DESIGN TRAVEL · DUBAI
Reading time: 5 minDubai loves a record, but very few come with a view like this. On the 50th floor of the Palm Tower, 200 metres above Palm Jumeirah, AURA Skypool is the world’s highest 360-degree infinity pool. You swim in a landmark, on a landmark, looking out at landmarks. And the cleverest thing about it is not the record at all, but how the design turns a tower rooftop into an island in the sky.
There is a certain kind of Dubai attraction whose entire premise is the view, and AURA Skypool is arguably the purest example of it. Perched on the 50th floor of Nakheel’s Palm Tower, suspended 200 metres above the ground at the very heart of Palm Jumeirah, it holds a genuinely singular record: the world’s first and highest 360-degree infinity pool. The pitch, as the numbers suggest, is spectacle. You are swimming in a landmark, on a landmark, surrounded by landmarks, with the palm-shaped island unfurling directly below and the whole city arranged around you.
But to leave it there would be to miss the point. Plenty of Dubai rooftops sell a view. What makes AURA more interesting is that it was properly designed, by the Shanghai studio Kokaistudios, and designed around a genuinely tricky idea: how do you create somewhere you actually want to linger, 200 metres up, wrapped around a pool whose whole job is to dissolve into the horizon? The answer they landed on is the key to the place. They built an island in the sky.
The record, and what it really means
First, the record itself, because it is not a gimmick. A 360-degree infinity pool means water that appears to spill away on every side, with no edge to interrupt the eye, so that the pool reads as continuous with the city beyond it. Achieving that at the top of a tower, where wind, weight and water all have to be engineered into a slender high-rise, is a real feat, and the effect is unlike a normal rooftop pool. There is no “best side.” Float anywhere along the edge and the view simply keeps going, from the Burj Al Arab and the coastline to the Marina, Ain Dubai and, on a clear day, the distant spike of the Burj Khalifa.
The Palm Tower gives it the perfect stage. Rising above the fronds of Palm Jumeirah, the tower puts AURA at the geometric centre of one of the most photographed man-made landscapes on Earth, which is why the view back down onto the island is as much the attraction as the skyline beyond it. This is Dubai’s view-as-luxury philosophy taken to its logical conclusion: a place where the design brief was, essentially, the entire city.
Kokaistudios and the island in the sky
Here is where the design does its quiet, clever work. Faced with an ultra-urban location and a panorama that could easily overwhelm everything, Kokaistudios did not try to compete with the view. They softened around it, conceiving the whole level as an urban oasis, an “island in the sky” that borrows its atmosphere from the natural world rather than the tower it sits on.
The details all serve that idea. At the heart of the lounge sits an angular travertine centrepiece shaped to read like natural boulders, grounding the space with something solid and elemental. Plants and small trees are threaded throughout to build a beach-like, outdoor feel, complemented by a muted palette of greens, oatmeal and teal that deliberately stays calm so the sky can do the talking. Overhead, ceiling drapes evoke beachside cabanas, while window curtains double as much-needed sunscreen against Dubai’s heat, a piece of design that is as practical as it is atmospheric. The result is a rooftop that feels less like a tower terrace and more like a shore, which is exactly the trick: give people the comfort and shade of a beach club, then hand them a 360-degree view no beach could ever offer.
There is even a narrative to the journey up. The auxiliary facilities on the level below, including the changing rooms, are imagined as an atmospheric underwater cave, so guests move from “beneath the surface” up into the light of the pool deck. It is the kind of considered, thematic touch that separates a designed destination from a pool with a good address.
The experience, and how to visit
For all the design thinking, AURA is refreshingly open, and you do not need to be a hotel guest to go. The Skypool is bookable by anyone, with time slots across the morning, afternoon, evening or a full day, so you can choose your light, whether that is a bright midday swim or a sunset session as the city turns gold and then electric.
The booking is unusually choreographed for a pool, and in a way that underlines how central the view is to the product. Guests can select their preferred outlook from four viewing sections, the City Skyline, Marina and Ain Dubai, Palm, and Burj Al Arab, as well as their row, and a booking typically includes a sunbed and lounge access. Wellness activities and special events appear on the calendar from time to time, so it is worth checking the official site before you go. The practical details shift with the seasons, but the essential promise does not: this is one of the few places where the design, the engineering and the geography of Dubai all point at exactly the same thing, the horizon.
Final thoughts
It would be easy to file AURA Skypool as a bucket-list photo opportunity, and it certainly is that. But the reason it works, rather than simply impressing, is design discipline. The record-breaking 360 pool supplies the drama, and Kokaistudios had the good sense to answer that drama with calm, an island-in-the-sky palette of stone, greenery and cabana shade that frames the view instead of fighting it. In a city that usually solves everything by adding more, AURA earns its place by knowing when to hold back and let 200 metres of open sky be the main event.
Swim to the edge, rest your arms on the infinity lip, and the whole of Dubai seems to pour away beneath you. That is the record. The design is what makes you want to stay.
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