ETA Hotel Dubai : Images + Information

ETA Hotel, Dubai - Project Description from Sanjay Puri Architects, Nov 2007: The ETA Hotel at Dubai is a small boutique business hotel with 68 rooms, a restaurant and lounge bar, health club, and a roof top pool. The plot is situated in a high-density commercial neighborhood with commercial buildings of small and similar properties along the entire street on either side. As a complete deviation from the existing buildings in the surroundings, the entire hotel is evolved from the abstraction of trapezoidal planes that constitute the outer skin of the hotel. The trapezoidal planes fold out from a 6.0 M high entrance lobby accentuating it, before undulating along all sides vertically upwards, until it folds back creating a roof top health club and pool area. This concrete skin is punctuated by a graphical composition of geometric openings derived from an Islamic motif thus relating it to the city heritage while creating a unique sculptural form. The openings on the exterior allow diffused light to enter the rooms through balcony spaces thus creating a cooling effect and making air conditioning more effective since temperatures in Dubai for most of the year are as high 40 degrees. The balcony areas to each room thus are provided with increased privacy since the adjacent buildings are extremely close.