How to Trace Kuwait City Map?


“It is a fact stated by many administrators & politicians that most decisions in Kuwait are taken by a feeling of reaction. The administrator reacts to the event or the problem by instinct reaction. Executives rarely anticipate the problem that they may encounter in the future. Neither do the assistant to the executive have the vision or the foresight to anticipate the problem & suggest a solution”. _ A former manager for Kuwait municipality, Dawood Musaad Al-Saleh.

With time, these events turn to be strongly related in terms of location regarding the compactness of Kuwait city, revealing an obvious variance caused by our reactions that were set in extremely instant circumstances.
How could we use these two conditions – architecturally - to our benefit?
If we take a ride around Kuwait city, what would we notice?



  • These existing images are revealing an "over lapping" effect, but the problem here is that there is
  • Old mosques revealing the actual topography of the city, before it was raised by the sand of the knocked down mud-brick houses
  • Houses scattered in parts of the city, either renovated or deteriorated
  • High rise buildings starting to appear, or under construction.
  • Sixty year old commercial buildings preparing themselves for the crane’s day.
  • A complex of foreign society
  • A context of signs for advertisement purposes
  • A sub-contextual grid system
  • A remarkable swivel of streets
  • a gap between each layer and the other, created –with time- by the absence of strategies.

    Based on that, we should start with an appreciation of these gaps and charge it with an impulse of conductivity -not necessarily direct-.
    We can't give a space for time, but we can give a space for the time shift.