Sleeper 109: Bab Al Shams Reviewed

Through two repeating motifs — the traveller’s chest and the princess’s jewellery — carried from public rooms into private ones. The lobby lounge’s unfolding back bar reads as a grand travel trunk, with backlit compartments for botanical spirits, herb drawers and hand-cut crystal. In the guestrooms the minibars are rendered as luxurious leather luggage, complete with stitched handles and stud detailing.

The jewellery does the same work. Some original resort pieces were kept and reframed to read contemporary; the first artwork a guest meets in the lobby is a textile piece by the Iranian artist Mahsa Baraghani, drawn from the Bedouin jewellery and headdresses worn by Emirati women. In the rooms a backlit etched-mirror artwork shows the princess’s necklaces, layered with glimpses of her veil against a sand-filled landscape. Mashrabiya screens hide seating niches; an entrance loveseat sways.