The Link

Within the world’s longest cantilevered building lies The Link, the rarefied experiential and culinary offering of One&Only One Za’abeel, the first urban resort by One&Only Resorts.

Suspended between two towers and billed as the world’s only horizontal skyscraper, The Link is the latest addition to Dubai’s capricious skyline. Bringing together eight signature fine-dining concepts from Michelin-lauded chefs, the world’s longest infinity pool club and captivating entertainment spaces in a single futuristic destination, The Link is set to lead the culinary and mixology worlds.

One&Only Resorts sought to establish The Link as the unrivalled, future-perfect place to be.

AKQA transformed The Link into a daring world of futuristic savoir-faire, where ephemeral experiences flow from day to night. The Link becomes a symbolic bridge, connecting a new generation of global tastemakers to the world’s most celebrated culinary stars.

Through a perspective-shifting film, fashion-forward editorial shoots and a meticulously crafted identity, AKQA established The Link’s values of urban futurism, sophistication and intrepid culinary exploration: a platform from which audiences rise to a destination of indulgence.

To bring The Link to life, a cinematic film invites visitors upwards, to taste the future of fine dining. Each frame is a moving portrait, starring a cast of otherworldly faces against a backdrop drenched in rich, prismatic colour. The camera glides from one vignette to the next, blurring the lines between fashion, art, cuisine and emotion.

The accompanying still campaign is a sophisticated fashion editorial that sets a bold vision for gourmet experiences. Contemporary visuals and avant-garde poeticisms converge in artful, thought-provoking advertising, showcased across digital out-of-home, social, display and print.

The antecedent marque for The Link is an abstraction of its iconic form as a tessellating cantilever. AKQA elevated it with refined typography that mirrors its exact dimensions, and a storyline that reimagines the new lockup as the proverbial link to a future-perfect world: an invitation to soar above Dubai’s city centre.

Embodying an adroit weightlessness, every aspect of the branding was crafted to evoke effortless levitation. From tessellating patterns to shimmering colourways drawn from an orbit’s edge, and language that invokes visions of futuristic glamour, the result is a refined urban universe.

For the digital experience, AKQA imagined details that deliver on the promise of day-to-night delectation: animations for a sense of lightness, inspiring itineraries and a digital reservation concierge, allowing guests to discover, book and indulge. It is also a portal, beaming visitors up to The Link’s urban universe and heightening the desirability of its signature dining concepts.