Four Seasons Bahrain

This Four Seasons Resort will be the centerpiece of the Bahrain Bay Development and the first Four Seasons in the country. The hotel will feature extensive private gardens, a spectacular infinity edge swimming pool, a salt water pool within Bahrain Bay, private cabanas, a world class spa and specialty restaurants. EDSA is providing full landscape architectural design services. The project is currently under construction and slated to be completed in 2014.

Situated on a private island, the Four Seasons Hotel transforms the skyline of Manama, Bahrain’s capital city. Designed to be as iconic as it is luxurious, the tower rises over 200 meters above a reclaimed island at the centre of the Bahrain Bay development. dpa worked closely with SOM Architects, to develop the lighting concept. The external facades are uplit with a strong wash of light which enhances the elegance of the two monoliths, the principle elements of the hotels form, with the internal façade more delicately washed to reveal the inner voids. The lighting colour was kept to a simple warm white colour pallete designed to enrich the colour and texture of the stone cladding panels and to be an elegant contrast to the multitude of competing colours and light shows of main land Manama.

Photography courtesy of Waleed AlAbbas

Striking and intimate The project began in 2004 with a masterplan for reclaimed land arranged from the mainland in concentric circles. The 68-storey Four Seasons Hotel is at the heart of this plan. It’s lining up with the water canal to the sea behind, on its own private twelve-acre island accessible by bridge or boat.

Resort-like The entranceway is made more intimate through the addition of an external bronze powdercoated aluminium ceilinged porte-cochere, which continues into the lobby. The impact of the 200 meter tall tower is softened by a series of pavilions for the spa and conference facilities on either side. Each bedroom has full-height windows overlooking the bays, while the aluminium panels throughout the building visually connect the disparate volumes. In all, Thomas Behr explains, The Four Seasons Hotel was a very important project to get built.