Grand Hyatt Dubai
A 10-meter light installation of 750 pieces for Andiamo!, and the place where I moved into graphic design.
Grand Hyatt Dubai · 2017–2021 · Installation design, graphic design
The brief
Andiamo!, the hotel's Italian restaurant, was due for a renovation. The management wanted a centerpiece that felt extravagant and otherworldly, with a sense of motion. It would hang above a 10-meter high table with no seats, where guests gather over drinks.
By then I had moved to Hyatt Place, so I designed it as Hyatt taskforce work.
The Idea
A ceiling that moves. Around 750 vertical pieces in four materials catch the light and reflect the room, and some of them sway gently above the table.
The work
I designed it in SketchUp with parametric plugins, combining thin plates of mirror-finish stainless steel and brushed aluminum with clear acrylic rods and timber rods.
The metal plates hang on wires from a timber ceiling, so they move with the air. The timber and acrylic rods are fixed in place. Lights sit above the ceiling on each acrylic rod, hidden from below, so the light glows through the rods.
The hotel's engineering team fabricated it, partly in-house and partly through suppliers, and I supervised the installation against the design. It was completed in May 2021.
Where Graphic design started
I joined Grand Hyatt Dubai in 2017 as an ecosystem engineer, with a degree in landscape architecture. When the hotel's designer was overloaded, I picked up smaller graphic design jobs, and learned Grand Hyatt's brand standards and tone of voice along the way.
After COVID-19, I supported other Hyatt properties, including Hyatt Regency, Andaz, and Hyatt Place. Five weeks into helping Hyatt Place, they offered me a role as they got ready to reopen.
