Merit Royal Turkuaz Hotel
The five-star hotel project, with a construction area of 132,000 m², is located in the city of Kyrenia, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
On a project site of approximately 45,000 m², the hotel building has been designed as three separate blocks rather than a single massive volume. One of these blocks features an internal courtyard. Through the volumetric articulation of the blocks, a “oasis area” of about 8,000 m² has been created at the rear of the plot on the southern façade. This oasis includes a water park and an artificial beach and is directly connected to the spa.
The hotel includes a total of 364 rooms in 20 different typologies, with all rooms on the ground floor and first basement level having private pools. All ground-floor rooms are designed as duplex units placed along the outer contour of the building. Other ground-level spaces are designed as public hotel areas, including a main restaurant, à la carte restaurant, whiskey bar, tea lounge, and associated terrace areas.
The first basement level of the hotel features a spa of approximately 6,000 m², which is directly connected to the oasis on the south side—an area one level below the street grade. This connection allows the hotel, which also opens up to the sea, to offer an inward-focused and private spatial experience. Other basement levels house a casino, meeting rooms, multipurpose halls, back-of-house (BOH) areas, and parking facilities. At the rooftop level, a swimming pool is located, designed around a central bar area.
A key design input was to establish a relationship with other nearby hotels under the same brand. By analyzing the architectural language of the existing hotels, a conceptual approach of “related yet new” was adopted. Accordingly, the more classical façade language seen in the other hotels was reinterpreted with a contemporary touch in this project.
