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Christos Passas on Opus

Christos Passas, Director at Zaha Hadid Architects joined Hamish Kilburn, Editor of Hotel Designs and designer Harriet Forde on the DESIGN POD to speak about the design of Opus and on working at Zaha Hadid Architects.

Housing the Me Dubai hotel by Melia the Opus for Omniyat is located in the Burj Khalifa district adjacent to Downtown Dubai and Business Bay on the Dubai Water Canal. Exploring the balance between solid and void, opaque and transparent, interior and exterior.

Spanning 84,300 square metres, the Opus was designed as two separate towers that coalesce into a singular whole—taking the form of a cube. The cube has been ‘eroded’ in its centre, creating a free-form void that is an important volume of the design in its own right. The two halves of the building on either side of the void are linked by a four-storey atrium at ground level and also connected by an asymmetric 38 metre wide, three-storey bridge 71 metres above the ground.

“The precise orthogonal geometries of the Opus’ elemental glass cube contrast dramatically with the fluidity of the eight-storey void at its centre,” explained Christos Passas

Design Pod with Christos Passas