The Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been commissioned to design a new construction project on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This was announced in a press release issued by Aldar Properties on October 23, 2025.
The project, called “The Row Saadiyat”, will consist of seven buildings that will provide the setting for exclusive housing, restaurants and shops.
According to the press release, this will be “a luxurious destination for fitness, spa and pool experiences,” and there will even be a spa dedicated to residents’ pets.
The project is backed by Aldar Properties, a state-owned property developer in Abu Dhabi, which hired the Danish firm BIG to design the luxurious surroundings.
“International companies such as Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have an enhanced responsibility to respect human rights when operating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” says Sanne Borges, Amnesty International’s senior advisor on human rights and business, in an interview with Danwatch.
According to Amnesty, UAE is a high-risk country in terms of human rights, partly due to widespread labor rights violations.
Migrants make up the majority of UAE’s workforce, and according to Human Rights Watch’s country report for 2025, many of them are subjected to exploitation and abuse – including withholding of wages, forced labor and lack of occupational safety.
“Thank You for Your Interest”
Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest of the seven emirates in UAE, and the government in Abu Dhabi has major influence on the country’s politics.
It is also Abu Dhabi’s emir, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who heads the UAE’s federal government as the country’s president.
Danwatch has previously described UAE’s economic strategy, and as a state-owned company, Aldar Properties is thus also closely linked to the economic and political interests of both Abu Dhabi and the UAE government.
Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund, Mubadala Investment Company (MIC), owns around 25 percent of Aldar Properties.
The vice chairman of Aldar Properties’ board is Waleed Ahmed Almokarrab Al Muhairi, who is also deputy director of Mubadala Investment Company – an investment fund that is also active in Denmark.
Danwatch has asked BIG what considerations it has made in connection with its collaboration with a state-owned entity in a country where conditions for migrant workers – also in the construction sector – have been the subject of massive criticism.
In an email to Danwatch, BIG wrote: “Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to provide a comment this time but thank you for your interest.”
Dubai Masterplan
This is not the first time BIG has collaborated with Aldar Properties.
In November 2024, Aldar Properties announced that BIG would design housing connected to the Mandarin Oriental hotel group, also located on Saadiyat Island.
In addition to its work in Abu Dhabi, BIG is also involved in the emirate Dubai, where the Danish company is behind the “New Dubai Masterplan“.
The project includes residential and commercial areas, cultural institutions and public parks, and the developer behind it is the investment company A.R.M. Holding.
Although the company is private, it also has close connections to UAE’s government.
A.R.M. Holding’s managing director is Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, who since 2023 has also been Secretary General of the UAE Media Council, which functions as a kind of media ministry – a position to which he was appointed by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The Danish architecture group was also behind Al Wasl Plaza in Dubai, which was the center of the Expo 2020 world exhibition.
In connection with the exhibition, the human rights organization Equidem published a report documenting that several migrants connected to World Expo 2020 had been subjected to forced labor, racial discrimination and systematic exploitation at work.
In a statement from 2018, BIG wrote that “it is just as important to run our business in an ethical manner as it is to deliver high-quality design”.
The company also stated that it strives to ensure that social inequality and modern slavery do not occur in its supply chains or in any parts of its business.
The statement also indicates that BIG assesses that the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking to be low in the company’s immediate supply chain, but that it is in the process of implementing due diligence procedures to mitigate potential risks.
Danwatch would also have liked to ask BIG how it ensures that the company’s values and guidelines for responsible practice are being followed in the new project on Saadiyat, and whether BIG has conducted due diligence prior to the project.
They did not wish to answer these questions either.