The Morpheus Hotel, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, opens today in Macau. The 40-story, 770-room hotel is part of the City of Dreams resort complex and rises out of a foundation laid for an abandoned condo project.

ZHA used this existing foundation and “extruded” the building up from it, creating a sculpted structure in part inspired by jade carving traditions.

The building is fundamentally two separate towers connected by floating passages. The central voids carved out of the structure offer a visual connection to the surrounding urban area while maximizing views for guest rooms.

Mirroring the outside structural elements, the “world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton,” the interior public spaces are filled with lattices sculpted into ZHA’s signature biomorphic forms.

Apart from the guest rooms, there are ample public spaces, meeting rooms, event spaces, gaming rooms, a restaurant, a spa, and a rooftop pool. The bridges traversing the voids form spaces for the hotel’s various restaurants, bars, and lounges. More than a singular, striking structure, however, ZHA project director Viviana Muscettola says that the hotel’s unique parametric design “will radically change how our built environment is planned and constructed.”