Sheraton Dubai Mall of the Emirates Hotel

DUBAI, UAE

The Sheraton Dubai Mall of the Emirates Hotel is directly connected to the world-renowned Mall of the Emirates. It is also within walking distance of important landmarks and public transport.

The lighting solutions for the Reception Desk and Reading Lounge were created in cooperation with Godwin Austen Johnson Architects based in Dubai. The biggest lighting installation is located in the hotel lobby – it is 11 meters high, 10 meters wide, 4.5 meters deep and it weighs 1759 kg. It is composed of 124 geometrical shapes in amber, clear and bronze colours.

The creation of this suspended sculptural lighting feature began with the simple idea of deconstructing Arabic geometries. In the beginning, there was the eight pointed star, from which the form was extruded, developed and rotated into intersecting cubes. Afterwards, 3D diamond shapes, which normally surround the Arabic eight pointed star, were developed. The interior designers played with the concepts of transparency and reflection to fill in the high narrow space and to support the overall size of the room. Their aim was to shift the viewer’s experience between the elements from seeing beyond and through the sculpture and offsetting against areas of reflection in order to multiply elements of the suspension. The use of double sided mirror finish glass was employed to encase random shapes. This allows the viewer to see multiple light sources as reflections, where in fact there would only be one. This was a difficult installation as it was a refurbishment at 10 meters height where space and access are limited.

Credit (Interior Designer): Godwin Austen Johnson Architects, Dubai, UAE