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News

Morpheus Hotel named finalist for ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards

Morpheus Hotel in Macau has been selected as a finalist for ArchDaily Building of the Year (BOTY) Awards.

ArchDaily’s readers worldwide reviewed and voted on over 4,000 projects to narrow down the list to five finalists per category.

The Morpheus combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion. With 770 guest rooms, suites and sky villas, the hotel 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.

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. ZHA designed the Morpheus as a simple vertical 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.

A central atrium runs the height of the hotel and is traversed by external voids that connect the north and south facades. Three horizontal vortices generate these voids through the building and define the hotel’s spectacular public spaces.

Working with BuroHappold Engineering, ZHA designed the building’s exoskeleton to optimise the interiors by creating spaces that are uninterrupted by supporting walls or columns. The world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton, its rich pattern of structural members at lower levels progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit.

Viviana Muscettola, ZHA's project director said, "The expertise of all members of the Morpheus team has created new possibilities for architecture. 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.”

Lawrence Ho, chairman and CEO of Melco Resorts explains, “From the very beginning, we shared ZHA’s vision and determination to push boundaries. Morpheus offers a journey of the imagination. From the curved exterior to the dramatic interior spaces, it pleases the eye and excites the senses: a contemporary masterpiece to be enjoyed by many generations to come.”

Readers can now vote for the winner until 10am EST on the 11th of March.

Vote for Morpheus here

Photograph by Virgile Simon Bertrand