Bold, eclectic lounge with blue velvet drapes, red seating, marble tables, and assorted modern sculptures, including a large black hand and abstract lamp.
Photography by Natelee Cocks (3); Sebastian Boettcher.

May 26, 2026

Photography: Elizabeth Fazzare

A Two-Tone Palette Defines This Lyrical Restaurant In Dubai

Hot Shots: Verhaal 

social: @verhaalstudio
project: Other, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Like their firm’s name, Verhaal, the Dutch word for story, architects Neydine Bak and Dewald Struwig’s work always builds a narrative. Since the married South African duo founded their practice in Sydney in 2016—and moved it to Dubai in 2022—they’ve been creating hospitality projects with true atmosphere: rich in texture, color, and unexpected details. “We’re interested in designing for feeling rather than just form,” says Bak, who, with Struwig, are the studio’s creative directors.

That philosophy is hugely apparent in Other, a lyrical 3,300-square-foot restaurant in their newly adopted city, for which Verhaal tapped a saturated and surprising two-tone palette: deep blue and lipstick red, a strategy triggered by a 2020 Balenciaga runway that’s also giving Memphis Group. The former shade envelops the room via velvet curtains, plaster walls with a high-relief diamond pattern, and floor tile, where it pairs white. The crimson is reserved for the velvet upholstering custom sofas, the Dedar acrylic on Alessandro Di Prisco’s Talk chairs, and the playful curtain tassels and furniture fringe. “They traditionally don’t sit comfortably together,” Bak says of the colors, “and that discomfort is exactly what gives the project its rhythm.”

  • A man stands beside a seated woman in a patterned chair. Both wear dark clothing and pose in a modern, decorated room with patterned furniture and a rug.
    Dewald Struwig and Neydine Bak. Photography by Sebastian Boettcher.
  • Bold, eclectic lounge with blue velvet drapes, red seating, marble tables, and assorted modern sculptures, including a large black hand and abstract lamp.
    Photography by Natelee Cocks.
  • A modern lounge with blue and white checkered tile flooring, red and blue seating, wooden columns, and bold blue drapery.
    Photography by Natelee Cocks.
  • A blue wall with a patterned texture features a bright yellow relief artwork above a marble-topped table and blue upholstered chairs.
    Photography by Natelee Cocks.
  • A stylish room with blue and red decor, velvet seating, wood accents, modern art pieces, and a mix of playful and sophisticated furnishings.
    Photography by Natelee Cocks.

It’s also what forms what she and Struwig call a “full-bodied canvas” that allows a curated global mix of art and accessories to share the spotlight. Jonathan Adler’s massive acrylic hand, for example, stands beside Jean Royère–inspired lamps, surrounded by wooden columns with carved niches displaying bulbous vases by Denmark’s BIG and Kilo Design. The “surrealist punctuation mark,” Struwig notes, comes from locally grown talent, however: a canary-yellow wall sculpture by Middle Eastern artist Mamali Shafahi that is Other’s crescendo. verhaal.studio

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