Full Moon Rising: Azerbaijan’s Death Star Hotel

Posted by Shabana on March 5, 2008
Filed under: News

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Azerbaijan’s Death Star Hotel

Move over, Dubai - there’s a new kid on the block, and he’s got even wilder architectural designs under his belt.

The gleaming futuristic looking Full Moon Hotel has an unlikely location – Baku, Azerbaijan, a former member of the Soviet Union. It’s designed to look different depending on the angle you view it from. The full frontal is, quite frankly, the most terrifying view. You wouldn’t want to be across the water from the Death Star-like structure with an evil looking giant eye on the top right hand corner.

The view from the side is more playful – what looks like a bulging round space ship is actually a flat diskette shaped structure.

Azerbaijan’s Death Star Hotel

Now on to the actual living conditions, and the interiors promise to be lavishly spacious - just 382 rooms spread across 35 floors and 104,182 square meters of space. The Full Moon Hotel sits on a wavy podium with two apartment complexes at either side, named, quite fittingly, Palace of Wind 1 and 2.

It’s interesting to see how so many of these futuristic looking designs are moving eastward. Traditionalists may cringe at the Full Moon Hotel’s design with thousands of hexagonal honeycombs running through its back, but you have to admit, it is a change from conventional tall, drab blocks of concrete with no defining features for miles.

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Comments

[…] Vía | Vagabondish […]


Louise
March 6th, 2008 - 1:47 pm

I’m not quite sure what I think about these types of hotels. These types of places seem to be built almost mockingly.

According to the UN, 49.6 per cent of citizens in Azerbaijan live below the poverty line! This money for building these hotels could’ve been better spent elsewhere…


Mike
March 6th, 2008 - 1:57 pm

I couldn’t agree more, Louise. The level of excess so prevalent in the “luxury” travel industry is oftentimes mortifying.


Louise
March 6th, 2008 - 1:58 pm

Thanks, I think there has to be more balance on reporting these “fabulous new hotels”…

Vagabondish is not an exception to the media bias, as I had thought for so long…


Mike
March 6th, 2008 - 2:09 pm

Point taken. You’re absolutely right on ensuring “more balance”. And we’ve made a conscious decision to cut way back on the amount of these types of stories that we publish here.

I made a belated New Year’s resolution to stop blogging about Dubai and it’s “next new wild and wacky architectural indulgence”. We get it: they have a lot of money and they’re not afraid to pi$$ it away on pointless excess.

It makes for great headlines, but in the end it’s all sizzle and no steak.


Louise
March 6th, 2008 - 2:10 pm

Yeah, I know, the visuals are stunning…


Louise
March 6th, 2008 - 2:10 pm

BTW I’m following you on twitter now!


Mike
March 6th, 2008 - 2:25 pm

Well thank you! I’m still really not sure what it’s all about, but I’ll figure it out eventually …


Louise
March 6th, 2008 - 2:27 pm

Yeah me neither, I just signed up yesterday.


Paul
March 7th, 2008 - 6:17 pm

I think this is over the top, I mean the artistic rendering is so sparkly and out of this world that I really can’t even fathom what it’d look like actually built. I’m sure impressive, but certainly not as cool as the picture. Meanwhile what kind of a Moon, if not a Death Star, has a random hole in it? Is it immitating a crater which happens to go completely through it? Having something which looks cool certainly is a draw, but I really don’t know if I’d like that on my skyline…
Meanwhile this country makes billions off of oil and yet complains daily about it’s (exaggerated) “1 million” internally displaced persons and how they don’t even have a proper roof over their head. I guess simple things like shacks for refugees aren’t flashy enough for a place like Azerbaijan to spend it’s billions on when comparing it to recreating Naboo on their shoreline (which looks like it’s right out of Caribbean in the picture- when in actuality Baku and its shore were recently named the most polluted city on earth, another thing they should consider before making moonscapes. Oil derricks are suspiciously absent from the arcadian rendering.)


Monumental competencia para Dubai
March 13th, 2008 - 4:02 am

[…] Vía Vagabondish […]


[…] I can’t get enough of blog posts about crazy hotel architecture. Do you think the Full Moon Hotel is real? It looks just like the Death Star! We won’t know unless we go to Baku, Azerbaijan. […]


Soultravelers3
March 17th, 2008 - 4:45 am

OMG! Have you been to Baku, Azerbaijan????

I have and can not think of a more inappropriate place to put such a building.

I am wondering who the heck is going to fill this thing???

I am not sure what is more strange, the building or the location. Some how, I have a feeling this is one of those projects that will never get completed.


Vacanzerelax
March 17th, 2008 - 11:52 am

Incredible!!!


Matt
March 18th, 2008 - 3:30 pm

While the location is perhaps questionable, the design is pretty amazing. Your article however, fails to point out that there will be a second building/ complex that will be built across the bay by the same architects.

I couldn’t find who is financing the projects but it is possible that they are trying to put Baku on the map which is what you need to do if you want to attract more business and tourism to the city. I’m all for it!


The Baldchemist
March 18th, 2008 - 8:43 pm

No carbon footprints here eh? Take a look at http://www.naissance-villas.com
based on Koh Samui Thailand.
Another fabulous constuction is http://www.nikolsons.com
All built for the very wealthy. Architecture is very subjective. Nature isn’t.
i would like to know how eco friendly these contemporary structures are.


Isa
March 19th, 2008 - 6:04 am

That’s no moon, that’s a space station!

Also, I agree with the people who say that this money could be better spent helping the poor…


SillyPenguin.com
March 20th, 2008 - 10:25 pm

Wow, stunning architecture!