Inaura
A 210-Metre Tower That Doesn't Compete on Height
Inaura brings a new character to Dubai
In Dubai where towers routinely chase superlatives like the tallest or most twisted, Arada’s Inaura Downtown takes the opposite position. Designed by Jacob van Rijs, founding partner and principal architect of MVRDV, the 42-storey mixed-use tower sits in permanent view of the Burj Khalifa and does something few Middle Eastern projects attempt. The luxury hotel and residential tower in Downtown Dubai earns attention through a signature move: the Sky Lounge, a luminous, pearl-like ovoid, nestled in at roughly three-quarters of the Inaura tower’s height, where the floorplates separate to reveal a glowing sphere clearly visible across the city.
ZOA Studio were fortunate enough to produce the official teaser animation for the project’s public launch: a single piece, roughly 30 seconds, delivered to kick-off Arada’s unveiling event in January 2026, attended by over 1,000 guests in Dubai.
The AED 1.7 billion project, covered by Designboom within days of launch, houses 114 branded residences, a 101-room hotel, and a 3,000 m² fitness centre across a programme that vertically transitions from energised street-level activation to quiet, restorative living at the top.
Making it real
Arada came to ZOA Studio with a clear vision and a story arc, but the gap between an idea or storyboard and the final product is the execution. Timing, colouring, dynamics, and visual style is what separates a great animation from a good one, and that’s where our work happens.
The original concept described an eclipse event: something obscure passing in front of a glowing sphere, energy rays radiating across the city, a sudden flip from day to night. The team, including our project lead, lead 3D artist, and VFX artist, had to reverse-engineer a narrative that worked both technically and emotionally, rebuilding camera logic, light behaviour, and scene transitions while preserving the client’s core intent: the aura. That word, aura, was the project’s centre of gravity from the first call. The glowing sphere visible from a distance. Everything else was secondary, and the animation had to reflect that hierarchy. A teaser operates differently than a 60-second film. There is no time for a story, slow reveals, or contextual filler. Every frame carries the message. The team assembled the full Downtown Dubai 3D environment from multiple city models and client-provided assets, including surrounding buildings still under construction. Competing towers were darkened, logos removed, leaving only two lit elements: Inaura and the Burj Khalifa.
Once you recognise the Burj Khalifa, you know exactly where this project sits. That editorial restraint is counterintuitive in a market where most launch films try to show everything. Here, showing less said more.
Two creative concepts
The final teaser animation is built on a single, continuous camera move. The sphere charges, the city falls into darkness, and the building glows. Music shaped the edit’s rhythm from the start, with frame-precise timing driving the relationship between the eclipse moment, the light shift, and the musical beat.
We delivered two creative versions: one with visible energy lines, the other stripped to black with only the sphere and the Burj Khalifa illuminated. Arada chose the minimal version, the one that keeps the focus entirely on the orb, the idea the building is built around.
The production was completed in two weeks with a three-person core team handling modelling, lighting, camera, textures, VFX, and post-production including the final music edit.
For us, Inaura represents what a teaser should do when the architecture already carries a strong concept: let the idea breathe. The building’s design, MVRDV’s decision to embed a functional, glowing volume inside a quiet rectangular frame, already contains the story. The animation’s job was to feel that energy, not explain the concept.
In a market where most architectural animations still default to slow aerial flyovers and generic piano scores, a short single-camera teaser with no voiceover and no text is a bet on visual clarity. It is also a reminder that the best launch films often come from listening, to the architect’s intent, to the developer’s conviction, and to what the building itself is already saying.
Project details
Location
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Partner
Design
Team
Samer Saniour
Róbert Andrékó
Matteo Piccini
Services
Teaser Animation