After living in Macao for over 4.5 years, I have to say that Morpheus hotel is the only casino hotel that doesn’t make me feel like I’m in Macao. I could be anywhere – Barcelona, Singapore, London. You feel like you’re anywhere but Macao.
The world’s first free form exoskeletal building survived the super typhoon Mangkhut last month unscathed, a testimony to the solid civil engineering. It’s filled with a mix bag of curated international and local art pieces, headlined by a KAWS sculpture, Charles Pétillon’s balloons are also are permanent art piece but not quite having the same effect of what he had done for Covent Garden.
View this post on InstagramZaha Hadid Architects reposted an elevator video of mine:
Elevator ride at Morpheus #Macau.
Listed by @TIME Magazine as one of the world’s greatest places 2018, Morpheus @CityOfDreamsMacau combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion. Its design resolves the hotel’s many complex programmes within a single cohesive envelope housing 770 guest rooms & suites, gaming rooms, lobby atrium, restaurants, spa and rooftop pool.
ZHA was commissioned to build the hotel in 2012. At that time, foundations were already in place of a condominium tower that did not progress. ZHA designed the Morpheus as a vertical extrusion of the existing abandoned foundations; using this rectangular footprint to define a 40-storey building of two internal vertical circulation cores connected at podium and roof levels where the many guest amenities were required.
Three horizontal vortices generate the voids through the atrium and define the hotel’s dramatic internal public spaces. In-between these voids, a series of bridges create unique spaces for the hotel’s restaurants, bars and guest lounges by renowned chefs including @AlainDucasse & @PierreHermeOfficial.
Working with @BuroHappoldEngineering, ZHA designed the building’s exoskeleton to optimise the interiors.
Great video reposted from @ChickenScrawlings (sculpture by @kaws)