shell+core: Designing From the Inside Out in Abu Dhabi
people • designers
shell+core is an Abu Dhabi–based interior architecture practice founded by Jade and Ghalia, shaped by friendship, shared curiosity, and an instinct for thoughtful design. Since 2018, the studio has grown organically through small collaborations and word of mouth, evolving into a practice grounded in human experience and a sensitivity to place.
With backgrounds spanning design, engineering, and urban planning, they approach each project as a layered composition - balancing structure and emotion through material honesty, quiet atmosphere, and spaces designed from the inside out. In this conversation, they reflect on storytelling, materiality, and the thinking behind shell+core’s evolving practice.
Words: designeers
February 2026
WEBSITE: shell-core.com
INSTAGRAM: @shellandcore.uae
DESIGNEERS
shell+core is a name that evokes structure, essence, and space. What’s the story behind it, and what does it represent to you today?
Shell+core
The name shell+core reflects how we think about interior architecture and spatial design, not as surface or style, but as layers. The shell is the structure: the envelope, the architectural framework of a space. The core is what gives it meaning, the rituals, atmosphere, and the way people actually live, work, and move within it.
As an Abu Dhabi–based interior architecture studio, this way of thinking still guides our practice. Our work begins by understanding what is essential - culturally, emotionally, and spatially - and building outward from that foundation. We are less interested in decoration and more focused on intention, context, and creating spaces that feel rooted and enduring.
DESIGNEERS
How did you meet, and how did your creative synergy come to life? What led you to start a studio together?
Shell+core
We met at school, but starting the studio was less a formal decision and more a natural evolution. At the time, we were both working independently in design and architecture, and we decided to collaborate on a project simply out of curiosity.
We quickly realised how aligned our instincts were - groundedness, curiosity, and a deep respect for context in both residential and commercial design. From there, shell+core grew organically through shared projects and conversations rather than a strict business plan.
Even today, our interior architecture practice in Abu Dhabi still feels like that - a dialogue first, a studio second.
DESIGNEERS
Your philosophy, “seeing things differently, from the inside out”, invites a new way of experiencing space. How does it translate into your projects?
Shell+core
We always begin with how a space is experienced, not how it’s photographed. Designing from the inside out means understanding movement, light, pause, and use before form.
Whether we are working on residential interiors or commercial spaces in Abu Dhabi, the starting point is the human journey - how someone enters, sits, waits, gathers, or returns. The architecture emerges from that narrative rather than dictating it.
There is no fixed formula in interior architecture. This approach encourages us to question conventions and allow each project to evolve from lived experience rather than visual trends.
DESIGNEERS
Your environments speak a raw, tactile language — full of textures and quiet atmospheres. How do you build the dialogue between materiality, function, and perception?
Shell+core
Materiality is never purely aesthetic. In our interior design projects, we consider how materials age, how they respond to natural and artificial light, and how they are touched and used over time. Texture creates intimacy; function gives it integrity.
Concrete can feel grounding, wood can soften a space, and metal can introduce tension. When proportion, light, and material are aligned, nothing feels excessive and nothing feels missing.
To us, timelessness in design is achieved when a space can be returned to again and again - and still feel relevant.
DESIGNEERS
From the brutalist café OTAKU to the minimal elegance of Wake n Bake, how do you adapt your design language to different contexts and identities?
Shell+core
We don’t think in terms of a signature style. Each project - whether hospitality, retail, or cultural - asks for its own language. OTAKU required boldness and volume; Wake n’ Bake called for calm and clarity shaped around ritual. ETHR Clubhaus was driven by identity and scalability within a commercial framework.
What remains consistent in our interior architecture practice is the process: listening closely to the brief, the location, and the people behind the project. The visual language may shift, but the intention remains rooted in context and human experience.
“The projects that feel most alive to me are those that challenge me, surprise me, and push me beyond my expectations. I’m drawn to opportunities where the process itself is an exploration.”
Shell+core
DESIGNEERS
What role does storytelling play in your creative process? Where does the concept usually begin—with a mental image, a material, or a narrative?
Shell+core
Storytelling sits at the centre of our interior architecture practice. Every project carries a narrative - sometimes explicit, sometimes almost invisible. It might begin with a memory, a reference, a material, or simply a feeling tied to the site.
Once the story becomes clear, the design decisions follow naturally. It informs proportion, light, circulation, and even what we choose to remove. Whether working on residential or hospitality interiors in Abu Dhabi, we are constantly editing to serve that narrative, aiming for spaces that feel cohesive, intentional, and deeply grounded.
DESIGNEERS
Are there people or studios you often collaborate with? What makes someone a meaningful design ally to you?
Shell+core
We don’t maintain a fixed list of collaborators - alignment matters more than familiarity. We’re drawn to craftsmen, consultants, suppliers, and clients who care deeply about process and understand that thoughtful interior design requires time, trust, and restraint.
A meaningful design ally is someone who challenges us with curiosity rather than ego. The most rewarding collaborations happen when everyone involved is willing to question assumptions, explore alternatives, and allow a project to evolve rather than simply execute a brief. That shared intention is what ultimately strengthens the architecture.
DESIGNEERS
Is there a space in the world or in your memory that left you speechless? And why?
Shell+core
It’s rarely the iconic spaces that stay with us. It’s the quieter ones - old houses, courtyards, places shaped slowly by time rather than spectacle.
What lingers are moments where light, material, and silence coexist effortlessly - where nothing feels overdesigned, yet everything feels considered. Spaces that are human in scale, quietly confident, and easy to return to.
Those are the environments we aspire to create: interiors that continue to resonate long after you’ve left them.
DESIGNEERS
Is there a material, texture, or form that keeps resurfacing in your projects?
Shell+core
We’re consistently drawn to raw, honest materials - concrete, plaster, wood, cork, and stone. In our interior architecture projects, these materials allow a space to feel grounded and elemental.
We favour thickness, depth, and weight over polish. Materials that age gracefully, that carry marks of use, and that gain character over time. For us, materiality is never decorative — it’s structural, atmospheric, and experiential.
DESIGNEERS
A book that shaped the way you design or the way you see the world?
Shell+core
In Praise of Shadows is one that resonates deeply with us. It speaks about beauty living in nuance, shadow, and imperfection. More than anything, it reinforced our belief that atmosphere matters more than spectacle - and that subtlety can be incredibly powerful in interior design and architecture.
DESIGNEERS
Who is your design hero? Someone who continues to inspire your path today.
Shell+core
Lina Ghotmeh continues to influence us through her sensitivity to place, memory, and craft. We’re also inspired by Studio KO, Nendo, and Kengo Kuma - practices that approach form and material with restraint and clarity.
Their work reminds us that architecture does not need to be loud to be impactful. It can be quiet, thoughtful, and deeply resonant.
DESIGNEERS
Which design hotel completely seduced you, and what did it get so right?
Shell+core
Amangiri is a powerful example of hospitality design done with restraint. The architecture does not compete with its desert surroundings - it dissolves into them.
What stands out is the spatial translation of context: everything feels intentional, calm, and timeless. It is not simply a hotel as an object, but an immersive architectural experience shaped by landscape, light, and material.
From their Abu Dhabi studio, shell+core approaches interior architecture as an evolving dialogue between structure and human experience. Rooted in context and shaped by material honesty, their work resists spectacle in favour of intention.
Whether designing hospitality spaces or intimate interiors, Jade and Ghalia return to the same principle: build from the inside out, and allow atmosphere to emerge naturally from how a space is truly lived.
