BULGARI HOTEL IN DUBAI

2020-07-14

Where once was just desert is now the ideal playing field for innovative architecture. Dubai has become a melting pot for spectacular construction. With their design for a luxury hotel, Citterio & Viel had a more complex goal in mind. The result is a mixture of classic design in the style of the world-renowned Roman jeweller, contemporary Italian architecture and Arab ornamentation.

Luxury has many names. One of the most well known: “Bulgari”. The jeweller from Rome originally focused on jewellery and jewellery alone. But because such a successful brand could be transformed into much more, the Rome-based company opted for a “brand scope”, that is to transfer its brand identity to related product fields such as leather goods, watches or perfumes. In 2001, they entered into a cooperation with hotel chain Marriott, with the first Bulgari Hotels opening in 2004. And as the chain belongs to the empire of the LVMH group of luxury goods, it is continually expanded. Thus, the new 5-star hotels were only constructed in regions where embellishment overtakes modesty, luxury is welcome and better yet showcased almost aggressively. Besides London, Milan and Moscow, this mainly includes prospering Asian metropolises in the Near and Far East – and most recently Dubai.

Detailed perfection

For architects Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, who are regularly responsible for designing Bulgari Hotels, this job in Dubai posed a special challenge. After all, placative spectacles are of no use in cities that pull out all the architectural stops just for the fair. What’s left to stand out from the crowd is absolute perfection down to the last detail that makes for a special ambience Bulgari wants to be known for. The large architectural structure comprising the 101-room hotel is in no way spectacular. In its urban layout, the main building, the 20 private hotel villas, six additional residential buildings with 173 suites, 15 more private residential houses and the first Bulgari marina with yacht club are intended to be reminiscent of a traditional fishing village in Southern Italy. All the constructions are located at the start of the artificial Jumeirah Bay Island, which is supposed to have the shape of a seahorse seen from space. The other artificial islands “The Palm” and “The World” are located in the immediate vicinity.

Islamic ornamentation

The goal was a mixture of classic design in the style of Bulgari, contemporary Italian architecture and Middle Eastern appeal. To achieve this, the methods, but not the form, of traditional Islamic ornamentation provided the inspiration for the numerous surfaces that characterise both the hotel interior and facade. In Arabia, the Islamic prohibition of images resulted in the development of an especially sophisticated ornamentation. But above all, visitors remember the complex asymmetry of the facade of the Bulgari, similar to thick branches of coral. As vertical surfaces, they are intertwined with the Moorish Mashrabiya, the semi-transparent lattices providing privacy while zoning spaces. Arranged horizontally, they are transformed into a classical “brise soleil”, which translates literally to “sun-breaker”. These components mainly introduced to modern architecture by Le Corbusier also originate from the Northern African and Arabic regions, where they also served as a means of protection against the sun. In its latest, highly decorative form, the successful symbiosis of European and Middle Eastern luxury at Bulgari Dubai can essentially be attributed to the hotel’s “brise soleil”.

Hörmann expertise:

Collective garage doors and rolling shutters

The facades of the villas are cladded with light, beige-coloured stone slabs. The garages adjacent to the main building stand out with their narrow, auburn timber panels. Cladded with the same material as the facade, two Hörmann ET 500 collective garage doors provide access to the garage. At the same time, they form a contrast, as the doors are positioned a bit inside, not flush with the facade. Hörmann also provided additional sectional doors, consisting of 42-mm-thick door sections with PU foam infill. The surface consists of powder-coated steel featuring an embossed wave profile, producing attractive light and shadow effects. Some of these doors are controlled via a WA-300 and the others via a SupraMatic HT operator. The underground garage is accessed via Decotherm DD series rolling shutters, offering high opening speeds and controlled via a direct drive operator. The rolling shutters have a minimal fitting depth and roll up behind the lintel during opening to save space.