Bvlgari Resort & Residences Dubai | ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel

Renowned Italian architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, which has created all the Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts to date, designed The Bvlgari Resort Dubai with a purely Italian style. Crafting the property like a fine jewel, the architects chose rare, raw materials according to their colour, texture and feel, sculpting them to shine, beautify and endure – creating a peerless example of luxury hospitality.

The 1.4 million-square-foot Bvlgari Resort Dubai is a first-of-its kind development for Bvlgari, both in terms of scale and magnitude. With its Mediterranean village charm and gardens, the island property blends traditional Italian design with contemporary architecture, embellished by Middle Eastern touches in line with its Dubai location. The island is man-made, the sleek profile of the ‘seahorse’ defining the arcs of sand and rock; an urban oasis and a highly sought-after destination.

The Bvlgari Resort Dubai is designed with the finesse of a jewel in the most perfect bay of this perfect site. The hotel building and the yacht club pavilion are the most precious gems or the clasp of a small necklace composed of glittering architectural gems located along the promenade of the marina. The Bvlgari Villas, located on the shoreline, offer a unique experience among the fragrant gardens of their private courtyards, the deep beachfront and spectacular skyline of the city. Halfway in between the creation of a goldsmith and a sophisticated natural creation, the coral texture characterizes the two main buildings of the hotel. Created on the overlay of horizontal lines, building facades are defined by the lively shadow pattern of coral-like sunscreens, shiny and light like porcelain, though not to be confused with the white marble richly veined with back and gold arabesques of the walls of the hotel podium. A fine oak wood sur face, with long and thin planks, recalls the deck of a ship and clad the interior sur faces. The transparency of the facade, with its almost invisible large sliding doors, completes the perfect readability of this building. While the hotel is broken and articulated to perfectly fit the profile of the promontory which pushes it towards the horizon, the yacht club pavilion rests between the hanging gardens and pools of water with its simple geometric shape, enriched by its envelope built in large vertical transparent panels alternated to stone and teak wood.

The architectural language of the residences is defined by the overlapping wooden terraces which contain the continuous ribbon of the facade interspersed with large glazed sliding doors. This sequence of overlapping, but not aligned planes creates a harmonic and complex disorder, communicating a truly elegant but not formal environment, exclusive but open to spectacular views of the sea and the skyline.

The project aims at integrating with the shapes and intentions present in the island in an intimate way up to becoming a part of it: the use of a limestone reminiscent of the golden sand of the desert, but also sculpted architecture of Southern Italy, solves the continuity with the natural material, man-made, that makes the island. The boundary walls, the podiums and the most solid parts of the system are clad in golden limestone; lava stone and basalt paving create a refined graphic contrast for public space, treated as an “inner” urban environment. This project collects icons of great communicative power, the shadows of the “architectural coral” on the vein of Arabescato marble, the large “Bvlgari chandelier” dotting the bay, the “pool full of jewels” abandoned at its bottom. And the bold, funny and joyful, Bvlgari luxury.

ITALIAN SPIRIT
In the spirit of vintage constructions from the 1930s, architects Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel hand selected or custom-designed every detail of the resort for consistency, comfort and purity, and to maintain an uncompromisingly Italian style throughout. Each high quality piece, from the marble bathtub to the sculpted door handle, is incorporated seamlessly with utmost discernment. In this way, The Bvlgari Resort Dubai was created by one hand, one style, one ethos; the pure integration of an Italian soul, coupled with Bvlgari’s superior approach to luxury. All Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts are created with this focus on preserving several iconic Bvlgari characteristics throughout, while simultaneously incorporating the uniqueness of each destination. Using a light colour palette and a concentration on Italian marble, the firm capitalised on the natural light in Dubai.

At the same time, the architects provided shade from the Dubai sun using brise soleils or matte white lacquered steel parapets – a nod to the traditionally Arabic approach to sun shading which became an iconic part of the resort’s architectural design. Modern and minimalistic, The Bvlgari Resort Dubai layers superior quality materials with tasteful Bvlgari touches. Incarnating bold contrasts, clean, regal lines, and the ubiquity of spaciousness, the property maintains an impeccable elegance, creating a continuity that permeates the property’s every detail.

BVLGARI ICONS AND ETERNITY OF ROME
Few places in the world can attest to the durability of construction that Rome is famous for. Bvlgari, born of Rome, replicates the eternity of its homeland by investing in premium materials. From travertine marble to shining onyx, the Bvlgari Resort Dubai relies on the extensive use of fine materials and finishes to establish the durability and timelessness incarnated by its home country. Warm, polished woods, rare, hand-selected marble, and superior textiles establish the property’s shining, pastel grandeur. Meanwhile, the residential furniture in every room hails from Italy’s most outstanding luxury brands, each piece designed or chosen by Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, and often tailor-made for the property. The sheer amount of detail that goes into each resort is exemplified in the exquisitely unique cuts of marble used as structures and decoration throughout The Bvlgari Resort Dubai. During its construction, architects and artisans traveled extensively to research and hand-select singular marble slabs at quarries, coming both from Italy and every part of the world. From the world renowned Italian city of Carrara the architects selected the finest quality of ‘Arabescato’ marble for the external walls of the resort, ‘Breccia medicea’ for the Lobby and ‘Calacatta Viola’ for the La Galleria floors. The rooms’ bathrooms are covered with ‘Trevi’ travertine from Tivoli that echoes Rome’s grandeur, while a scenographic ‘Portoro’ wall is the Il Bar backdrop. A ‘Shanxi Black Granite’ from Mongolia covers most of the public areas’ floors while the ‘Imperial green marble from Brazil enriches the walls of the boardroom. In the spa, made of ‘Grey Vicenza’ stone walls, the reception desk is made of the most precious Green Onyx from Iran cut with the ‘book matched’ technique that allows a near mirror image of its veins and peculiarities – a true marvel of nature. The Green Onyx is also present on one of the hammam walls while the ‘Aphyon’ marble for Turkey takes centre stage in all the others parts of the room. The Villas, with walls made of Limestone from India, feature private pools made of rare ‘Green Sukabumi’ stone from Indonesia. Working the marbles is a process comparable to the creation of pieces of Bvlgari jewellery. Beginning with a rough stone, it is then crafted, cut and polished with care and experience, into a fine jewel.

While the Bvlgari Hotels & Resorts collection has evolved to include a new location, a Bvlgari property is always born of the same Roman spirit. This is reflected in iconic Bvlgari characteristics that are familiar, emblematic and unchanging. Key touches identify and strengthen the brand across its portfolio, powerful in their design distinction, and expected by Bvlgari guests. In every Bvlgari property guests find a similar design philosophy: clean lines, peerless materials and furnishings, and a welcoming feeling of spaciousness.

Iconic Bvlgari photographs, often of vintage celebrities dating to the Dolce Vita, are framed above common areas with a nod to BVLGARI’S red-carpet connections. Original jewellery sketches from the Bvlgari archives are placed tastefully within rooms or in hallways, recalling the more than 130-years of Roman jewellery design history. Throughout the property, a repeated use of the custom-design ‘Maglia Pantheon’ mesh pattern recalls the ornamentation of the historic Roman Pantheon’s floor, as it is a part of the architectural tradition of Baroque Rome: an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Bvlgari. The pattern features intricate bronze lattice-work, as well as Bvlgari’s eight-pointed star motif which appeared first as an inlay in the vestibule of Bvlgari’s flagship Via dei Condotti boutique. The eight-pointed star, inspired by the Campidoglio floor in Rome, shines anew in the lobby of The Bvlgari Resort Dubai, as a now familiar emblem the brand. The Maglia Pantheon is echoed in places such as light fixtures, in the space divider screen that greets guests in the lobby, in Il Ristorante as a backdrop and as an elegant table divider. The oval Bvlgari bar is an indispensable icon within the Bvlgari hospitality collection. Its form is rumoured to be inspired by the famed Fontana della Barcaccia fountain, located just outside Bvlgari’s Roman boutique in Rome’s elegant shopping street, Via Condotti. Its oval shape only enhances the social experience.

LANDSCAPING
Recalling a Mediterranean garden, the luxurious low-rise design of the Bvlgari Resort Dubai creates an earthy, lush and welcoming space, and a contrast to the icons of the more urban, high-rise Dubai landscape. Winding throughout the property, native and imported plants, such as Palms, Olive, Lemon trees, Rosemary bushes and flowers bring colour and life to Jumeira Bay. Bvlgari’s landscape designers brought hundreds of trees onto the island, including Australian baobab trees, to establish a natural, verdant setting, a Mediterranean garden in the middle of the sea. The hidden gem La Limonaia, the ‘lemon garden’ homes the resident array of birds and wildlife. Sculpted as a geometric Italian garden with a birch walkway, La Limonaia recalls an ancient Roman garden design, framed by the marble of the resort. Lanterns with the Maglia Pantheon design subtly light the walkways for a space which is available for daytime or evening events.