we raise the number of occupied rooms throughout the day from 75 per cent on average to being occupied 90 per cent of the time.
We listen to the teachers, parents and students to provide the sorts of subjects and resources required by the curriculum or by the social norms of the group. Only by listening, working hard on the design and thinking about cost-space utilisation upfront are we able to assist villa-school owners deliver education to their students.
Your firm has taken its time in coming to the region. Has the decision start to pay off?
Stride Treglown was established in 1953 and since that time have grown to be the 15th largest architectural practice in the UK. We always take a long-term view of business strategy.
We are making some very good headway in Abu Dhabi working with some of the largest and most active developers in the region, as well as some of the smaller villa-school clients in Al Ain. Things are moving along well for us here and we are well placed to establish a firm presence here in the next year or two.
Much has been made about the cost of construction having come down appreciably. Is this still the case? I believe there have been instances of steel and cement shortages in recent months.
I've been in the region for six years now, and have witnessed materials prices appreciating in double-digit numbers quite regularly. It is true that like most things over the past two to three years, the cost of materials has come down across the board on reduced demand fundamentals.
However, like all cycles, the movement is not clear cut. Price fluctuations occur regularly and can give one the impression that a major shift in movement might be happening.
The bottomline is to look at the supply and demand chain and ask yourself: "Is there a great demand for steel or concrete?"
I think the answer will give you a better indicator of price pressure than marginal shifts in price.
Quite a few projects are getting revived in Dubai. Is there a concern that meeting project completion timelines may still be a problem for the construction industry?
As an architectural practice, we make sure that if we say we will deliver packages of information to a client by a certain point in time, that we do it. Stride Treglown in the UK have this reputation and we intend to maintain it here in the UAE.
However for a lot of construction companies and developers there is still a confidence and cashflow issue which is at the heart of speedy progress. Will there be further delays, no one can say, but I think most completion dates are being revised on a regular basis to meet the realities of the current market.
For your firm, it is going to be a case of focusing all the energies on the Abu Dhabi market for the moment?
Obviously when entering a new market, one needs a degree of focus. We are focusing our design services on the education and health care sectors, but we also working on some transportation projects in Abu Dhabi and a commercial interior fitout in Dubai.
Likewise, we are targeting our marketing and business development here in Abu Dhabi, but that doesn't mean we are not able to offer our design expertise to clients in other parts of the region should an appropriate opportunity present itself. But for now, I'm pleased to say we're busy enough in Abu Dhabi.
