[Photo by Nabila]
Essay · [draft]Five things Western firms get wrong about the majlis
[On seating, scale and how a welcome actually unfolds.]
Cultural intelligence for hospitality · Middle East
We help architects, designers and hotel groups get the culture right in the Gulf and the wider region, so that spaces are designed to be felt, not just seen.
Studio Long Wave
What guides us
Built on years of fieldwork into how people make themselves at home.
All routes lead to home
How people who arrive from elsewhere come to feel at home, and what a place does to welcome them or keep them at arm's length.
Hanging out
Malls, food courts, cafes and cars: the commercial spaces where people perform who they are, and where design decides who feels watched.
More than a feeling
The quiet role of spirituality in daily life, and why it shapes how guests read a room long before they name it.
[Photograph by Nabila: a hotel lobby, courtyard or majlis]
Where projects go wrong
International firms bring world-class design to the region and still miss things a local family notices in five minutes. These are the gaps we look for. Each is cheap to fix on paper and expensive to fix on site.
Privacy & sightlines
Who can see whom
Family sections, women-only pool and spa hours, screened terraces, and entrances that let guests arrive without passing a bar.
Prayer
Prayer as part of the plan
Qibla-aligned prayer rooms that guests can actually find, wudu facilities with proper drainage, and events scheduled around prayer times.
Ramadan
A month that turns the day around
Iftar rushes, suhoor service at 3am, tents and majlis set-ups, and kitchens and staff rotas planned for a different daily rhythm.
Welcome
Majlis, coffee and the long welcome
Seating for large, multi-generational groups, room for coffee and dates, and layouts that suit long gatherings over quick table turns.
Food & beverage
Halal by design
Supply chains, kitchen separation, alcohol policy and menu language that observant guests can trust without having to ask.
Symbolism
Pattern, script and image
Calligraphy placed where it is never stepped on or sat against, and motifs drawn from local sources instead of generic “Arabian” décor.
How we work
Immersion, not assumption
Our method comes from ethnography: years of fieldwork watching how people actually live, gather and belong.
Participant observation
We spend time in the places your guests already use, watching how they gather, eat, pray and move.
In-depth conversations
We talk with the people you are designing for, not just about them.
Multi-site reading
We compare across cities and communities, because the Gulf, the Levant and the diaspora are not one guest.
Intersectional lens
Faith, gender, class, age and origin overlap. A design that works for one guest can exclude another.
Services
Four ways to work with the studio, scaled to where your project is. Most clients start with a design review and keep us on through fit-out.
Concept & schematic
Cultural design review
- Walk-through of plans, renders and brand concepts
- Written report ranked as must-fix, should-fix and opportunity
- Working session with your design team
For architects and interior designers before a client presentation.
Pre-opening
Guest experience & F&B
- Service flows for families, Ramadan and Eid
- Menu, signage and brand-voice review
- Guest journey mapping, arrival to checkout
For hotel groups, restaurant operators and developers.
Brand & story
Narrative, words and images
- Brand story and naming grounded in place
- Editorial copy in a voice guests trust
- Location photography and art direction
For new openings that want to feel rooted, not themed.
Any stage
Team briefings
- Half-day workshop on faith, family and hospitality
- Built around your live project
- In London or remotely
For studios starting their first project in the region.
Brief
We go over the site, the client and the guests you are designing for.
Read the drawings
I walk the plans as different guests would: a family from Riyadh, a business traveller, a bride's party.
Report
A clear, ranked list your team can take straight into the next revision.
Stay close
Optional check-ins through fit-out and before opening.
About us
Studio Long Wave was founded in London by Nabila F. Munawar, a sociologist, writer and photographer.
Why Long Wave
We named the studio for what that signal stood for: a voice that carries across distance and borders, steady enough to trust, and a reminder of home for people far from it.
Long wave is the radio band that follows the curve of the Earth. It reaches ships far out at sea, carried news and messages into occupied Europe during the Second World War, and, as the story goes, was the signal submarine commanders listened for to know that home was still there.
Reach
Ideas that travel between a design team in London and a family arriving in Riyadh, without losing their meaning.
Constancy
Advice grounded in research and lived experience, not trends: something clients can return to and rely on.
Home
Spaces where guests far from home recognise themselves, and feel that they belong.
[Portrait of Nabila]
I study how people make themselves at home: in their faith, in their communities and in the places they gather.
I'm a sociologist, writer and photographer based in London. My doctoral research at the London School of Economics, Believing and Belonging, followed Muslim young people through the places they spend their days, from the mosque to the mall, and looked at how faith, culture and identity shape the way people use space.
I grew up in Burlington, Ontario, and worked at the Ontario Ministry of Education before moving to London. [Add travel and research in the Middle East: countries, years, projects.] Today I bring that research, and an eye trained by photography and fashion, to the people designing hotels and restaurants in the region.
2017PhD in Sociology, London School of Economics
2011–1318 months of ethnographic fieldwork on Muslim youth, faith and belonging, Southern Ontario
2010Research on fashion and Canadian Muslim identity
[Year]Ontario Ministry of Education, [role]
[Year][Research and travel in the Middle East: countries and projects]
Research
What the research says about space
Nabila's doctoral fieldwork followed young people through malls, food courts, mosques and youth clubs for 18 months. Three of its threads run through the studio's work.
Belonging
All routes lead to home
How people who arrive from elsewhere come to feel at home, and what a place does to welcome them or keep them at arm's length.
Everyday space
Hanging out
Malls, food courts, cafes and cars: the commercial spaces where people perform who they are, and where design decides who feels watched.
Faith & spirit
More than a feeling
The quiet role of spirituality in daily life, and why it shapes how guests read a room long before they name it.
Journal
Essays and photographs from research and travel in the region, on the spaces, rituals and details that make a place feel like home.
[Photo by Nabila]
Photo series · [city]Courtyards
[Nabila's photographs of shade, water and threshold spaces.]
[Photo by Nabila]
Essay · [draft]Designing a restaurant for Ramadan
[How iftar and suhoor change kitchens, staffing and the dining room.]
Have a project in the region? Send us the drawings.
Tell us about the project and its stage. We reply within two working days.
[hello@studiolongwave.com]
[LinkedIn] · [Instagram]