04, About
Fourteen years
of building briefs.
A Dubai studio uniting elite architectural design, advanced engineering and end-to-end project management. Fourteen years delivering landmark developments for tier-one developers and asset managers across the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and East Africa.
By the numbers
A practice
at scale.
- 0+
Projects delivered
- 0M
Square feet designed
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Countries
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International awards
Origin
Inception
from experience.
Before HAO, founder Manoj H Rathod spent fifteen years leading design at ArchGroup International, heading Indian operations and contributing to landmark buildings across the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Among them: the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, the world’s tallest hotel, and the Emirates Airlines Headquarters.
In 2012 he founded HAO in Dubai with a single conviction, that good architecture is only as good as the lives it serves. The studio has grown around that idea: hospitality and master-planning specialists alongside interior, landscape and product teams, every commission led by a senior architect from brief to handover.
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
A line we’ve carried since 2012.
Timeline
A studio
in motion.
HAO is founded in Dubai
Manoj H Rathod opens the studio in Al Mina Street, Dubai, with a small founding team and a brief for a hospitality landmark in the GCC.
Hospitality and master-planning lines open
The practice formalises into six disciplines, master planning, architecture, interiors, product, landscape and project management, with senior architects leading each.
Empire World breaks ground in Iraq
A twelve-tower master plan around a central public plaza, the studio’s largest residential community to date.
Tonino Lamborghini Residences in design
Twin residential towers in Dubai folding the Lamborghini design DNA into every facade ribbon and balcony detail.
Fourteen years, 21M sq ft built
Across the GCC, the Indian subcontinent and East Africa, with the practice now spanning seven countries.
Paradise Hills masterplan on site
A new villa community within Dubai Golf City, tree-lined avenues, courtyards and a quieter green edge to the city.
One studio. Five disciplines. Seven countries. One hundred and fifty briefs delivered.
Leadership
The people
behind the brief.
Founder · Principal Architect
Manoj H Rathod
Twenty-nine years in practice. Led design at ArchGroup International for fifteen years, contributing to the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai and Emirates HQ, before opening HAO in 2012. Continues to lead every commission from brief to handover, the studio’s technical and aesthetic compass.
Ketan Khorasia
Senior Architect · Delivery
Leads the delivery side of the practice, technical detailing, contractor coordination and on-site supervision across the GCC.
Shantanu Vaidya
Senior Architect · Hospitality
Heads the hospitality and master-planning desk, resort programming, villa clustering and the studio’s work across East Africa and the Indian Ocean.
A studio of architects, not a delivery line.
HAO is principal-led by design. Every brief is touched by Manoj and one of the two senior architects from sketch to handover, there is no junior-and-supervise pattern, no white-label delivery line. The day starts with a desk crit at the founding table and ends with a site WhatsApp from whoever is closest to the rebar.
The culture is technical, plain-spoken and slow. We hire architects who’ve already shipped a building, not portfolio talent. Quiet days are when the best work happens.
Every brief we accept is asked the same question, will the people who live, work, or gather here be measurably better off?
Studio mantra
Philosophy
A goal
without a plan
is just a wish.
“Design lacks purpose if it doesn’t improve the quality of life for its inhabitants. The goal is to simplify complex issues through elegant solutions.”
Every brief we accept is asked the same question: will the people who live, work, or gather here be measurably better off because of what we draw? When the answer is yes, we draw. When it isn’t, we re-write the brief.