An impressive architectural project was recently completed in Macau, and its modern architectural style is generating a lot of interest. The Morpheus Hotel is an extraordinary masterpiece that takes us back to the future. The skyline of Macau - the autonomous territory known as China's version of Las Vegas - has received a stunning new 40-story building designed by the late laureate Zaha Hadid. The Morpheus Hotel, which opened its doors on June 15, rises from the city of dreams. The hotel also impresses with 770 rooms, located behind what is said to be the first free-form, exoskeleton skyscraper.
As Asia's most popular tourist destination, Macau welcomed more than 32 million tourists in 2017, with visitor numbers increasing every year. The City of Dreams in Cotai is a leading integrated resort with a casino, two theaters, a shopping area and four hotels.
Hadid's original plans for the construction project were inspired not only by designs using ancient carvers, but also primarily by geological formations formed naturally by erosion processes. Consequently, the result is a building with few precedents when it comes to modern architectural style. In this regard, the architect has redefined the boundaries between new technologies and historical, naturally occurring forms.
Technically, the Morpheus Hotel consists of two towers that connect at the top and bottom, with three vertebrae cut out of the central section. They create bridges between the towers that house restaurants, bars and lounges. In addition, the bridges in the atrium are visible, allowing for an open floor plan. This regulates different levels of privacy, acoustics, thermal comfort and views.
Furthermore, in the white marble reception area, you can see prismatic, three-dimensional walls surrounded by hundreds of gold sculptures. True to Hadid's vision as an innovator, such a modern architectural style is also a milestone in the collaborative manner in which the hotel was created. Each member of the team was able to optimize the digitally generated model of the structure from anywhere in the world. This has given rise to a completely new way of designing rooms. According to experts, this is why such innovations can radically change our future growth.
Multidimensional shapes
Inspired by the flowing forms of China's rich jade carving art, Morheus' design combines uniquely shaped public spaces and spacious guest rooms with innovative technology and formal cohesion. Conceived as a vertical extrusion of its rectangular footprint, there are a series of cut voids that connect many of the hotel's common spaces to the city, creating sculptural forms that define the hotel's public realm.
The high-rise structure is connected to the resort's surrounding three-story podium and features hotel suites and villas. These include meeting and event rooms, games areas, spa and penthouse with pool, as well as extensive outdoor areas and ancillary facilities. The futuristicseemingly modern architectureof the hotel has its own visual identity and resolves the many complex concepts of construction into a unique, cohesive construction. The ZHA-Zaha Hadid Architects team started construction in 2012. At that time there were already foundations for a residential tower that did not develop further.
At first, the team designed the Morpheus Hotel primarily as a simple extrusion of the existing abandoned foundations. The rectangular floor plan defines two internal, vertical cores that connect at the podium and roof levels and allow many guest amenities.
Unusual construction
In addition, extrusion creates a monolithic block that makes the most of its development environment, as it is limited to a height of 160 meters. The underlying diagram of the hotel design is a pair of towers, while the central atrium between them runs at the height of the hotel and is traversed by external voids. These connect the north and south facades. These giant holes form the urban window that brings the inner common spaces of the city closer.
Three horizontal vortices create the voids through the building and form the internal public spaces. This also resulted in the angular and multi-dimensional suites, which offer a spectacular view of the forecourt and the city. This arrangement and a modern architectural style maximize the number of hotel rooms with external views and guarantee an even distribution of space on both sides of the glass structure.
Unique construction
The atrium's twelve elevators provide guests with remarkable views of the building's interior and exterior as they move between the voids. As one of the world's leading hotels, the interiors of the Morpheus required its guests to be catered for. Its exoskeleton also optimizes the interior space by creating spaces that are not supported by load-bearing walls or columns.
The world's first freeform high-rise exoskeleton has a rich pattern of structural elements at lower levels. This forms a leaky grid of lighter elements on the top. Morpheus is based on many years of ZHA research on the integration of inside and outside, civil and private, solid and empty, Cartesian and rocky. The space interweaves throughout the structure to connect disparate design concepts. A consistently modern architectural style with unique compositions can be achieved on many levels using such an interior design.
Project leader Viviana Muscettola explains that Morpheus combines, above all, its specific arrangement with structural integrity and sculptural form. The design is fascinating as it does not refer to traditional architectural typologies. Macau's building primarily represents modern architecture that has drawn references from all over the world. For this reason, the Morpheus Hotel has emerged as a new modern architectural style thanks to its unique environment. Therefore, its comprehensive parametric model combines all the aesthetic and structural requirements of today's architectural styles. In this regard, the hotel radically changes the way we will plan our built landscapes in the future.
