The Style and Ornamentation of the Yas Hotel

Image from: (Architect Magazine, 2012)

The architects that designed the Yas Hotel thought seriously of how to integrate both style and ornamentation. The architects designed a stylized lattice steel structure over the hotel and the formula one racetrack, as well as the addition of glass and light for ornamentation on the Yas Hotel.

10 years ago, the Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi was constructed to commemorate the city’s new image. From the outside the hotel looks like a piece of art with its steel and glass shell that straddles the Yas Marina Circuit Formula One racetrack. “The team at Asymptote Architecture designed the exterior steel-and-glass latticework, which it calls a gridshell, to mirror and capture the speed, streamlined form, and dynamic energy of Formula One racing” (Architect Magazine, 2012). The distinct look of the grid-shell draped over the Yas Hotel gives it a sleek style fit for the racetrack it was initially built for.

The grid structure of the Yas Hotel has glass ornamentation that plays a practical purpose in the desert heat in Abu Dhabi. The glass refracts the heat of the sun keeping the hotel and surrounding areas cool and shaded. Another ornamentation on the grid shell of Yas Hotel is the “LED luminaire…integrated into each of the 5,000 fritted glass panels that make up the faceted surface” lighting up the Abu Dhabi night (Architect Magazine, 2012).

The streamline form of the steel and glass structure over top of the Yas Hotel makes it a distinctive feature in the Abu Dhabi skyline. Its style and ornamentation of the hotel fits perfectly with the commemorative nature of its construction.

References:

Architect Magazine. (2012, July 17). The Yas Hotel. Architectmagazine.Com. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/the-yas-hotel

Forster, D. [Danny Forster]. (2019, February 4). Build It Bigger - Yas Hotel [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/315279775