Secret Room opens in Dubai

Sixties sci fi meets Dali at Secret Room speakeasy in Dubai — (Image credit: press)

Dubai’s MO has long been to upsize every quotidian experience; whether to create the world’s biggest mall or an artificial island that’s visible from space.

Little surprise then that even the ideal of the traditional speakeasy as a small cozy affair has now been turned on its head. For Toronto-based Studio Paolo Ferrari, the visual references splice Rome’s Villa Farnese, the final Louis XIV-esque bedroom scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago.

The result is an unapologetically theatrical set-piece in which clear cast resin tables, 1960s furnishings, and smoked oak panels flank a bronze-hued fiberglass bar whose sinuous curves recall both Dali and Zaha Hadid. The bathrooms, lined with glass floors and mirrored walls, are attention grabbers – though, perhaps, not as much as the hidden doors in the main room that swing open for VIPs to literally drive into the speakeasy directly from the carpark.

INFORMATION
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ADDRESS

Basement, Five Palm Jumeirah Hotel
No. 1 Palm Jumeirah
Dubai

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Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.