Macau. Zaha Hadid Architects unveils Morpheus

With 32 million tourists in 2017, Macau has confirmed its position as Asia’s most popular entertainment destination. In this context, Zaha Hadid Architects has completed Morpheus, a 40-storey tower which hosts a complex programme within a single envelope. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) was commissioned to build the hotel in 2012. At that time, foundations were already in place of a condominium tower that did not progress.

ZHA designed the Morpheus tower as an extrusion of the existing abandoned foundations; using this rectangular footprint to define a 40-storey building of two internal vertical circulation cores connected at podium and roof levels where the many guest amenities were required. The high-rise exoskeleton presents a rich pattern of structural members at lower levels progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit. The structure creates a continuity between interior and exterior spaces, which pattern is repeated and moulded according to the scale of the designed piece.