In the emirate’s skyscraper-filled Burj Khalifa district, Opus ME Dubai of the Meliá Hotels International chain is in a building that Zaha Hadid herself designed before dying in 2016. In a play of solids and hollows, opacity and transparency, the scheme presents two towers set apart but uniting to form a cube gutted at the center. The two parts are connected by a four-height atrium at ground level and by a 38-meter-wide, three-story asymmetrical bridge set at an altitude of 71 meters. The 84,300-square-meter glass-clad building contains 75 rooms and 19 suites, plus restaurants, cafés, and offices. Depending on occupation, ventilation and lighting are automatically adjusted by sensors to reduce energy consumption. 

Furniture pieces by Zaha Hadid Design are placed all over the hotel, including the ‘Opus’ beds and the ‘Vitae’ series of bathroom equipment, which Hadid designed for Noken Porcelanosa in 2015.