Born in Baghdad in 1950, Zaha Hadid was the first female architect to be awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2004, the industry’s most prestigious award in the world. All of her buildings are characterized by an incomparable dynamic and a flowing organic language of forms.
Due to the high technical requirements, it takes a long time for their groundbreaking construction projects in Europe, North America, China and the Middle East to be realized. One of them is Opus, an unconventional office building in Dubai. From the beginning it was planned that a hotel and almost 100 apartments would move into the lower floors. For this space, she also created the interior fittings, including the furniture.
“Even before the first idea, it was clear that the concept strives for permeability and uniqueness,” wrote Zaha Hadid about her Opus project in Dubai. “We applied these two qualities to our design repertoire, whereby our research enabled us to create distinctive, variable and flowing spaces in this building.”
The Spanish chain Meliá from Mallorca with the ME brand, which maintains 350 accommodations in 40 countries, was won over as hotel operator. The ME Dubai, the official name of the hotel, opened just a few days before the outbreak of the corona pandemic in February 2020. Then the accommodation had to close for many months because the visitors stayed away. The ME Dubai only opened its doors again in autumn of this year.
You can also look through the following photo series:
– Burj Khalifa in Dubai: At the peak of megalomania – until now
– On the death of Zaha Hadid: The master of curved buildings
– Swim and chill at a height of 200 meters: This is the coolest hotel pool in Dubai