DUBAI // Renderings of a new hotel designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Dame Zaha Hadid were unveiled on Tuesday.
The Middle East’s first ME by Melia hotel was designed by the Iraqi-British architect, and is part of the Dh2.5 billion Opus project commissioned in 2008 by local developer Omniyat.
Building of the Opus project, in the Burj Khalifa district, is now more than halfway to completion.
“The hotel will feature Michelin star restaurants, lounges and cafes across an area of 250,000 square feet, with entertainment options selected from the best in the Middle East, New York, Miami, London and Las Vegas,” said Mahdi Amjad, Omniyat’s executive chairman and chief executive.
“These images convey the remarkably inventive quality of Zaha’s work – expressing a sculptural sensibility that reinvents the balance between solid and void, opaque and transparent, interior and exterior.”
Combining innovative design concepts and engineering with materials of the highest quality, Ms Hadid designed a sequence of dramatic event spaces for the hotel, of which the interiors express her investigations into the concepts of fluidity and of seamless spatial flow.
“You always expect to be surprised by Zaha Hadid’s designs, but the renderings for the Opus building and ME Dubai go beyond what we could ever have anticipated,” said Gabriel Escarrer, the vice chairman and chief executive of Melia Hotels International. “There’s no doubt that ME Dubai will raise the bar for Dubai’s hotel supply.”
The Opus, scheduled to open in 2016, will also include serviced apartments.
“Today’s unveiling of Zaha Hadid’s artistic vision for the ME hotel interiors demonstrates that Dubai is well on course to consolidate its position as the premier luxury destination in the Middle East, and one of the world’s most dynamic cities,” said Mr Amjad.
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