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Trading Up: Neon brights arranged with Mondrian-like precision move this hotel beyond business class.
By Mary Scoviak
The new Traders Hotel in the Qaryat Al Beri complex (in the area called Between the Bridges) in Abu Dhabi is a powerful reminder that color can be the most important single item in a designer's tool kit. “We wanted to avoid the usual safe, muesli colors of hotels in the region,” says Simon Black, interior architect and project leader, Enigma Design, Abu Dhabi. “Our client [hotel owner Al Jaber Group] understood that and gave us the freedom to pursue a colorful, textural scheme.”
Taking full advantage of that support, Enigma's team used strategic shots of chartreuse, magenta, sunflower yellow and orange to thread the edgy design theme throughout the 301-room business-class hotel. Color makes big statements, as in the pebbly gold-toned panels that dominate one of the lobby walls or the backlit lime rectangles that front the reception desk. But it also offers small asides, like a hot-pink picture frame or a slice of green glass above a towel bar.
Since the architectural framework largely favors sand tones, this strong palette is enough to define the focal points of both public and private spaces, especially when texture and shape come into play. Chartreuse shines in the translucent vases flanking the entry and shimmers in the crushed velvet upholstery of the banquettes and armchairs in the urban-chic Afyä restaurant. Icy blue glows in a stripe above the open kitchen, but takes on more depth in the hotel's artwork or as an accent in guestroom fabrics. Murals that straddle 2D and 3D work alongside unobtrusive extras like pillows and throws on the beds to weave the bold hues together.
The designers emphasized the interplay of translucence and reflection, not only as a way to modulate the effect of color but also to keep it from being too saturated. “In the lobby, we used cream porcelain floor tiles together with reflective materials like kiln-formed glass. The organic patterns of the glass contrast with the geometric envelope,” Black says. For further intensity, most items in the interiors are back-, side- and top-lit to create depth of field.
The fact that Traders shares a beachfront site with its ultra-luxe sister, the Shangri-La Qaryat Al Beri, made it crucial to find a unique character for this upscale hotel. “That was the most challenging part,” says Black, whose firm also designed the Shangri-La. “Traders had to be functional and pleasing and representative of the Shangri-La brand, but in a totally different aesthetic.” Thanks to the color-drenched contemporary-retro design, the Traders can bridge the gap from business to lifestyle.
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