Comprised of two houses with a mirrored plan, each of the homes responds to different urban conditions. To the east, the first house looks onto a narrow internal road, with neighbors in close proximity; the second house faces westward onto a high-traffic, main road as well as the hot western sun.
Both homes include a basement, ground floor, first floor, and rooftop. The basement area includes household services and a large multifunction room. On the ground floor, an L-shaped plan contains the house’s main functions, including the living room, dining room, office, and open kitchen all while enclosing an intimate garden and a pool. The main sleeping quarters are all located on the first floor, while occupants enjoy access to a terrace and gym on the roof.
Foster + Partners has recently completed the new headquarters for the National Bank of Kuwait. Located on a prominent site in Kuwait City, the 300-meter skyscraper has a distinctive presence among the buildings of Sharq, the city’s growing financial district. The new building brings all of the bank’s corporate employees together under one roof, promoting synergy and enhancing wellbeing. The design combines sustainable features and structural innovation, providing an energy efficient passive form, shielding the offices from the extremes of Kuwait’s climate.
Wafra Living‘s design by AGi architects proposes an innovative housing organization in Kuwait, a new type of multi-family living as a social response to housing needs in the country. The design is guided by the requirements contemporary life while balancing traditional norms, and reintroduces urban life to the building level.
Wafra Living is designed as a high-rise building set back from the street, with an L-shaped building defining the street edge. It is conceived to maximize privacy within the community, whilst providing ample natural light and usable indoor and outdoor common spaces. Cuts have been made on the ground floors of the front building to provide better views for the tower apartments.
Jade is a midrise multi-unit residential building in Salmiya, Kuwait, that houses 20 independent residential units. Built on an 813 Sqm plot, the building has a double basement parking, an open plan ground floor with a gym and kids play area, 10 stories of residential units, and a rooftop social space with a 15m long pool and barbeque area. The exterior envelope of the building is a composite skin of light concrete, perforated aluminium panels and high-performance glass panels. The design of the building aims to facilitate an urban and sustainable way of living for young families.
A collection of intersecting rocks form the sweeping dune compound of RESIDENTIAL M external skin that defines the internal program of 5 residential units and their exclusive interior oasis leading to a conjuring representation of the desert culture. While respecting the value of the surroundings and maintaining traditional Arabic functions as a whole, each unit sustains its individual contemporary identity. The whole project strip reflects a unified scheme through the design in the use of the natural stone against a white canvas allowing the project to tie together as a single development.
The house in Mishref is home to two brothers and their families with their varying lifestyles and needs for privacy and open spaces. An introverted composition of two separate living units grouped around an internal courtyard, the house is an interpretation of the traditional courtyard house.
Presenting a clean and serene façade to the street, the resulting massing manifests as a white monolithic volume poised elegantly on top of a stone cladded podium. Rhythmic arrangement of louvered windows across the façade softens the volume by lending it a sense of lightness.
OMA / Iyad Alsaka and Reinier de Graaf, in collaboration with Kuwait-based consultant Pace as a local partner, have revealed their design for the Wafra tower, a residential tower in the Hessa Al Mubarak District along the Kuwait City waterfront. OMA’s proposal was selected from among three competitors in a competition organized by the Wafra Real Estate Company.
OMA’s design consists of five residential blocks forming a stepped sequence, which modulates from a L-shaped volume to slab. This structure maximizes occupancy on the lower floors and optimizes views along the vertical axis of the building. The apartment blocks offer views on both the seafront and the city and are connected by an exposed, monolithic core.
Located in the Space Museum of the Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Center, the design behind Anom Cafe was largely driven by the functionality and circulation within the space: we knew the space had to be flexible enough to accommodate large groups of people all at once (ie. field trips, busy weekend nights) and spacious enough for them to move around. The greatest challenges can often be a great opportunity for simpler materials to shine. Working with a controlled budget, we drew much of our inspiration for horizontal lines from the material we chose: galvanized metal pipes. Usually used for conduits, this cost-efficient and malleable material was ideal for creating the simple geometrics we were aiming for, and made incorporating the communal wooden bench and seating area easy. We integrated the galvanized pipes almost everywhere in the design for their functionality and purpose — from being suspended above the counter to act as a hanging menu, to behind the main seating shielding the storage area from view.
Wafra Beacon is a competition-winning proposal for a food and beverage mall development for the Sabah Al Ahmed Sea City area in Kuwait. The proposal transcends the barriers of traditional F&B developments in the region.
The project scope includes two rectangular plots facing a public square anchored by a mosque. Each plot contains a sectional podium housing independent multi-level restaurants and a multi-use tower. The Beacon is designed to be the destination of choice for the trendiest concepts in the Kuwait culinary scene while doubling up as the hub for a healthy and active beach lifestyle. Departing from the notion of a traditional F & B Mall, the design seeks to function as an Oasis for the young, active and creative demographic inhabiting the surrounding areas and visiting for the weekends.
Team: Hend Almatrouk, Gijo Paul George, Rui Goncalves, Pedro Varela, Abdul Rashed, Dionne Pereira, Ghanem Younes, Fabio Verissimos, Fernando Miranda, Filip Goncalves.
Interior design for Arabica located in the eastern coast of Kuwait, a new branch for the original coffee shop from Higashiyama, Kyoto.
With crisp white as the base colour of the space, the interior elements are accentuated with materials such as brass and concrete to fit the design theme of the Arabica brand and to symbolize the qualities of their high-end products. White coffee machines almost disappear to the background in order to highlight the coffee beans presented in linen bags behind a glass case and the “beans map” element hanged next to it.
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