The Yarmouk private villa is home to two brothers and their families in Kuwait. The volume is divided in the center of the plot into two identical units housing the independent quarters of each of the two families. A series of light wells and balconies throughout the house, along with a discreet garden space on the ground floor, focuses on the project’s main narrative of diffused natural lighting.
Studio Toggle was commissioned by the young Kuwaiti chocolatier, Bean2Bar to design their debut boutique in Arjan Square, a trendy F&B concept in Salmiya, Kuwait.
The 33m2 space with a narrow frontage posed a significant challenge for the architects who desired to create a bright and airy atmosphere with plenty of storage space and flexibility.
The upcoming Kuwaiti museum complex, the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC), has been named Public Building of the Year at the prestigious ABB LEAF Awards 2017.
The annual LEAF (Leading European Architecture Forum) Awards bring together more than 100 leading senior figures from the world’s elite architectural design community to celebrate, discuss and honour some of the best new international projects. All shortlisted and winning projects are recognised as setting the benchmark for the future of the industry.
Wafra Vertical Housing introduces a new concept to urban living that adapts to the evolving lifestyle of 21st Century contemporary Kuwait. Considering the increasing demand for land in the city, the transformation of single family dwelling typologies becomes a must, where tenants should be able to enjoy privacy as well as benefit from vertical solution amenities and prime location.
RESIDENTIAL NASIMA aims to question the essential realization of an ever modernizing and homogenizing surrounding urban context. As Kuwait City moves towards drastic and rapid modernization, the architectural values that should protect the culture, traditions of the city, and the individual are starting to disintegrate. To instigate the debate of preserving culture while allowing progress, RESIDENTIAL NASIMA as part of a whole exemplifies a development that blends into the city fabric. The part takes inspiration from the historical, natural landscape and urban clusters, while providing a provoking contemporary design and controlled solutions in contrast to it.
Are you able to design an outside space that can be used 365 days a year?
For moderate climates such as the Spanish it seems quite simple, but in the case of an extreme weather like that of Kuwait it was necessary to think about new strategies. So we asked the client:
Could you live in an outer space located at different levels?
Could you classify your outdoor activities in evening and daytime actions, summer and winter events?
These enquiries may be very difficult to answer for a Mediterranean family, but definitely not for those who are used to living in adverse weather conditions and who easily know what can -and cannot- be done during the summer outdoors.
Of resemblance to the social housing typology, Pearl-Marzouq complex, ‘Lou’lou’at Al-Marzouq’, embodied the complete opposite; a private housing for the affluent. Built in the early 70’s on al-Ras, a peninsula-like landform; with remoteness from the city center, al-Deira, yet at a distance close enough to be gazed at. With its red roof tiles and warm sandstone walls, the building infused a Mediterranean feel to the Arabian Gulf. For white collar expats partaking in the spur of Kuwait’s economy, it was home away from home. Similarly, it was convincing for well-to-do locals to substitute the privacy of their single residences, seeking a new ‘urbanized’ experience, by claiming their prime villa-like duplexes and penthouses with an elevated vantage point back to the city and its sea. The excitement inherent to this dense typology, was further amplified by subverting the building law to equate the number of floors to skip-stop elevator corridors. Connecting midway to duplex apartments, the area (sqm) was almost doubled, as the building height from its surrounding.
As in the famous Lewis Carrol tale, Wall House is not what it seems. Is it a fortress that closes itself to the world? Or is it an isolated place that avoids all communication with the exterior? Not at all! Wall House by AGi architects communicates with its formalized solid skin, an existing concern in the city. It is the expression of those thoughts: “the all judging peeping tom”, “windows that looks towards the place where nobody wants to be watched”, “opened facades show only false and preconceived realities”.
Main Architects: Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea
Project Leaders: Lucía Sánchez Salmón, Hanan Alkouh, Sharifa Al Shalfan
Project Team: José Ángel del Campo, Bruno Gomes, Lulu Al Awadhi, Babu Abraham, Abdulhafiz Bahi El Din, Waleed Fawzy El Demdash, Robert Varghese, Naseeba Shaiji, Sonia George, Abhilash Challiyil
Interior Design: AGi architects Provided and manufactured by Gunni & Trentino
Client: Private
Art pieces: Alarcón Criado Gallery (Sevilla), Elena Rendeiro
Medical buildings are usually perceived as spaces with negative connotations, specifically when referring to rehabilitation centers where patients stay for long periods of time. Therefore, in the design process of the Hisham A. Alsager Cardiac Center, our aim was to change this perception and to build a positive space, one that is able to act as a hub for social activity, rather than just a medical center.
Green Core is a small residential building set in the Adailiya neighborhood in Kuwait City.
The project is composed of 6 apartments at about approximately 350 sqm each, and is accessed through an open core that divides the plot into two defined areas: front and rear. This core void is the key element in the design of the residence. It allows for natural light to filter in through the mesh and into the interior spaces as it provides the dense complex with a sizeable open space. It serves as common grounds enhancing the social living experience as the rest of the program falls into place around it. The green mesh that encases the space softens the penetrating light and harsh climate of the Arabian Gulf, allowing for a pleasant ambience while hosting fertile grounds for vegetation to grow into a small garden.
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