City of Dreams
Resolution of public area & Hard Rock Hotel design to maintain project milestones.
Sector: Hotels / Clubhouses
Country: Macau
Client: Melco Crown Development Ltd
Services: Interior Design
Year: 2008
Budget: $4.5 billion USD
Size: 500,000m2
“The City of Dreams is a massive and exciting addition to the Cotai Strip, Macau (the Las Vegas of Asia). MAP was appointed by the client to resolve all public design areas in order to maintain the construction program. This included working on the podium shell and core, Retail Street and the Hard Rock Hotel public areas and suites.
The sheer scale of the project brought challenges in the areas of communications between client, various contractors and the design management teams. Time was also of essence – when MAP joined the project contracts were being awarded. The brief also changed along the way and MAP was invited to redesign the retail areas and take on the interior design of the Hard Rock Hotel. MAP boosted its team, adding 15 designers in order to quickly produce high-quality solutions in tight time frames, under extreme pressure.
Within the City of Dreams the client wanted to create a high street of luxury brand retail outlets to encourage lavish spending. MAP needed to connect the high end retail with the architecture of the space and took inspiration from Christo’s wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris, a city synonymous with luxury brands. MAP liked this imagery as it was a high-profile, bizarre art event at the time and at a simpler level, the art of wrapping, is for buying and giving gifts.
MAP worked closely with the contractors to produce a double curvature wrapping in GRG, employing 11 different moulds along the kilometer long shopping strip. At a more detailed level, MAP recommended hand-blown chandeliers by Lasvit of Czechoslovakia to add sophistication. Their installations are stunning and compliment the overall brief.
MAP helped present design solutions to build the ‘Bubble’, home of the Dragon’s Treasure Show, an immersive multimedia 360 degree experience. The ‘Bubble’ is of ellipsoid geometry – a highly complex proposition which required a high degree of technical skill to resolve all the elements.
The Portals were the public space areas linking the retail, casino, and entertainment and hotel spaces. Each portal required its own unique architectural character to maintain the excitement as visitors explored the City of Dreams.
Also see the Hard Rock Hotel Project.”
