Case study
Sankari Place
A pre-launch film and more than 40 marketing renderings for the world's first standalone Regent Residences, twin Foster + Partners towers on the Dubai Water Canal.
Project at a glance
A teaser-led pre-launch campaign, a cinematic film and more than 40 marketing renderings delivered in phases, built to position Sankari Place at the top of Dubai's branded-residence market ahead of its September 2024 launch announcement.
- Client
- Sankari Properties
- Architecture
- Foster + Partners
- Interiors
- Portia Fox, London
- Operator
- Regent (IHG), the world's first standalone Regent Residences
- Location
- Marasi Marina, Business Bay, on the Dubai Water Canal
- Building type
- Twin 180-metre towers, 63 full-floor residences and 10 water villas
- Status
- Under construction, main contract awarded November 2025
- Purpose
- Pre-launch marketing campaign
- Scope
- 15 priority renderings and a cinematic film first; more than 40 images across the engagement
- Engagement
- Pre-launch through sales phase, from an August 2024 appointment
Animation
The project
Regent's First Standalone Branded Residences in the World.
Sankari Place is a flagship ultra-luxury development by Sankari Properties, rising as twin 180-metre towers in Marasi Marina, Business Bay, directly on the Dubai Water Canal. It is the world's first standalone Regent Residences, operated under IHG Hotels and Resorts, with 63 full-floor residences and 10 water villas priced from around AED 36.7 million at launch. Bloomberg covered it as a $1 billion project, self-funded by the developer's founding family. That places it at the very top of the global luxury market, where expectations around branding, storytelling, and visual quality are uncompromising.
The towers are designed by Foster + Partners, whose Head of Studio, Gerard Evenden, calls the dynamic twisting form and articulated facade a distinctive new addition to Business Bay; the practice describes a design inspired by cascading water. Interiors are by the London design studio Portia Fox. A pedigree like that sets the bar: the imagery had to live up to one of the most recognised names in architecture.
When we began discussions with the client, they already had architectural visuals in place. But those assets were not suitable for a high-end pre-launch campaign. The client's goal was not to explain the building. It was to ignite market excitement, generate visibility across digital and media channels, and build anticipation before the official launch. And the window was short: we were appointed in mid-August 2024, joined the Regent brand immersion session in our first week, and the partnership announcement was set for 10 September, under a month away.
The challenge
A Branding Problem, Not a Rendering Brief.
Five constraints shaped the work:
- 01A tight pre-launch deadline.
- 02Existing visuals that lacked marketing and cinematic quality.
- 03An ultra-luxury audience with global mobility, since many buyers do not permanently live in Dubai.
- 04The need to communicate desire and lifestyle, not just architecture.
- 05The risk of revealing too much too early.
This was not a standard "show everything" visualization brief. It was a branding and positioning challenge.
The approach
Reveal Less. Create More Desire.
Rather than attempting to present the full building under time pressure, we proposed a teaser-driven pre-launch strategy built on one simple, intentional idea: reveal less, create more desire. The cinematic animation was constructed from close-up architectural moments, carefully selected partial views, atmospheric lighting, and material detail, suggestion rather than explanation. Much like a film teaser released before principal photography, the goal was to spark curiosity, encourage speculation, and let the audience imagine what is coming instead of showing everything upfront.
Just as critical was shifting the focus away from the product alone and toward the aspirational lifestyle behind it. We proposed a hybrid approach, pairing selective CGI shots that highlighted architectural quality and material refinement with high-end lifestyle footage aligned with the target audience. The narrative was crafted for ultra-high-net-worth individuals seeking world-class elegance, privacy and exclusivity, and a global lifestyle defined by private travel, refined leisure, and prestige.
That framing mattered because many prospective buyers travel frequently and view Dubai as a base rather than a permanent residence. The animation needed to resonate with how they live, not just where they live.
In the frame
A Partial View, Built to Make You Want the Whole.
The teaser logic ran through every frame. A penthouse terrace and its private pool, suspended over the Dubai Water Canal with Business Bay stretching below, suggests the building without giving it away. Atmosphere and material detail do the talking, and the viewer is left to imagine the rest, which is exactly the point.
The second phase
From Teaser to Sales Stage, Without Breaking the Spell.
After the launch, the project moved into its second phase: high-end marketing renderings for listings and sales materials. The inputs were exactly what an inherited project usually looks like. The interior models from Portia Fox's studio arrived without materials and finishes, one bedroom model turned out to be a different unit type than the one we had to show, and the existing exterior imagery from a previous rendering agency was built on an earlier version of the facade. So we remodeled the tower from the latest Foster + Partners Revit file, sourced the missing finish references, and rebuilt the geometry for photorealistic output.
Every view began as a white-model camera proposal the developer approved before any color work, followed by a lighting and mood board to lock the atmosphere, so composition and tone were signed off before final rendering.
At this stage we continued the same branding logic established during the pre-launch, gradually revealing more of the project while preserving its mystery, its sense of desire, and the strong lifestyle narrative. The interiors in particular required careful interpretation, so the final imagery reflected the intended luxury language while staying consistent with the cinematic tone set earlier.
The outcome
Built for the Reveal, and Ready When It Came.
The campaign hit its date. On 10 September 2024, under a month after our appointment, Sankari and IHG announced the partnership, and the pre-launch imagery carried that announcement across social, digital, press, and outdoor channels. Bloomberg covered the launch the same day as a $1 billion project; Arabian Business followed.
The full cinematic film was published that December, the day Foster + Partners publicly revealed the design, a reveal covered by Dezeen, CNN Style, and Robb Report. The teaser imagery was built for the first moment, the film for the second, and both were ready when their dates came.
The second-phase marketing renderings then extended the same brand language and sense of exclusivity into the sales phase, providing high-end visuals for listings as the project moved toward construction, with the main contract awarded in November 2025.
Questions
Marketing a Branded Residence
- How do you market an ultra-luxury development before its official launch?
- For Sankari Place, a Foster + Partners development in Marasi Marina, Business Bay, and the world’s first standalone Regent Residences, the brief was to build anticipation rather than explain the building. We led with a teaser strategy, reveal less and create more desire, using a cinematic animation and hero renderings that showed partial views, atmospheric light, and material detail. The imagery carried the Sankari and IHG partnership announcement in September 2024, under a month after our appointment, and the full film was published that December for the Foster + Partners design reveal, positioning the towers at the top of Dubai’s branded-residence market before full sales materials existed.
- What goes into a pre-launch campaign for a branded residence?
- Sankari Place ran as a phased engagement: 15 priority renderings and a cinematic animation on a fast track for the launch announcement, then a second phase of interior and amenity views for the sales stage. More than 40 images were commissioned across the engagement, sequenced so the developer had a breadth of imagery to announce the project while the remaining renders were still in production.
- Can you take over 3D models and renderings from another studio?
- Yes, and Sankari Place is what that usually looks like in practice. The project arrived with exterior renders from a previous agency built on an earlier version of the facade, and interior models from its interior design studio, Portia Fox, supplied without materials and finishes. We remodeled the tower from the latest Foster + Partners Revit file, kept the approved interior design untouched, and rebuilt the lighting, camera angles, mood, and atmosphere to a cinematic standard. Every camera angle was approved on a white model before any surface was rendered, so the developer signed off on composition before color work began.
- How do renderings meet a luxury hotel brand’s standards?
- By treating the brand book as part of the brief. Sankari Place launches as the world’s first standalone Regent Residences, so the renders had to fit the Regent brand narrative and sit seamlessly beside the brochure. The team worked from Regent’s photography guidelines and joined the project’s brand immersion session alongside the hotel operator’s brand team, Foster + Partners, and Portia Fox. That direction shaped real decisions in the images: the brand’s contrast principle of one vivid element against muted surroundings, styling calibrated to an ultra-luxury buyer, and accent colors drawn from Regent’s own palette.
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