Zaha Hadid Architects has completed the Morpheus Hotel in Macau, China, the 40-storey building features a particular geometric pattern supporting the lower levels, while those pattern is less densified towards upper levels.

Called Morpheus, a new flagship hotel for the City of Dreams resort in Macau, has opened on Friday, June 15, 2018. ZHA stated that the hotel is "the world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton" and "its rich pattern of structural members at lower levels progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit."

Image © Ivan Dupont

Located in Cotai, Macau, City of Dreams is a leading integrated resort including casino, two theatres, shopping district, 20 restaurants and four hotels.

Taking cues from the fluid forms within China’s rich traditions of jade carving, the Morpheus’ design combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion.

Image © Ivan Dupont

The studio designed the hotel as a vertical extrusion of its rectangular footprint, a series of voids is carved through its centre to create an urban window connecting the hotel’s interior communal spaces with the city and generating the sculptural forms that define the hotel’s public spaces.

The Morpheus is linked at ground level with the surrounding three-storey podium of the City of Dreams resort, the hotel houses 770 guest rooms, suites and sky villas, and includes civic spaces, meeting and event facilities, gaming rooms, lobby atrium, restaurants, spa and rooftop pool, as well as extensive back-of-house areas and ancillary facilities.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

"The design resolves the hotel’s many complex programmes within a single cohesive envelope. Zaha Hadid Architects (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," said ZHA in a press release.

"ZHA designed the Morpheus as a simple 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."

"This extrusion generated a monolithic block making best use its development envelope that is restricted to a 160m height by local planning codes. This block was then ‘carved’ with voids."

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

The underlying diagram of the hotel’s design is a pair of towers connected at ground and roof levels. The central atrium in-between these towers runs the height of the hotel and is traversed by external voids that connect the north and south facades. These voids create the urban window that links the hotel’s interior communal spaces with the city.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Three horizontal vortices generate the voids through the building and define the hotel’s dramatic internal public spaces; creating unique corner suites with spectacular views of both the atrium and the city. This arrangement maximises the number of hotel rooms with external views and guarantees an equal room distribution on either side of the building.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

In-between the free-form voids that traverse the atrium, a series of bridges create unique spaces for the hotel’s restaurants, bars and guest lounges by renowned chefs including Alain Ducasse and Pierre Hermé.

The atrium's twelve glass elevators provide guests with remarkable views of the hotel’s interior and exterior as they travel between the voids of the building.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

As one of the world's leading hotels, the Morpheus' interior spaces necessitated a high degree of adaptability to accommodate the many varying requirements of its guest amenities. The building’s exoskeleton optimizes the interiors by creating spaces that are uninterrupted by supporting walls or columns.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Morpheus draws on a ZHA’s 40 years of research into the integration of interior and exterior, civic and private, solid and void, Cartesian and Einsteinian. Space is woven within structure to tie disparate programmes together and constantly make connections.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

"Morpheus combines its optimal arrangement with structural integrity and sculptural form. The design is intriguing as it makes no reference to traditional architectural typologies," said Viviana Muscettola, ZHA's project director.

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

"Macau’s buildings have previously referenced architecture styles from around the world. Morpheus has evolved from its unique environment and site conditions as a new architecture expressly of this city."

"The expertise of all members of the Morpheus team has created new possibilities for architecture," continued Muscettola. "The comprehensive parametric model combined all of the hotel's aesthetic, structural and fabrication requirements and will radically change how our built environment is planned and constructed.”

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Image © Virgile Simon Bertrand

Image © Ivan Dupont

Project facts

Client: Melco Resorts and Entertainment

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher
ZHA Project Directors: Viviana Muscettola, Michele Pasca di Magliano
ZHA Facade Director: Paolo Matteuzzi
ZHA Project Architects: Michele Salvi, Bianca Cheung, Maria Loreto Flores,Clara Martins

ZHA Project Team: Miron Mutyaba, Milind Khade, Pierandrea Angius, Massimo Napoleoni, Stefano Iacopini, Davide Del Giudice, Luciano Letteriello, Luis Migue Samanez, Cyril Manyara, Alvin Triestanto, Muhammed Shameel, Goswin Rothenthal, Santiago Fernandez- Achury, Vahid Eshraghi, Melika Aljukic

ZHA Interior Team: Daniel Fiser, Thomas Sonder, Daniel Coley, Yooyeon Noh, Jinqi Huang, Mirta Bilos, Alexander Kuroda, Gaganjit Singh, Marina Martinez, Shajay Bhooshan, Henry Louth, Filippo Nassetti, David Reeves, Marko Gligorov, Neil Ridgen, Milica Pihler-Mirjanic, Grace Chung, Mario Mattia, Mariagrazia Lanza

ZHA Concept Team: Viviana Muscettola, Tiago Correia, Clara Martins, Maria Loreto Flores, Victor Orive, Danilo Arsic, Ines Fontoura, Fabiano Costinanza, Rafael Gonzalez, Muhammed Shameel

Executive Architect: Leigh and Orange, Hong Kong

Local Architect: CAA City Planning and Engineering Consultants, Macau
Structural Engineering: Buro Happold International, London/Hong Kong
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: J. Roger Preston
Facade Engineering: Buro Happold International, Hong Kong
Third party reviewer: Rolf Jensen and Associates

Other interior designers: 

- Remedios Studio, Hong Kong – Guestrooms, L01 VIP lobby, L03 Spa and Gym, L40 Pool deck and pool villas
- Westar Architects International – L02 Gaming areas and Li Ying Restaurant, L42 Gaming Salons
- Jouin Manku – L03 Alain Ducasse Restaurant
- MC Design – L30 Executive Lounge
- Leigh and Orange, Macau – BOH Areas
Quantity Surveyor: WT Partnership, Hong Kong
Lighting Design: Isometrix, London/Hong Kong
Fire Engineering: Arup, Hong Kong
Acoustic Consultant: Shen Milson and Wilke, Hong Kong

Top image © Ivan Dupont

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