Opening its doors tomorrow, the Morpheus hotel is already set to become one of Macau's most opulent addresses. Located on the southern edge of China, the area often touted as the "Las Vegas of Asia" has become the region's most popular entertainment destination, welcoming more than 32 million tourists a year and housing a new breed of mega, casino resorts that make the ones in Nevada look modest.
Joining their ranks, the Morpheus hotel will very soon be adding another 770 hotel rooms and sky villas to City of Dreams, a massive 1,400-room integrated resort complex on the Cotai Strip. It is the final chapter for Melco Resorts and Entertainment’s sprawling resort development, and also happens to be one of the final buildings designed by the late Zaha Hadid. Intimately involved with the project prior to her passing, the 150,000-square-meter, 40-story complex is complete with all the posh details one has come to expect.
With its opening, the sinuous, curvaceous, mega-structure will be the world’s first free-form exoskeleton high-rise. A shell-like steel and aluminum cladding wraps around the building in a rich pattern of structural members at lower levels and progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit. It is an engineering marvel that allows the interior to go uninterrupted by supporting walls or columns, but it also helps the building stand out as a distinctive landmark in a city best known for the garish glitz of its modern casinos.
"The design is intriguing as it makes no reference to traditional architectural typologies" noted Viviana Muscettola, ZHA's project director. "Macau’s buildings have previously referenced architecture styles from around the world. Morpheus has evolved from its unique environment and site conditions as a new architecture expressly of this city."
The underlying diagram of the hotel’s design is a pair of towers connected at ground and roof levels. The hollowed monolith then comprises two sky bridges, an 114-foot-high atrium, 12 glass elevators, a 40th-floor infinity pool, and a series of top-floor villas, three of which have private pools.
"From the very beginning, we shared ZHA’s vision and determination to push boundaries" said Lawrence Ho, CEO of Melco Resorts, who owns the property. "Morpheus offers a journey of the imagination. From the curved exterior to the dramatic interior spaces, it pleases the eye and excites the senses: a contemporary masterpiece to be enjoyed by many generations to come.”
9 Comments
ooh, lace stockings!
the construction photos are pretty impressive:
The construction photos are interesting, the end result meh
The difference between Zaha vs. ZHA is that the former never felt like she was doing something just because she could. The difference between good and great is heart. This just looks like a grad school project--the moves all feel impressive and equally empty.
This is super cool.
the construction photos look better because you don't have to deal with the same set of codes that do with the finished building.
very cool.
The finished building looks so blasé...early 00's Maya subdivtecture, and that curtain wall, oh my...
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