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Dubai’s hotels are among the most luxurious and extravagant in the world. But there’s one that’s about to set itself apart from all others in the Emirate.
ME by Melia, which receives its first guests Sunday March 1, will be the first and only in the global city to be designed by the late, world-famous architect, Zaha Hadid.
Almost four years after her passing, Hadid is set to make her mark on the city as a boutique hotel within The Opus prepares to throw open its doors.
The Opus was first proposed back in 2007 as a commercial and retail development. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) say the building is designed as two separate towers that merge into a singular whole taking the form of a cube. The two towers are linked by a four-story atrium at ground level and by an asymmetric three-story bridge that is 71 meters above the ground. The hollowed-out core allows those in the center of the building to have views of the outside world.
The cube’s interior is “carved” out to create a central void, in a similar way that won acclaim for her firm for the Morpheaus Hotel in Macau.
Nicknamed the “Queen of the Curve,” Zaha Hadid transformed skylines around the world with her bold, fluid designs, including London’s Olympic aquatics center and the Heydar Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan.
