China’s casino capital will have the honour of seeing one of the legendary architect’s last works
Zaha Hadid. Image credit: 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia (Flickr)
Not content with making huge waves in the world of architecture while she was alive, Zaha Hadid, also known as “queen of the curve” continues to change skylines posthumously.
One of the last designs by the Pritzker award-winning architect is taking shape in Macau: the flagship, fifth tower of the City of Dreams development in Cotai. Set for completion in 2018, the “scuptural element” tower will add 39 storeys to the Macau skyline, with a unique, neo-futuristic design as only Ms. Hadid could deliver.
Hadid is already well loved in China, her previous work including The Jockey Club Innovation Tower in Hong Kong, the Opera House in Guangzhou, and the Galaxy SOHO shopping mall in Beijing.
Speaking with the Macau Daily Times, Lawrence Ho, chair of Melco Crown Entertainment which runs the City of Dreams, reiterated that he has been “long impressed” by Hadid’s portfolio.
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“The management team is singularly honoured to have [her design]the fifth tower of the City of Dreams,” said Ho, who sought Hadid’s services in 2012.
Hadid’s City of Dreams project is a rectangular, monolithic tower marked by a number of voids that burrow into a skeletal facade. Together, the voids loop to form a figure resembling the number 8.
Envisioned as a gargantuan entertainment resort, Macau’s Hadid-designed building will house the requisite City of Dreams casino, along with a 780-room hotel. Guests will be greeted by an atrium with a 35-metre-high ceiling.
“The new hotel will become a strong presence and statement within the COD site as well as an urban reference for the Cotai Strip, an area which has seen interest from a series of new developments and for which the new hotel will become a new iconic identity,” Viviana Muscettola, senior associate at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), told the Macau Daily Times.
Melco Macau from Zaha Hadid Architects on Vimeo.
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Source : property-report.com
Read more…Zaha Hadid’s last architectural hurrah in Macau
