Za’abeel Hotel

The Za’abeel Hotel Tower was designed as part of the overall Za’abeel Energy City Master Plan, also design by AS+GG, in Dubai, completed in 2008. The project includes the hotel tower, a podium building with a ballroom, and two low-rise office towers.

The hotel’s form reaches to the sky, slightly twisting with a program that wraps around a tapering atrium. The exterior wall adds texture to its strong architectural expression. Vertical fins and horizontal shading devices act as a protective curtain, surrounding and protecting the tower.

The following design principles formed the concept for the massing:

Connect: The site is at once a connection and transition point. The tower reaches south to connect toward the master plan, rotating to become a pivot-point to address the outer parcels, convention center, Za’abeel Park, and future Dubai developments to the north.

Guide: The top of the tower is shaped like a crescent pointing toward the sky, which will be lit at night to define it as a guiding point within the development and city. The asymmetry of the building sets its orientation so that each vantage point is unique.

Shelter: The tower’s east and west faces wrap like a drape, surrounding the pedestrian plazas. These faces feature integrated photovoltaic shading to shelter the atrium from the sun. The podium buildings and the courtyard park are both shaded by the tower’s broad shadow.

Dynamic: The tower is designed to be viewed differently from each point in Dubai. The panoramic views from the tower move and change as it ascends, reinforcing its role as a connecting element. The tower is designed to also be viewed from outside and within in dynamic ways, through its tapering and receding geometry.