Marriott Hotel
New 5 star hotel in Kalbooh Bay, Muscat, Oman
JW Marriott as the operator and Promco Developments appointed Woods Bagot Dubai to create an exciting waterfront destination in the heart of the waterfront historic city of Muscat, Oman.
Carolyn McLean led the Woods Bagot design team that designed the new exterior and interior for the Hotel, Serviced Apartments and retail “Souk” and public promenade.
The serviced apartments design was influenced by the local Omani architectural language of white orthogonal hillside terraced construction and decorative windows and screens.
Kalbooh Bay in Muscat, Oman has to be one of the most spectacular sites for any project I have ever undertaken. Huge, rocky mountains cascade directly to the clear blue waters of the Gulf of Oman. The design brief from the client was to integrate traditional design elements of Omani Architecture with contemporary hotel planning.
The traditional Omani architectural elements that we proposed included white wash external walls, small openings and geometric screens.
Each hotel room had to have ocean views and with the curved shape of the coastline, this inspired a curvilinear design response which flowed around the coastline. The hotel was stepped back towards the mountains to provide large balconies and to reduce the aesthetic bulk of the building. It was also stepped at the ends to provide a fine edge to each end and hotel suites were located at these ends with spectacular views and large entertaining terraces.
'Souk' is the Arabic word for markets and shops. We created a 3 level "souk" retail centre including waterfront cafes and shisha bars. This 3 level structure was completely covered by a roof garden to provide a grass picnic area for those who wished to enjoy the sea breezes without having to spend money in the cafes and shops. This was agreed with the Ministry of Tourism as part of the development approval.