The 161-room Chedi Muscat hotel is designed to fit into its context, a residential seaside neighbourhood. Rather than being housed in a single monolithic block, it occupies several buildings scattered across the 6.5ha site. The hotel garden's trees, water gardens, fountains and 'falaj' create a micro-environment where birdlife flourishes. At the heart of the hotel is a 12-metre-high tented lobby, evoking a grand desert tent. The reception hall refers in turn to an Omani fort, and the hotel boutique to a souk. The structure is of reinforced concrete with concrete block infill walls. All external surfaces are cement render, painted white.
In the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the architects of projects enrolled through the nomination programme receive an Award documentation package which describes the standardised presentation requirements. In addition to submitting photographs, slides, and architectural drawings, architects are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire pertaining to use, cost, environmental and climatic factors, construction materials, building schedule, and, more importantly, design concepts and each project's significance within its own context.
These Project Presentation documents include the architect's record and the aforementioned submission documents, as well as a cover summary sheet created by the AKAA.
