Designed by KPF’s London Studio, Sensitile Jali® Cambia panels were used as screening elements in the VIP porte cochere of the MGM Cotai hotel and casino in Macau, China. These light filtering, glass panels have been installed as framed screens in the exterior of what is called the "jewelry box" of the Cotai Strip. Specified in low iron glass and bronze glass, these panels offer unique light filtering that not only creates selective privacy that glitters and shines with nothing more than daylight or the headlights of approaching vehicles.

Its location, on an elongated site, informed the structure of the building, generating an overlapping of forms to create a gentle curvature. This sinuous form of the building, flowing from the north- and south-east creates a natural confluence towards the main entrance/drop off, drawing people from the north, east and south.

The whole complex comprises of nine ‘boxes’ rising up, accommodating VIP suites, gaming rooms and a spa accessed from the main entrance, and a two-story podium housing pavilions, villas, gardens and services areas. Views through the building and between the ‘boxes’, break down the generous volumes but also serve to endow a sense of grandeur to the site and enhance visitor experience.

A generous arc defines the drop off area, with two portico-like structures, for the main and VIP entrance, denoting the lobbies which serve two lift cores that unite the boxes as two towers. Beyond the lobbies a generous atrium forms the spatial heart of the building while to the south elaborate spaces welcome the VIP and separate entrances to the north and south provide additional podium access.

The MGM Cotai is a large-scale entertainment complex located in Cotai, Macau with overall development area at approximate 375,000 square meters. The whole complex consists of a 1,500 rooms luxury resort hotel, gaming facilities, convention facilities, retail/F&B spaces and state of the art performance venue - The MGM Theatre which is Asia’s first dynamic theatre.One of the major attractions for this project is the “Spectacle”, a curvilinear shape glass roof, spanning over an atrium with approximate dimension of 135m x 70m, it is the record holder for the largest free-span grid shell self-supporting glazed roof in the Guinness World Record.

Extensive green technologies have been adopted in the building which is amongst the first buildings of achieving 2 Star Certificate of Green Building Design Label by China Green Building and Energy Saving (Macau) Association.

Team:
Architect: Wong Tung & Partners Limited
Architectural Design: Kohn Pederson Fox 
Photography: Wong Tung & Partners Limited