Sitting over the water at Al Bateen Marina, its angular white exoskeleton of triangulated concrete bracing visible from across the harbour, the building that houses the Abu Dhabi EDITION was designed by Morphosis Architects — Thom Mayne's Los Angeles practice — as a deliberate geometric provocation against Abu Dhabi's more conventionally curved skyline. The faceted, multi-angled tower form, wrapped in a diagrid structural cage, gives the facade the character of a cut gemstone rather than a conventional hotel block, the white lattice casting deep shadow patterns across the glazed balconies throughout the day. Ian Schrager's EDITION brand has always worked the tension between architectural ambition and interior warmth, and the interiors here follow that discipline carefully. Guest rooms are finished in herringbone-laid oak parquet, with full-height oak panelling anchoring the headboard walls and floor-to-ceiling glazing framing marina and skyline views with equal confidence in both daylight and at night. The bar employs warm timber wall panelling hung gallery-dense with gold-framed artworks — a mix of abstract prints and text pieces — above tufted teal banquettes and olive velvet lounge chairs arranged around a marble-fronted back bar. The pool deck, shaded by teak-framed pergolas and dense plantings of mature trees, softens the sculptural hardness of the architecture behind it into something considerably more human in scale. The property holds 198 rooms across its upper floors.

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