RAW District
Launch film for Imtiaz Developments' mixed-use district in Dubai
A district, not a building
RAW District is Imtiaz Developments‘ mixed-use scheme on Sheikh Zayed Road in Downtown Jebel Ali: four interconnected buildings around a central courtyard, linked to the metro station by a pedestrian bridge, designed by XYZ Designers. Imtiaz calls it “a vertical district rather than a standalone development”; the brochure, “a community for creators, by creators”.
Why is there a RAW District II? The first one sold out on its launch day in June. The second, on the plot next door, followed in July – and sold out too.
The brief, and the stone
The brief asked for something fast, dynamic and full of life, for a younger audience that lives between work, friends and the metro. Péter Kollár, the Lead CG Artist who led the project, started from a single idea.
“We didn’t simply want to show a building,” he says. “We wanted to tell how a community forms, through one recurring visual motif.” The motif was a pebble tower – stones placed one on top of the other, each one making the stack a little taller. “It stands for people connecting, and a community gradually building up.”
“What I especially liked is that we could carry the idea through the whole film with playful visual analogies and creative transitions,” Péter says. “They all rest on the same simple thought: separate pieces come together into something bigger.”
“The client was open to ideas, especially when we presented the two concepts,” says Bence Farkas. “They understood the message almost straight away.”
A client who came prepared
“The project was very smooth from start to finish,” says Mohamed Atef. “The client liked our initial ideas and gave us the freedom to experiment.”
The input was there from day one: a clear brief, strong visual references, and a 3D model with the surrounding buildings, the metro station and every interior – “detailed down to the atom”, in Bence’s words. Several scenes are built on them.
“Feedback was clear and objective,” Mohamed says, “and the original creative vision remained the same until the very end.”
Concrete, one tone darker
A raw building is honest about its materials, and a film of it has to be too. The story never changed; the review rounds changed a few cameras, the time of day in some shots, and the surfaces – the concrete one tone darker, the office glazing warmer, closer to bronze, the interiors a soft silhouette behind the glass. Each move was checked against Imtiaz’s own material references, until the towers read the way their architects meant them to.
The final version earned a line we were happy to read. “It captures the details in the materiality significantly better,” wrote the Lead Architect at Imtiaz. “Congratulations on a job well done!”
The film runs 69 seconds, in 4K. Like the district it shows, it was built one piece at a time.
Project details
Location
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Architecture
Client
Team
Péter Kollár (lead), Mohamed Atef, Bence Farkas
Services
Creative concept, storyboard, 3D architectural animation, editing and sound
Sources: Imtiaz Developments press releases of 22 June 2026 and 27 July 2026; the RAW District and RAW District II pages on imtiaz.ae; the RAW District brochure.