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DubaiPhotography

by Alexandra Mansilla

Inside an Abandoned Jumeirah Villa Before It Disappeared

26 Jul 2026

Photo: Kenneth Sagar

We all know by now that Dubai isn’t only about skyscrapers. Beyond its newest developments, there is another layer: old neighbourhoods, low-rise homes and streets that still carry traces of the people who lived there before.

The old villas of Jumeirah are part of that story. When photographer Kenneth Sagar heard that a group of them had been emptied and were waiting to be demolished, he went inside before it was too late. He wanted to capture not the decay itself, but the traces of life that still remained.

These traces became After We Leave, a photography project about what remains inside a home after its residents are gone — and how memories can outlive the building that once held them.

“When I heard that these villas had been emptied and were waiting to be demolished, I felt I needed to see them immediately. I wanted to walk through the spaces before they disappeared forever. I felt that if I didn’t photograph them then, those stories would disappear along with the buildings.”— Kenneth Sagar

Kenneth did not know the names of the families who had lived there or the exact circumstances of their departure. For him, that absence of information allowed the project to become something broader than the story of one particular household.

“Knowing that generations had called these villas home was enough. The project isn’t about one family; it’s about all the lives that quietly unfolded within those walls over many years.”— Kenneth Sagar
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Photo: Kenneth Sagar

Very few personal possessions had been left inside. There were no family albums or carefully packed boxes revealing exactly who had occupied each room. Instead, the traces appeared in the architecture itself: worn surfaces, empty doorways and children’s height markings still visible on the walls.

“Every room felt as though it had absorbed decades of everyday life.”— Kenneth Sagar
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Photo: Kenneth Sagar

Walking through the villas, he began to imagine the routines that might once have filled them: children getting ready for school, families gathering around the dinner table, neighbours dropping by and conversations moving from one room to another. None of these scenes was visible, but the emptiness made them strangely easy to picture.

“It was incredibly quiet, but it wasn’t an empty silence. It felt peaceful, reflective, almost respectful. There was a strange balance between absence and presence. The families were gone, but it never felt like they had completely left.”— Kenneth Sagar
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Photo: Kenneth Sagar

Among the few direct messages that remained was a sentence written on one of the walls: “We will see you soon.” It became one of the central images of the project.

“To me, it felt like a message filled with hope. It could have been written by someone who once lived there, believing they would return after the renovations. Or it could have been left by someone visiting the villa later, wanting to acknowledge the memories that remained.”— Kenneth Sagar

What stayed with him most was the emotional presence of a place belonging to people he had never met.

“What surprised me most was how much I could feel without actually knowing anyone who had lived there. Photography often captures what we can see, but this experience reminded me that some places carry an emotional presence that goes beyond the physical.”
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Photo: Kenneth Sagar

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Photo: Kenneth Sagar

Kenneth later returned to the site and found that every villa had been demolished. The rooms, walls and markings he had photographed were gone. At that moment, After We Leave became a record of buildings that no longer existed and of the everyday lives that had once unfolded inside them.

New houses will eventually occupy the land, bringing with them different families, routines and memories. Kenneth sees this not only as loss, but also as part of the way cities and lives continually change.

“That’s the beautiful cycle of life. But for a brief moment, I was able to preserve the echoes of the families who came before. That’s what After We Leave is really about: not the buildings we leave behind, but the memories that continue to live within them.”— Kenneth Sagar