GLOCAL COOL

W HOTELS ARRIVES IN THE UAE CAPITAL WITH W ABU DHABI – YAS ISLAND, THE WORLD’S ONLY HOTEL LOCATED ON A GRAND PRIX RACETRACK

The Grid-Shell makes the building an architectural marvel.

The W brand has landed in the UAE capital with the opening of W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island. Located in the heart of Abu Dhabi’s bustling entertainment epicentre, the hotel is the brand’s second W Hotel to open this year in the UAE after W Dubai – The Palm, and has the bragging rights to be the only hotel in the world located atop a Grand Prix racetrack.

With a buzzy new interior transformation that includes nods to local culture, geography and fashion, W Abu Dhabi sits between the racetrack and local marina.

Blues and sand tones in the Lounge, inspired by a flash flood.

Originally, this property was the Yas Hotel, a 500-room, 85,000 m2 complex built in 2009 and an anchor architectural feature of the ambitious $36 bn Yas Marina development and accompanying Formula 1 raceway circuit.

It was designed by Asymptote Architects, who envisioned an architectural landmark embodying various key influences and inspirations, ranging from the aesthetics of speed, movement and spectacle, to the artistry and geometries, which are the basis of ancient Islamic art and craft traditions.

The jewellery curtain recalls traditional Emirati jewellery.

Of architectural and engineering significance is the main feature of the project’s design, a 217 m expanse of sweeping, curvilinear forms constructed of steel and 5,800 pivoting diamond-shaped glass panels. This Grid-Shell affords the building an architecture comprised of a ‘veil’ that contains two hotel towers and a link bridge passing above the Formula 1 track that makes its way through the building complex.