Macau’s Hotels as Architecture: A Guide to Cotai’s Zaha Hadid, Versace and Lagerfeld Towers
Cotai's hotels read as architecture: Zaha Hadid's exoskeleton, KPF's glass-roofed atrium, fashion-house interiors and Wynn's floral spectacle.
On land reclaimed between two islands, Cotai’s resort owners have spent a decade commissioning buildings from well-known architects and designers. The district can be walked as an exhibition of ambitious hotel design, one that rewards looking at structure and interiors rather than at the casino floors.
The building as sculpture
At City of Dreams, Morpheus is the district’s most singular building. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, it is a monolithic tower of about 40 storeys wrapped in a free-form steel exoskeleton, which leaves the interiors free of columns and carves a large void through the middle, an urban window linking the hotel to the city. The flowing forms draw on Chinese jade carving.
MGM Cotai asks for a different reading. Kohn Pedersen Fox designed a hotel tower of eight stacked boxes above The Spectacle, a column-free atrium under a steel grid-shell glass roof that is among the largest of its kind. Its architect left the tower open to interpretation, and some see a mountain and others stacked jewel boxes.
Fashion houses as designers
Two towers of Grand Lisboa Palace Resort are branded interiors. The Karl Lagerfeld Macau offers modern Chinoiserie and a large book-lined lounge, while Palazzo Versace Macau is the house’s first hotel in Asia, with its characteristic baroque excess.
Grand Lisboa Palace itself is a resort of Chinoiserie rooms around its Jardim Secreto gardens, closer to a country house than to a casino lobby.
Spectacle and calm
Wynn Palace is built on theatre. Wynn Palace wraps two towers around an eight-acre lake, with a performance fountain, large floral sculptures that change with the season and an enclosed cable-car SkyCab that carries guests along the water. Restored Qing-dynasty porcelain sits in cases along the main routes.
For something quieter, Raffles at Galaxy Macau is an all-suite hotel with butler service, and Andaz Macau draws its interiors from old Taipa.
Practical
Macau is close to Hong Kong by ferry or bridge, so a Cotai stay combines easily with the Hong Kong hotel guide and with the dining guide to Macau.
Sources: Designboom: Morpheus by Zaha Hadid Architects; Asia Property Awards: The Spectacle by MGM Cotai; Macau Holiday: Wynn Palace. Check the official websites for current information.
Stay
Hotels in this guide
MacauThe Karl Lagerfeld MacauInteriors wholly designed by Karl Lagerfeld.MacauPalazzo Versace MacauThe Italian fashion house's first Asian hotel: 271 rooms of mosaic.
MacauW Macau – Studio CityMarriott's W brand in Macau: 557 cinema-themed rooms by Zaha Hadid Architects at Studio City.MacauMGM CotaiKPF's stacked jewellery boxes on the Cotai Strip: about 1,400 rooms.MacauGrand Lisboa Palace MacauSJM's Cotai flagship: 1,350 Chinoiserie rooms of at least 60 square metres around the Jardim Secreto gardens.Macau · WynnWynn PalaceA grand Cotai resort known for its monumental floral sculptures, its performance lake and its aerial SkyCab.
MacauAndaz MacauA 700-room lifestyle hotel at Galaxy Macau, linked to the arena and convention centre.
Macau · RafflesRaffles at Galaxy MacauAn all-suite hotel within the Galaxy Macau resort, offering Raffles' butler service and a calmer.Journal
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