The Palm Jumeirah is a major real estate project based on land reclamation. Visible from space, the project is clearly succeeding in its mission to grab the world’s attention.
A crescent-shaped island protects the Palm itself from wave action coming from the open waters of the Gulf. Its two key sites are the tips at either end, which each enjoy almost 270-degree water views. On one of those tips is the Rixos Hotel.
A belt of palm and tree planting provides shaded spaces spilling out from the main hotel building at the top of the beach. This “forest” creates a filtered, dappled light, easing the transition between the controlled light of the interior of the hotel and the bright outdoor sunlight.
As for amenities, this shaded area accommodates outdoor dining terraces and rentable cabanas facing the main swimming pool and looks out at the waters of the Gulf beyond the pool. Because it leads down to the land edge of the pool, it creates a semi-protected space. Here people can sit enclosed while overlooking the open expanse of the pool itself, in an attractive “prospect-refuge” condition that the relationship between the two spaces creates.
Beyond the pool, a beach leads down to the water’s edge.
