The Helix Hotel – Abu Dhabi

Leeser Architecture has won a competition for a five-star luxury hotel in Zayed Bay, Abu Dhabi. Called the Helix Hotel for its staggered floor plates, it rests in the bay, partially floating in the water and adjacent to the serpentine Sheik Zayed Bridge currently under construction by designer Zaha Hadid.

With the Helix, Leeser Architecture has devised a new way to consider hotel culture in the Emirates, highlighting elements that are usually unseen, and playfully enlivening those parts that traditionally remain mundane.

With 208 guestrooms arranged around a helical floor, the hotel immediately dispenses with the idea that visitors must engage in the stale paradigms of rigid hallways and atria that characterise a typical hotel stay. The floor constantly shifts in width and pitch as it rises to the top floor, keeping public spaces always in flux.

As the helix winds upward, programmatic elements change from lounges and restaurants on the bay, to meeting rooms and conference facilities, lounges and cafes, to the luxury indoor-outdoor health spa on the fifth floor. The running track on the fifth floor is the only place where the ramping ceases and a flat surface prevails.

As guests make their way up to the suites, remarkable views out onto the Zayed Bay become even more dramatic on the upper floors. At the top of the Helix, the rooftop pool deck features a full-sized swimming pool with a glass bottom, with the water and swimmers visible from eight floors below at ground level. In the restaurant below the lobby, the bay’s waves are so near to the floor plate that they lap up onto the edge of the restaurant inside of the glass curtain wall.

While focusing on unique design, Leeser Architecture is also committed to sound sustainability practices and worked with consultant Atelier Ten to determine the best possible conditions and materials for heat and energy conservation. The hotel is expected to open in 2012.
www.leeser.com