The research project addresses the process of urbanization in Kuwait post oil discovery through exploring changes in ways of life in Kuwaiti society and relating them to the physical spaces that these behaviours are practiced, especially from the perspective of housing which has been the principal urban expansion mechanism that has prevailed since the development of the first master plan in 1952.
As Kuwait faces an un-manageable housing backlog of over 100,000 applications at the Public Authority for Housing Welfare, a private housing market that is unattainable to most, and rising dissatisfaction amongst society; this study becomes essential in demonstrating alternative building typologies fit for Kuwaiti society that are sustainable and localized.
This will be achieved through analysing current housing typologies that exist in the Kuwaiti urban landscape and their evolution since the onset of the modern Kuwaiti City. It will also analyse the various social behaviour patterns that emerge at different types of abode, and finally propose new typologies for housing and ways to approach urban development that is data supported and context driven.
Co-investigator: Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea, Architect-Urban Designer
Email: jpgoicoe@agi-architects.com
Principal AGi Architects; Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (USA), Joaquin worked on several major international projects for offices including Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos, SOM and the Harvard University Planning Office until he founded, together with Nasser Abulhasan, AGi Architects in 2005.