SO/ Uptown Hotel, Dubai

SO/ Uptown Dubai, the first of its kind in the Middle East, is a contemporary luxury lifestyle hotel that brilliantly blends energy, glamour, and the Utopian dreams of Dubai. The hotel’s interiors area celebration of avant-garde art, seamlessly integrating art into every space, creating a distinct identity while maintaining a cohesive theme.

This joint submission by Woods Bagot and Capsule Arts showcases the hotel’s innovative approach to art integration, offering an emotionally enriching journey that fosters curiosity and intrigue. The complex and unexpected artworks, coupled with cutting-edge techniques, set a new standard for contemporary luxury hotels, making SO/ Uptown Dubai a trailblazer in the region’s hospitality landscape.

From the moment you step through the doors of SO/ Uptown Dubai you enter an unexpected world where you’re immersed in a kaleidoscopic experience that transcends boundaries. Immediately you’re taken on a captivating journey through nature that stimulates the senses-origami birds flutter and disappear against a surreal and vivid density of lush foliage and renaissance blooms, setting the tone for a unique and enchanting stay.

This sophisticated and awe-inspiring masterpiece defies conventions with its bold and enthralling design. Enchasing the lobby’s imposing columns, the artwork reaches 10 metres high and uses lenticular technology. This allows the viewer’s eye to concurrently view alternating sections of multiple images. It’s this effect that gives the appearance of birds in flight moving across the landscape as you view the artwork from different angles.

Towards the lifts, guests move through a tunnel like space where at the end a sculpture of abroad figure inspired by Laocoön–a legend in Greek and Roman mythology, emerges from the stone.

For the Ballroom and Pre-function areas, artworks reimagine traditional architecture into wondrous compositions. Artist Alex Raynaud created digital artworks exploring layers of time, echoing kaleidoscopic visuals by distorting overlapping architectural elements. This effect was emphasised with 3D cut layers creating depth and intrigue.Adorning the walls and ceiling of the ballroom are classic European architecture drawings, blended with Islamic geometry in a modern connection of cultures. The outcome gives the space a feeling that is contemporary and ancient at the same time. A place where past and present are aligned and coexisting.

Servicing this area are the public washrooms where time and space is warped, momentarily distorting your sense of reality as you enter the room. At the centre of a swirling vortex is a wall clock installation, a nod to the surrealist pioneer Salvator Dali who transcended the art world with his foray into fashion. Upon entering the Spa, the artwork empowers an emotional transition that takes you from wild and playful to calm and centred. Directional lines form an organic composition that resembles a natural landscape, while textures and layers unveil themselves as you get closer changing perceptions.

As guests retreat to their rooms, their journey leads them to unexpected secret passages where they are greeted by a female visage that plays with symmetry and female image through deconstruction, morphing classical beauty and contemporary fashion.

Entering the corridors, doors are mysteriously concealed by splashes of gold and classical statues transform into modern polygonal figures. This visually captivating display creates a defining moment in the guest’s hotel experience as it invites viewers to participate in a catwalk exhibit, echoing the hotel’s commitment to creating an immersive and experiential space.