Aera: Redefining Luxury Hospitality in Urban Settings

A Revolutionary Concept by Tara Metress

The vertical resort design, Aera, includes seven districts: dining, art, fashion, drama, garden, wellness, and family, to intrigue travelers and locals. Serving as an escape in the city, the walking trails lined with greenery will also contain vegetables and herbs that the dining district will use for fresh ingredients. The sky deck includes a pool with a bird's eye view of the city, giving guests the illusion of flying.

Our team envisions leveraging a durable, yet light material that would allow for translucency through architectural fabric, similar to sailcloth. The selection of using a fiberglass mesh coated with PTFE (a durable polymer called Polytetrafluoroethylene), more commonly known as Teflon for its non-stick characteristics and inertness, would allow the architectural fabric to form the building’s unique shape, allowing natural light into the structure to support the biophilic design, and create iconic views both inside and outside the vertical destination.

Aera is envisioned to be approximately 300m high, with 200 rooms. All rooms would have a balcony, some of which may open into the climate-controlled atria. The idea is that the vertical resort will also offer amenities, as seen in every luxury resort, such as various pools, culinary options, spa, wellness sections, a museum, and entertainment zones.

The vertical resort relates to the character and culture of its urban context, with selected views out over the city and opportunities to explore the surrounding city’s culture, but equally allows for a true sense of escape from the stresses and challenges of the metropolis. Vertical architecture also minimizes the footprint in areas where land is precious in value and availability, reducing the environmental impact on the surrounding land and decreasing flights by encouraging domestic travel.

The UAE, KSA, and China are potential locations for the completed project. Following the pandemic and awareness of increasing carbon emissions and climate change, our team set out to find a solution to reduce travel and bring a resort destination into urban settings, ultimately eliminating air travel and increasing domestic travel. As part of our exploratory research to examine what might be affecting the future of the resort product, our team conducted interviews with developers, operators, and investors, to understand their thoughts on the definition of a traditional resort. The next portion of the discussion was to decipher what elements from the conventional resort should be applied or adapted to create a better guest experience, increase the average stay duration, and meet market standards for luxury amenities. From this, OBMI decided to create a new hotel category and product for luxury hospitality in urban settings, and the concept of the vertical resort was set into motion.

The reality of the future of resort design is that solid consumer trends drive it, and we must use those trends to explore the upcoming concepts. Each insight will drive the innovation to create a new reality for hospitality design. By studying the shift in traveler's behaviors, our team found that the pressures of Climate Change are driving transformation. Now, people want to feel good about their vacation and travel. Conceptualizing a brand new idea for resort design that gives back to the community, inspires health and wellness, and offers travelers the luxury experience of a resort when in a city, allowed our team to explore a radically new approach to the resort product.

To redefine luxury hospitality in urban settings, OBMI created a revolutionary concept, Aera Vertical Resort. Leveraging vertical architecture to minimize the footprint and impact where land is precious in value and availability, Aera brings visual connectivity across the various floors and unique city perspectives not found in the horizontal resort journey. A destination in the middle of a city, Aera offers seven districts: dining, art, fashion, drama, garden, wellness, and family. With more experiences for travelers and locals of all ages, length of stay and visits increase exponentially.

This Design was awarded Bronze in A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2022. Bronze A' Design Award: Bestowed upon outstanding and creatively ingenious designs that authenticate experience and resourcefulness. Esteemed for incorporating best practices in art, science, design, and technology, they exhibit strong technical and creative skills and contribute to quality of life improvements, making the world a better place.