The Yas Hotel Abu Dhabi, is nearing completion; a new luxury destination set to open in October this year.

Asymptote Architecture, the award-winning, New York-based practice, are the designers behind The Yas Hotel; a 500-room, 85,000-square-metre complex in the UAE. Asymptote was awarded the commission to design the buildings and environs through a closed competition two years ago targeting an opening date of October 30, 2009 to coincide with the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The hotel will be one of the main architectural features of an ambitious 36-billion-dollar Yas Marina development and accompanying Formula 1 raceway circuit, which is also nearing completion. Asymptote's founders and partners, Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture envisioned an architectural landmark embodying various key influences and inspirations ranging from the aesthetics and forms associated with speed, movement and spectacle to the artistry and geometries forming the basis of ancient Islamic art and craft traditions. Of key architectural and engineering significance is the main feature of the project's design, a 217-meter expanse of sweeping, curvilinear forms constructed of steel and 5,800 pivoting diamond-shaped glass panels. This Grid-Shell component affords the building an architecture comprised of an atmospheric-like veil that contains two hotel towers and a link bridge constructed as a monocoque sculpted steel object passing above the Formula 1 track that makes its way through the building complex. The Grid-Shell visually connects and fuses the entire complex together while producing optical effects and spectral reflections that play against the surrounding sky, sea and desert landscape.

The architecture as a whole “performs” as both an environmentally responsive solution as well as an architecture of spectacle and event. Hani Rashid described the building’s design and its architecture as: “...a perfect union and harmonious interplay between elegance and spectacle. The search here was inspired by what one could call the 'art' and poetics of motor racing, specifically Formula 1, coupled with the making of a place that celebrates Abu Dhabi as a cultural and technological tour de force.”