Desert Hotel, United Arab Emirates

Design proposals for £60m drive-in country club with apartments, hotel, marina and sports facilities. Various water environments are developed as running water, waterfalls, fountains, diving pools, rock pools, streams, and the sea itself. The gestural curvilinear plan form derives from geography and caligraphy, and the repeat sister building anticipates the client's expansion needs.
Leaving the city the merc glides through shimmering surfaces of vacancy. The heat is complete, impenetrable. Occasionally visible is an edge of azure blue. Our destination is hard to make out, a glistening tertiary plane. An unattended gate slides open to reveal a raked cutting, sharply horizontal. The silver curved roof is laced with diachroic cell networks, circulation towers act as wind tunnels, and the rear is screened with brise soleil. The main entrance is dominated by a circular glass diving pool rising through the roof. Sweeping marble floors extend effortlessly to overlapping terraces with pools and exotic plants. Curving walls define shaded areas for eating and relaxing. The apartments are above a projecting terrace linked by steps, ramps, and waterfalls to the ground. Enclosed, exclusive, remote, the building is mirrored and supported on stilts off-shore. Accessed by service tunnel, speed boat and helicopter, it supports hotel and marina facilities and a range of immaculate restaurants looking out to sea.