Bohemian Elegance

So when he moved to Dubai and chanced upon this villa in The Springs development with panoramic views of lakes and gardens, he jumped at the chance. "In any case," he says, "I was tired of elevators."

What lends this particular villa its inordinate charm is the fact that, since it is part of Emaar's original Street of Dreams - the site established to lure Dubai's first wave of real estate buyers, the location is picture perfect. A narrow lane winds its way behind the house, trailing through lush gardens of bougainvillea and a variety of other desert blooms. The lake glistens in the background and, every so often, a large fountain situated in the middle of it comes to life. Not surprisingly, Hisham is pleased with his purchase.

"This is the very first place I viewed. The previous owners had used the villa as a short-term vacation rental and also own several other units in The Springs. They upgraded these units to include pools and opened up the interiors a fair bit. The only problem was that they furnished and decorated the house in an over-the-top, traditional Arabian style, which is not my thing at all. I thought about it long and hard, looked at various other units but came straight back to this one when I realised that what I had found was quite the diamond in the rough. I sealed the deal the very next day. Looking back on my decision, I definitely made the right one. I couldn't be happier with my home, the view of the lake and, of course, my little pool."

After removing every vestige of the Arabia-inspired decor that marked this villa previously, Hisham proceeded to put his own stamp on it. He stuck to the method most connoisseurs of art deem more art-friendly; buying simple pieces of furniture and keeping everything to a basic and mostly neutral colour palette.

"I wanted my collection of art to shine through," he says.

The work that Hisham owns is quite provocative, with pieces by some of the hottest names to emerge from the Levant region: Mohannad Orabi, Moustafa Fathi, Samia Halaby and Safwan Dahoul are a few of the Middle Eastern artists among a host of other illustrious names whose works embellish and add pizzazz to the home. It does help that Hisham is managing partner of Ayyam Gallery, perceived as a premier entity dedicated to Syrian and Middle Eastern art.

The gallery opened its first location in Damascus and was credited with single-handedly igniting and catapulting the prices of Syrian art upwards. In Dubai, Ayyam is fast carving an equally impressive niche, representing a remarkable line-up of artists. However, Hisham is very particular about what is displayed in his home. "It has to evoke some sort of reaction in me. I want to experience that feeling every time I see it. When it comes to art, you just have to wait until something jumps out at you and says ‘take me'. It's like anything you are ultimately attracted to - sometimes you cannot explain what it is you like about it, but you just know you do."

Hisham's living room is very simply executed. The former owners had removed a wall that had previously demarcated the living room from the study. This opened up the space considerably, injecting the much needed light into the area.

A simple off-white leather sofa from Natuzzi sits in the living area overlooking a bright orange slim line cabinet from BoConcept, further augmenting Hisham's design ethos of keeping colours basic with flashes of bright hues injected here and there.

The dining table and chairs, all-white affairs from BoConcept, fit into this bijou space quite easily, while Mohannad Orabi's Self Portrait adds a splash of red on one wall. Artwork dominates the home. Samia Halaby's Fern painting throws a graphic punch on the main wall. Angela Palmer's Double Self Portrait, an outstanding three-dimensional sculpture, sits on the coffee table. Safwan Dahoul's Dream, a highly covetable piece of art, forms an imposing backdrop in the guest room. A hypnotic piece by Patrick Hughes stars in the master bedroom.

Hughes was especially commissioned by Ayyam Gallery to depict the actual space it occupies in Al Quoz. This is one of Hughes' reverspectives - a three-dimensional painting that when viewed from the front, gives the impression of being a painted flat surface that shows a perspective view. However, as the viewer moves ever so slightly, the three-dimensional surface of the painting that supports the perspective view accentuates the depth of the image and accelerates the shifting perspective far more than the human brain would normally allow. This provides a powerful and almost disorienting impression of depth and movement.

Says Hisham, "I think my interest in art was kick-started by my passion for music. I was never really into visual arts that much, although I did enjoy going to the MoMA in New York whenever I got the chance. My love for art has really blossomed over the past two years since I have become a part of the art scene here with Ayyam Gallery. I am really excited about emerging art from this part of the world. It's great to see the depth and range that is coming out now."

Part Syrian, part Austrian, Hisham was born in Libya and raised in Switzerland and the States. He is full of energy and has many passions. With his surf boards and other sporting equipment scattered around the home, there is no getting away from the fact that this is also a sports lover's home.

Then there is the room upstairs. All black and acoustically treated, with an impressive array of high end equipment, this space looks like a proper recording studio. Hisham explains, "I've been producing electronic music for the past ten years. This interest started in New York and I brought the equipment with me when I moved to Dubai. That was actually an important deciding factor when I saw this house. I needed a three-bedroom unit so I could have a master bedroom, a guest room and a third bedroom to convert into a music studio. I actually designed all the furniture in there and had it custom-built by a carpenter when I first moved in. All of the foam on the wall is acoustically treated so the sound doesn't echo and bounce around the room. People think it looks cool. The two seats are Aeron chairs by Herman Miller."

His other big infatuation in Dubai is kite surfing. "I try and make it out to the water as often as I can. If it's a windy day, you can be sure that I am out there. There's nothing quite like that feeling."

How does Hisham cope with so many interests in addition to running an art gallery? "I love my job just as much as I love my myriad hobbies. To me it is not about juggling them all, it is about having a blast doing them," he says.