In a new development that promises to add to Dubai’s reputation for arresting architecture, the US design studio behind MIT’s Metropolitan Warehouse and Australia’s Tarrkarri Centre for First Nations Cultures, is set to bring yet another high rise to the city state’s skyline. This time round, it’s a 100-metre-tall structure that will be known as Islands in the Sky.
Led by Therme Group, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and now approved by Dubai’s ruling royal family, the project is part of the Quality of Life Strategy 2033, that aims to create an urban environment for the future “with well-being at its core”.
In May 2024, Dubai marked a new chapter in its pursuit of enhancing the well-being of its community under His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's visionary leadership with the launch of the Quality of Life Strategy 2033. This ambitious roadmap aims to establish our… pic.twitter.com/tnS3po6ddV
— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) February 4, 2025
A new attraction in Zabeel Park
“Together, we are creating more than a destination,” said Dr Robert Hanea, Founder and CEO, Therme Group. “We are shaping how cities can integrate nature, water, and culture to elevate quality of life at scale. Therme Dubai – Islands in the Sky will stand as a global model for what’s possible when ambition and expertise align.”
The new building will take shape in Zabeel Park, an area opened in 2005 and costing AED 5 (around €1.30) to enter. Described by Visit Dubai as a “technology-driven green space”, the park is the size of 45 football pitches and contains a pedestrian trail and bridges, a jogging track and fitness centre as well as mini-golf, cricket, skating, skateboarding and a BMX track. It is also the venue for the Dubai Frame, a 150m tall and 93m wide structure that offers views both of the historic and modern districts.
A series of stacked botanical islands
It is there that, slated to begin in 2026 and open by 2028, Therme Dubai Islands in the Sky will sit, taking the form of “a series of botanical islands stacked into a tower. Each island is a platform for thermal pools, decks, and verdant indoor and outdoor vegetation; each offers a distinctive atmosphere; and each is oriented toward the dramatic view of the Dubai skyline,” explains Elizabeth Diller, Founding Partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Its guests will be “immersed in unique environments—warm and cool, wet and dry, the intense heat of saunas and steam rooms and the ambient temperature of thermal pools and cool mineral pools,” Diller says. In the evening, music and entertainment will kick in.
“Triple bottom line sustainable”?
Some might question the creation of an “urban oasis in the sky” in a subtropical desert city where rainfall averages 140 – 200 mm a year and summer temperatures can climb to 50°C. But its creators claim the resort will recycle 90% of its thermal pool water and that 80% of the air conditioning required will be provided by clean energy sources.
Responsible tourism expert Harold Goodwin, writing for Travel Tomorrow, has described Therme Group’s work as “triple bottom line sustainable”. The 1.7 million visitors the group hopes to attract in Dubai will have to wait three years until completion in 2028 to try out the “new standard for holistic and daily wellbeing” the group says it can deliver.
