Zaha Hadid Sculpture at London Design Festival

WORDS Debbie Loots RENDERINGS Zaha Hadid Architects

Famed architect Zaha Hadid’s gleaming sculpture Crest will be installed across the Victoria and Alfred pond during the London Design Festival, from 13 to 21 September 2014.

Commissioned by ME by Meliá, the Meliá Hotels International’s lifestyle brand, Crest is a suspended installation hovering over the pond of the V&A’s John Madejski Garden, celebrating the 2016 launch of the new ME Dubai Hotel designed by Zaha Hadid.

Thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the annual London Design Festival and see Zaha’s futuristic vision converse with its historic surrounds, before the sculpture gets dismantled and relocated to its permanent home on the grounds of the new ME Dubai Hotel. Here, according to Zaha, it will continue, “to explore the relationships between fluid and Cartesian, solid and void, surface and structure inherent within the hotel’s design.”

The new ME Dubai hotel consists of 100 rooms and is based in the Opus building in the Burj Khalifa District. It will also be home to four penthouse suites, each with a private roof terrace, as well as the group’s signature Suite ME. Guests can expect to eat like royalty in the hotel’s Michelin-star restaurant.

CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Mr. Escarrer, says, “We are very excited that this spectacular piece of public art at London Design Festival will launch ME Dubai. The ME brand is centred on culture and design and this continues our series of renowned collaborative partnerships following the launch of Foster + Partners’ ME London last year.”

Watch out for more of Zaha Hadid’s shapely designs, she’s got another hotel up her sleeve: Macau’s City of Dreams hotel tower is opening early in 2017.

londondesignfestival.com