The Wow Factor

The highly-anticipated W Dubai hotel on The Palm has officially opened its doors in February, marrying W's signature brand elements with architectural features found across the Middle East

- Aidan Imanova

The new W Dubai hotel on The Palm officially opened its doors on February 1, adding a new design destination to the city's existing hot spots.

International firm Design Worldwide Partnership (DWP)'s was appointed as an interior designer on the project, taking over from original concept designers, United-Design Partnership. The firm completed the design of the hotel rooms, the all-day dining, spa, the main lobby, and entrances, in close collaboration with the owner, operator, and architect, RMJM, working from the project’s schematic stage to completion.

"We took the unique attributes of the Arabic culture, as well as the location on The Palm, and melded them into a W experience," says Scott Whittacker, group creative director at DWP. "The exciting challenge and opportunity with this project were to create that quintessential W hotel feeling of 'rebellious, distinctive, luxury'; while drawing from Middle Eastern culture."

W Hotel's business model has consistently centered on creating properties that are dynamic, young, and "fun", tasking design consultants to "take risks and break boundaries".

The hotel begins with a distinct sense of arrival, featuring a perforated golden cocoon, lined with date-palm fronds, and multi-colored rainbow ceramic tiles.

Upon entering the atrium lobby, references have been made to architecture commonly found across Arab countries, alluding to thick mud walls and minimal openings that allow guests from higher floors to look out onto the lobby area.