<div>The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games provided China with the ideal platform to showcase highly elaborate world-class architectural designs.<div><br />Now, with Zaha Hadid Architects’ new ‘City of Dreams’ project set to open in Macau in 2017, the country can add another unique structure to its architectural portfolio.<br /><br /></div><div>To be built by casino and resort developer Melco Crown Entertainment, the City of Dreams Hotel was recently unveiled as the company’s flagship property in Cotai, Macau. <br /></div><div> </div><div>A former Portuguese colony, Macau has since December 1999 been a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. <br /><br />The territory’s economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism. <br /><br /></div><div>The new Macau hotel features a mix of 780 guest rooms, suites and sky villas. <br /><br />Spread over 40 floors with a gross floor area of 150,000 sq m, the tower provides guests with an extensive array of amenities, including gaming rooms, event spaces and a spa. <br /><br /></div><div>The oddly-skinned structure by Zaha Hadid Architects, with its white elastic wrapping element, features an exterior narrative similar to the Beijing Olympics National Stadium (popularly called the ‘Bird’s Nest’). <br /><br /></div><div>Although the underlying box shape of the City of Dreams is simple, the bridge elements joining the project’s gaping centre hole are of a more biomorphic influence. <br /></div><div><br />According to the architects, the external façade was not only designed to optimise the interior programming, but to aesthetically fit in with Macau’s reworked Cotai Strip.<br /><br /></div><div>“The rectangular outline of the site is extruded as a monolithic block with a series of voids which carve through the centre of the tower, merging traditional architectural elements, like the roof, wall and ceiling, to create a sculptural form that defines most of the hotel’s internal spaces,” say the architects. <br /><br /></div><div>Planning and design of the City of Dreams project started in 2013, with an anticipated opening date sometime in early 2017.</div><div><br /></div></div>
<div>The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games provided China with the ideal platform to showcase highly elaborate world-class architectural designs.<div><br />Now, with Zaha Hadid Architects’ new ‘City of Dreams’ project set to open in Macau in 2017, the country can add another unique structure to its architectural portfolio.<br /><br /></div><div>To be built by casino and resort developer Melco Crown Entertainment, the City of Dreams Hotel was recently unveiled as the company’s flagship property in Cotai, Macau. <br /></div><div> </div><div>A former Portuguese colony, Macau has since December 1999 been a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. <br /><br />The territory’s economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism. <br /><br /></div><div>The new Macau hotel features a mix of 780 guest rooms, suites and sky villas. <br /><br />Spread over 40 floors with a gross floor area of 150,000 sq m, the tower provides guests with an extensive array of amenities, including gaming rooms, event spaces and a spa. <br /><br /></div><div>The oddly-skinned structure by Zaha Hadid Architects, with its white elastic wrapping element, features an exterior narrative similar to the Beijing Olympics National Stadium (popularly called the ‘Bird’s Nest’). <br /><br /></div><div>Although the underlying box shape of the City of Dreams is simple, the bridge elements joining the project’s gaping centre hole are of a more biomorphic influence. <br /></div><div><br />According to the architects, the external façade was not only designed to optimise the interior programming, but to aesthetically fit in with Macau’s reworked Cotai Strip.<br /><br /></div><div>“The rectangular outline of the site is extruded as a monolithic block with a series of voids which carve through the centre of the tower, merging traditional architectural elements, like the roof, wall and ceiling, to create a sculptural form that defines most of the hotel’s internal spaces,” say the architects. <br /><br /></div><div>Planning and design of the City of Dreams project started in 2013, with an anticipated opening date sometime in early 2017.</div><div><br /></div></div>