Johnson's residential penthouse project in Dubai Marina caught the attention of location scouts for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall.
Johnson's residential penthouse project in Dubai Marina caught the attention of location scouts for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall.

Alfred Johnson's pioneering biomorphic designs



Six years ago, Alfred Johnson decided that it was time to leave the successful Dubai-based design firm that he had worked for since graduating from college and branch out on his own. He was 25, and flat broke. "I had about Dh800 in my pocket. That was it," he says. "But I wanted to do something new."

Johnson set up his own boutique design company, and has since transformed Alfred Johnson into an award-winning interiors brand that focuses on commercial, retail and residential spaces, as well as furniture design. His client list features some of Dubai's largest companies, including Etisalat, Dubai World Central and Nakheel.

His work has been recognised not only locally but at high-profile international award ceremonies such as the 2011 International Design Awards and the 2010 FX Awards in London. Most recently, he received eight nods at the 2011 Arabian Property Awards.

"That was one of the biggest nights of our lives. It's like our version of the Oscars," Johnson beams. "The judging panel is extremely extensive. Crucially, they don't look at the size of the design firm. They award creativity and original thought process, which is so important for us."

When Johnson talks of such achievements, it is with a boundless, boyish enthusiasm, but also an underlying sense of astonishment, as if he himself cannot understand how this has all come about. One gets the sense that there have been a number of "pinch-me" moments over the past few years, and that the 31-year-old designer is still processing them all.

One such moment came early in 2011, Johnson recounts. "The phone rang in the office one day and one of my colleagues said, 'There's someone on the phone who would like to speak to you about James Bond and your penthouse project in the Marina.' I thought it must be some kind of joke. As it turns out, the person on the phone was a location scout for the new James Bond film. Apparently, they were considering using Dubai as one of the main locations for the new film and were looking for an extremely luxurious penthouse where they could film one of Bond's fight sequences. They had come across one of our projects, a penthouse in Marina West, and wanted to meet us.

"As it turns out, they didn't shoot the film in Dubai in the end, but we were still very excited to be considered."

Johnson links his success as a designer to the fact that he was artistically inclined as a child. "If I read something, I could picture it very vividly in my head. I had this real ability to visualise things. And I read a lot. I was in boarding school in India, so apart from reading your Secret Seven, Hardy Boys and Famous Five, there wasn't much else to do."

After school, he moved to Dubai to attend the Edexcel International college and almost immediately began interning for London Design, a Dubai-based firm cofounded by Christian Mintowt-Czyz and Justin Smith. "They were looking for young, creative people so I got a job as an intern. Eventually, I started working there full time. I had all these ideas in my head and I just wanted to get them out," he recalls.

But it was only once he left London Design more than five years later and branched out on his own that he realised that his true passion was biomorphic design, the fluid, nature-inspired design language made famous by the likes of Zaha Hadid and the US architecture firm Asymptote.

"Soon after I quit, I found myself working on a pitch for a boutique hotel. This was one of the first times that I had no one to communicate with and no one to talk to about whether this was right or wrong, or which direction to take based on what would sell. It was the first time I had an opportunity to really speak my mind design-wise.

"So I created this beautiful biomorphic structure. I thought, even if I lose the pitch, I'm going to at least make a statement and get the person on the other side of the table to say: 'Wow, we've never seen anything like that before.' That turned into a founding stone of our brand. We wanted to be financially sound, but it was always our intention to think outside the box. People use that term very lightly, but we genuinely believe in it."

As a result, Johnson has become a pioneer of biomorphic design in the UAE. The nine retail outlets that he has designed for Etisalat have embraced biomorphism to varying degrees, most extensively in the Dubai Mall store, which has earned Johnson many of his awards, including a Honourable Mention at the IDA.

He has also taken biomorphism into the corporate sphere and is now focusing on bringing his unique style to the residential market with the launch of Alfred Johnson Privé, a line of villas that blend Japanese and biomorphic design elements.

Johnson is currently working on an architectural concept for a 700-square-metre villa that will be entirely biomorphic in its design for a young Emirati client. "This is going to be a real statement for us in the residential sector. It is going to be a showcase of what we are capable of," he says.

He is also in the process of designing a large-scale residential project in Baku, Azerbaijan. This includes the architecture and interior design of two twin villas, a pool area and a clubhouse, covering a built-up area of 3,450 square metres.

The final prong to the Alfred Johnson brand is his line of high-end, bespoke furniture, all named after formidable women. Johnson clearly loves every piece. His first real foray into furniture came when he was designing the firm's new studio in Al Quoz. "We wanted a conference table that would be epic. We wanted something with drama and imagination and creativity. That's how Medusa came about."

All hand-moulded fibreglass curves, Medusa is indeed a sight to behold, and can be customised in countless ways. "Medusa turned out to be such a great little design that I thought, let's see what else we can do. So we did Carmine, which is an ultra-luxurious CEO's workstation. Then there was Karoline, the coffee tables in veneer and in veneer and natural stone. Then we did Allegra, which is another dining and coffee table. Then there was Sophia and now there's Cara, a bar that was commissioned by art collectors for a private residence in Burj Khalifa."

While Johnson has yet to design any soft furnishings, this is in the cards, so we can probably look forward to a cool, Johnson-branded biomorphic chair or bar stool sometime soon. In the meantime, he will no doubt find more weird and wonderful ways to expand his eponymous and ever-evolving brand.

"I am more interested in being a creative success than a commercial success," he says. "We never want to be a massive commercial entity. We are very comfortable doing what we do."

For more information, visit www.alfredjohnson.com

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

Results

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m. Winner: Majd Al Megirat, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Ahmed Al Shehhi (trainer)

5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m. Winner: Dassan Da, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi

6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Heba Al Wathba, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle

6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi

7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Ahmed Al Mehairbi

Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Harbour Spirit, Adrie de Vries, Jaber Ramadhan.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Messi at the Copa America

2007 – lost 3-0 to Brazil in the final

2011 – lost to Uruguay on penalties in the quarter-finals

2015 – lost to Chile on penalties in the final

2016 – lost to Chile on penalties in the final

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5

MATCH INFO

Iceland 0 England 1 (Sterling pen 90 1)

Man of the match Kari Arnason (Iceland)

SPECS

Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now

The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

THE APPRENTICE

Director: Ali Abbasi

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong

Rating: 3/5

Prop idols

Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.

Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)

An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.

----

Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)

Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.

----

Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)

Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

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Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

TRAP

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

Rating: 3/5

The biog

Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists. 

Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.

Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic 

if you go

The flights

Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Seoul from Dh3,775 return, including taxes

The package

Ski Safari offers a seven-night ski package to Korea, including five nights at the Dragon Valley Hotel in Yongpyong and two nights at Seoul CenterMark hotel, from £720 (Dh3,488) per person, including transfers, based on two travelling in January

The info

Visit www.gokorea.co.uk

The biog

Marital status: Separated with two young daughters

Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo

Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian

Favourite Motto: Their happiness is your happiness

Goal: For Nefsy to become his legacy long after he is gon

Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics

 

The Penguin

Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz

Creator: Lauren LeFranc

Rating: 4/5

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Where to buy

Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com

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Company%20Profile
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The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now