Scale models of property developments reach new heights in UAE

Can the growth in specialist companies making scaled down models of the UAE's developments keep building for the future?

Architectural models can be seen in showroom and shopping malls across the country.

It is impossible to visit one of the UAE's many malls without witnessing a very local phenomenon: dozens of scale-model skylines displayed in glass cases, capturing the Middle East's ongoing obsession with real estate. And many of these models are far from miniature. At October's Cityscape Dubai event, a mock-up of the Nakheel Harbour Tower stood at over 10 metres tall, far larger than the average house.
All examples now come rendered in stunning detail, complete with pedestrians, working streetlamps and car headlights. Some even have the recorded sounds of city life playing in the background. Like the multibillion dirham megaliths they represent, when it comes to the prices of these models - the sky is the limit. As towering skyscrapers and luxurious residences have come to represent the region's growing status in the world, the presence of these intricate installations has grown. Now the Emirates is home to somewhere in the region of 40 real-estate model-making companies - double the number that existed three years ago.
A far cry from the spotless malls and glitzy exhibition centres that will become their homes, many of the models are built on the dusty outskirts of Dubai and Sharjah. From the outside, Euphoria Model Makers does not look like much. There are few signs of life and nothing to distinguish its shed from the hundreds of others in Dubai's Al Qusais industrial area. However, stepping inside the workshop is like entering another world. As the sliding door moves back, the skyline of an insane city emerges. Gleaming towers with swimming pools and parked cars sit alongside hollow grey shells, giving only a suggestion of what they may become.
As the music from the workshop's radio grows louder, reality returns and a team of craftsmen emerge from the landscape. Euphoria, now three years old, has a team of around 15 technicians working to construct models at any one time. With remarkable focus they fit together the thousands of tiny acrylic pieces that make up the structures, all knowing that a millimetre-sized mistake could set their efforts back hours.
"During peak season we can make six to eight average-sized models each month," says Shaiju Joseph, Euphoria's marketing manager. The company's client list includes Abu Dhabi Investment House, ACI Real Estate and Al Duaa Holdings. Among its past projects are Dubai's Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower and Boris Becker Business Tower. "The people working here are very, very skilled. It's more important that they have professional experience than degrees or qualifications. Some of these model makers have 15 years' experience," Joseph says.
Computer modelling is the first stage of the miniature construction process. The model-making company will receive plans from an architect or developer, then set about inputting precise measurements into a computer. After what is often several days of work a digital representation of the building is rendered, using specially dedicated software. The model is then split into segments and sent electronically to a laser-cutting machine, accurate to a fraction of a millimetre, which produces the individual parts for each model. "Everything you see here is either acrylic or a by-product of acrylic. It's a transparent material which is cut up in the machines, then the pieces are assembled by hand," says Joseph.
After 25 years as a model maker, Mario Pineda, from the Philippines, looks every bit the seasoned hand. As he glues together the walls of an upcoming project the expression on his face is one of total focus. "When I was younger I made models for no money. I enjoyed doing it, so I decided to become a model maker," he says. "I was always creative and artistic in school. I like that there is an industry for me here."
Even in the three years since Euphoria began, the standard of models expected by developers has risen. "Initially in the model-making market, it was just necessary to get something to show the buyer, so they could see how the investment would look. Then a lot of companies came in and the standards increased, they started making more realistic models. Now, they all need cars and people," says Joseph.
The fees that model-making companies demand from developers can vary dramatically, however the size, detail, and workshop time of a project are the deciding factors. With a month to construct, a 1.5m-high tower with a surrounding landscape, could cost around Dh90,000. With some of the projects at this year's Cityscape Dubai as large as 10x15m, however, the price tags can stretch towards Dh1 million.
The industry's love of acrylic cannot be underestimated, it is used for almost every part of the construction process. A year ago, Euphoria was approached by High Rise Properties to create a model of its Rotating Residences - a tower with moving sections. During the two month build, the model makers opted to create all of the project's axles, gears and moving parts out of acrylic, leaving only the motor made of metal.
Each model company has its own tricks, Euphoria for example uses bathroom sponges to make miniature bushes. The assemblers cut-up sponges, place them into a grinder, then paint them green. Everything is made in-house using various ingenious techniques. Everything, except for the cars. "We buy them. They are made in China or Korea. We tried making them before, but it takes a lot of time and the quality is better now," says Joseph. "We have SUVs, saloon cars, sports cars, all sizes and all scales. We use LEDs for some of the headlights, but for the smaller ones we use fibre-optic cables."
Only a short distance across the Dubai-Sharjah border, model making takes place on an even larger scale. Whereas Euphoria rarely constructs models on surfaces larger than a four square metres, Art Heir Model Making currently has a 14 sq m project on display in its workshop. It is a model of the Al Farida project, a sprawling residential park, planned for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. As well as a contoured landscape covered in sand and brush, it is dotted with thousands of highly detailed villas. The structure also shows scaled down swimming pools, sports pitches and what will, in reality, be vast public spaces.
Founded in 1965, Art Heir's client list includes Tatweer, Nakheel and Sorouh Real Estate. Also on display in its lobby is one of the original models of the Burj Dubai. The 10m-high Harbour Tower at this year's Cityscape Dubai was built here on a 10x15 metre base. Unlike Euphoria, here even the cars are made in-house. And it doesn't stop there. Putting the finishing touches to a 12cm pleasure boat is Jeel Kalarikal, one of 35 assemblers at the company.
"I have been making models my whole life, my father was a model maker, too, in Kerala," he says. "I helped him make models of buildings and landscapes. I like it when it's finished and you have made something. Sometimes I don't want to let them go, but, unfortunately, it is not possible to keep them forever." When there are no models under construction, the assemblers set about increasing their stocks of miniature trees, pedestrians and anything else that can be used to add perspective to future works.
The company's tree room is a sight to behold. Only large enough for a few people to stand in, all four walls are covered in shelves reaching up to the ceiling. Each shelf is filled with polystyrene blocks, studded with dozens of miniature trees, made from sticks, green paper and copper wire. The palms range from little over 1cm high, to around 12cm. Other varieties are available too, with colours for all the seasons. They sit on the shelves ready to be plucked and painstakingly planted into the next project.
The stock of miniature pedestrians is no less impressive. The workshop's drawers are packed with thousands of little people, decked out in all manner of attire. With rock-steady hands, one of the female assemblers at Art Heir plants a row of miniature acrylic people on to a soft stick for painting. She applies a base coat to all of them, then a more detailed layer. The company also takes the electrical side of model making very seriously. An average tower can contain almost 100m of copper wire. Lighting is often installed in a way that allows different parts of the model to be illuminated separately, so the viewer can see how the property would appear at different times of the day.
"Once we made a miniature roller coaster. Parts of the track lit up in sequence, to show the path of the ride. There was also the sound of screaming passengers," says Sebastian Francis, an electrical specialist at Art Hier, who worked as an appliance technician in his native India. Despite the obvious ambition and talent within the model-making industry, it is powerless against the tide of the world's economic slowdown. Art Heir says that orders are still coming in and that it has yet to lay off any staff, but Euphoria has been less fortunate.
"Ever since the markets began to experience problems, the orders have been going down. Now we are making about one or two models a month - less than half of what we were doing a few months ago, plus the value of the models is less," says Joseph. The firm has made two of its assemblers redundant and put another two on five months' leave. Joseph also says some developers have begun giving model making contracts to warehouses in China.
"Some companies now build the entire models in China, then send them out here because it is more cost effective, but that is probably only about 15-20 per cent of the business," he says. However Joseph is not worried by the trend. He believes that overseas companies will never be able to offer the same quality of customer service that a local firm can. "The problem with having them made in China is that it is hard to travel all that way to check the progress of the model. At any stage of construction the developer in question might have suggestions which they want us to include. They can't do that if they don't get any idea of how it's going.
"However, some companies might need something urgently and Dubai might not have the resources. There are workshops in China that have 300 people working for them, so they can get it done," he says. Despite the industry slowing, staff at the model-making companies are now witnessing the realisation of full-sized versions of many of the miniature towers that they have worked on. For example, currently being built in Dubai Marina, the Infinity Tower was once just a model in the Art Heir workshop.
"It's so interesting when we get to see a model that we made, become real," says Puzant Maxudian, head of graphics at Art Heir. "That is definitely one of my favourite things."