Marsa Malaz Kempinski: Precious Jewel on the Sea

Description

Marsa Malaz Kempinski is located at The Pearl-Qatar, the recognizable man-made island off the coast of Doha. It showcases the finest European architecture, blended with traditional Arabian elements in all of it 281 luxurious rooms, including 69 suites, 2 Presidential suites and 2 Royal suites. The private beach reserved for guests is 150 metres long. Guests also have at their disposal a tennis court, a jogging trail on the island, and a fine technical base for practising nautical sports. From the exterior, the enchanted castle is all a profusion of terraces, balconies, walkways, domes of all sizes, facades that advance and recede kaleidoscopically, a multi-faceted village with a medieval aura. The hotel boasts 37 domes that embellish and anchor the construction to the Arabic tradition. Architect Ibrahim Mohamed Jaidah took his inspiration from two sources: the city of Venice - for centuries the fulcrum of trade between the Christian West and the Arabic East, with its ample spaces and intimate passageways, the narrow alleys that hark back to Arabic suks with unexpected openings toward the sea - and the Arabian Deco style, very fashionable in the 1950s and 1960s, which introduced a series of new decorative motifs to the Gulf region. The hotel strongly focuses on design and detail, with over 3,000 pieces of handcrafted glasses and over 9,000 pieces of handcrafted chinaware created especially for Marsa Malaz Kempinski.

Eugenio Alberti Schatz (Milano 1964), expert in communications and public relations, is the author of travel accounts and critical texts on art and photography. With Skira he published Hotel Danieli (2013) and Beyond the Chef (2013).