Neighborhood Identity

This is the final post discussing the 13 points of good neighborhood design as described by the Congress for the New Urbanism. All of these ideas aren’t meant to be a guide for how to build new neighborhoods. There is nothing in the list that we can’t really do now in our existing neighborhoods. All it takes is for us identify the problems and offer solutions for this change to happen.

12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.

This makes sense also because it provides people with a frame of reference. Some neighborhoods look very similar and it’s easy to get lost or simply get bored with the lack of urban character. Having an easily definable building or space is great for quickly calibrating yourself and understanding where you are. The uniqueness also embeds a spatial character and identity onto the community that will grow with time and memory.

13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.

This is very, very important. We have to harness the menacingly powerful Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) mentality. Having the neighborhood be self-governing means that nobody feels powerless to change even the most minor thing. It would be fertile ground for grass-roots activism and provides a great opportunity for anyone to have their voice heard and participate. Today, the decision-makers don’t live with the consequences of their actions. If they do, they will have taken much more care in designing and maintaining our public spaces and urban character. Every neighborhood will, with time, begin to represent the values of the people who speak up. This in turn will attract people who think the same way and drive away the few that don’t.

We have to force accountability and the best way to do this is to delegate the local decision-making to the residents of the community. That’s really where democracy happens; not just the big national issues, but whether to build a wheelchair ramp to access the park toilets. If we don’t speak up, nobody will.

Residential Variety

Most of our residential neighborhoods can be described as a sprawl of very large houses packed fairly close to each other. Why is there such little variety in the type of dwelling? Even when people attempt to create a dense living arrangement, it is usually by refitting a house to become a mini apartment block. Are zoning laws and building codes the reason why this has happened?

3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouses, and apartments — so that younger and older people, singles, and families, the poor, and the wealthy may find places to live.

This is quickly becoming a critical issue for Kuwait. Young people really have nowhere to live. More and more people are having to renovate and reuse space in their homes to accommodate their grown children living with them. This should not be happening. Finding a place to live should not a privilege, it’s a right. Most young people don’t mind living in smaller spaces, but they would rather be closer to home. Why can’t there be a variety of dwelling types in, for example, Qortuba? Why can’t there be apartments and rowhouses that compliment the standard 500m2+ house? Heck, why not a tower? It’s not as if we have a timeless architectural history to protect. This simple issue of re-zoning would solve so many problems and all it takes is a signature.

Qortuba 2.0

I’ve lived in Qortuba all my life. There is something very wrong in the way it has evolved. Like all modern Kuwait, it’s a planned residential development. First, the government divided up the land and laid roads and power lines. People built their homes on plots that range from 500m2 to 1000m2. With time, land began to subdivide into even smaller plots, with people living relatively densely.  The priority given to automobiles and the lack of rules that govern parking spaces and car ownership has resulted in a serious problem. There is no room to walk! People have no choice but to use their cars and drive, even if they can walk and the weather is fine. Today is ‘girgai’aan’ in Kuwait and it was heartbreaking to see children being driven from house to house collecting candy.

Current number of homes in Qortuba:

Block 1: 466
Block 2: 750
Block 3: 535
Block 4: 636

Total: 2387 homes in Qortuba

If we assume that each residence is home to 6 people, that would mean approximately 14,322 people live in Qortuba, which has an area of 2.7km2 giving it a urban density of 5304 people per square km. This is comparable to that of Madrid and London (source). There is no lack of urban density in Kuwait’s residential areas. This is a good thing, as suburban sprawl is a crippling problem in lots of major developed countries, specifically in the United States. Are we really utilizing this density in beneficial ways? It seems to me that we are building densely yet living in a delusional suburban fantasy. We are taking the worst of both worlds and not getting anything good in return.

Dense Urbanism:

Advantage:

• Walkable neighborhoods.
• Social awareness and strong community values.
• More people living closer together because of expensive land value
• Public transportation
• Mixed use neighborhoods
• Closer to the city

Disadvantage:

• Noise
• No room for children to play outside
• Smaller homes

Suburbanism:

Advantage:

• Larger homes
• Private front garden
• Wonderful views and peaceful environment
• Cheap land

Disadvantage:

• Long commute
• No community
• Single use zoning (shopping far away)
• Drive to go anywhere

Qortuba:

Advantage:

• Close to the city

Disadvantage:

• No community
• Single use zoning (shopping far away)
• Drive to go anywhere
• Noise
• No room for children to play outside
• Smaller homes

The residential model of pre-oil Kuwait was far more successful in providing better advantages than what we enjoy in our current urban condition. The automobile is an essential part of modern life but we have to stop giving it complete priority in urban design. I find it very disturbing that the first decision made in ‘planning’ Qortuba (or any other area) was not creating a walkable ‘fireej’ with a mosque as the community anchor, or a series of mixed use nodes that would allow for residential neighborhoods to organically emerge based on topography and microclimates. No, the first thing they did was to create a nice, symmetrical street plan. I don’t mind having streets alongside every house, what I do mind is that it all seems so arbitrary. I can imagine a lonely planner sitting in a dusty government office sketching those street plans 40 years ago, not knowing that his decisions will have an negative impact on the lives of thousands of people. What are the alternatives?

Qortuba, Kuwait

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy is one of Kuwait City’s official sister cities. They, like most of Europe, have a program to limit the number of cars inside their dense neighborhoods. This leaves more room for gardens and space to walk. Looking closer, Masdar City seems like a good place to start. What if Qortuba was a car-free zone? How could that work? What if pedestrian priority and a Fireej mindset were the most important elements? We have to create walkable islands, each with a local mosque and all the essential amenities within walking distance (groceries shopping, daycare, beauty shops, etc). No central ‘jam’iyah’, or shopping co-op. We have to decentralize the idea of a central shopping building as it simply doesn’t make any sense.

It would be a self-sustaining town with courtyards at both scales, green roofs, grey-water recycling, smart metering and localized energy production (solar and wind). Kids would bicycle to school and couples would walk to restaurants and cafes. Teenagers would play in football pitches and basketball courts which are visible to all pedestrians.

We are trapped in a way of life that is not Kuwaiti or modern. To break free, we have to know ourselves first and agree on what we truly believe in as a community and as a country. Only then will we ever truly progress.

Tall Buildings of Kuwait

The urban form of Kuwait City is going through major developments. Tall buildings of commercial use are starting to take over. But are we going in the right direction? Let us take a few minutes to examine the issues related to the tall buildings of Kuwait.

Thamerium

Materiality: One similarity that governs tall buildings here is the choice of one material; Glass. No doubt there are obvious advantages that are offered with the use of glass curtain walls; Availability of glass by fabrication, low cost and aesthetic value are a few of them. Moreover, view and ventilation are two main reasons for using glass. Sadly in Kuwait, the weather is dusty therefore the glass looks dirty most of the time. For eight to nine months, the temperature in Kuwait varies from 35-50 degrees. Ventilation by opening the window is not a choice in those towers as all the cool air conditioned air will escape.

Orientation: You might not really appreciate the importance of orientation until you work in an office facing south or west. The building’s orientation is very important anywhere, but especially in hot countries like Kuwait. In the northern hemisphere the sun rises from the East, moves South and sets in the West. Western walls of buildings should be insulated as much as possible. From what I’ve seen, it is as if the architects design the building as a stand-alone element in the middle of nowhere, then they stick it on site. There is no regard whatsoever to the amount of heat transferred through the glass to the interiors.

Identity: At a glance, the tall glass buildings in Kuwait look pretty much the same.  One can argue that most of the tall buildings here don’t have an identity. Except Dar alAwadi and the under construction United Towers, the buildings are a simple extruded footprint. Identity in a building doesn’t necessarily mean to make it look Kuwaiti. It is completely wrong to take buildings designed for the States and force them in desert environment like Kuwait. A simple regard for the heat, dust and other regional aspects will eventually result in much better buildings.

Context: In every design project, the architects ask the question of whether they want the building to stand out or to blend in with it’s surrounding. Although I do believe that every designer has the right to create something that is unique which could be regarded as a landmark, I wonder at times what would happen if every architect decides that their building should stand out. What would happen to the overall urbanism of Kuwait city? would it look like Las Vegas or Dubai.

These simple yet profoundly important elements are critical to the success of any building. Looking around at our burgeoning skyline, it seems obvious that they are being taken for granted. Many buildings use wildly incorrect materials, are blind to orientation, lack in identity and are oblivious to their context. These are not complicated issues, yet their effect on space is enormous. Let’s try to get it right.

Kuwait Courtyard House

This is a home I designed as a modern interpretation of a traditional Kuwaiti courtyard house. It is not a stylistic evolution; I am not trying to make the old mud houses look modern and sexy, rather I began by defining what made the old homes work and what would be the best way to design a built environment that reflects the values which defined the traditional architecture.

Front Elevation

Most importantly, the home has to allow for absolute privacy in all interior spaces. There’s no point in having street-facing windows if they’re always going to be shuttered. This means that a functional separation between the public elements of the home and the private areas is critical. It became clear that the best way to achieve this is to simply place a two-level family home on top of a pedestal which would contain all the public and service elements.

All of the rooms would have direct access to a large and private family courtyard. This space would be shielded from the elements by a structural frame which would in time be completely covered by climbing vines which would block direct sunlight and filter the dust out of the air. A waterfall would cool the space through convection heat transfer and evaporative cooling.

View from Bedroom 1

The micro-climate created inside the courtyard would allow for an inviting outdoor space that is comfortable and habitable in all but the most extreme weather conditions. Fallen leaves would be carried by the pool onto another waterfall on the other end of the lap pool (not visible in the image) which would allow for easy collection and disposal. Pests and insects will become somewhat of a concern, but they arrive with birds and butterflies as well.

View from Bedroom 2

The door on the left of the above image leads to the master suite. Access to the courtyard from the rooms can be as large as possible without sacrificing privacy or heat gain. There is corridor access on the other side of the rooms for practical reasons, however I imagine most of the access would be to and from the courtyard side.

View from Bedroom 3

Optimally, children would have constant access to the courtyard, so they play outside and not in their rooms; this allows for the rooms to be smaller and for the children to play with each other and facilitate deeper family bonding. The large sliding glass doors on the left of the above image lead to the main living and kitchen/dining space. The sliding doors, once opened, allow for a seamless connection between the courtyard and the interior living spaces.

View from Bedroom 4

The spiral staircase is a sculptural and structural element which breaks the rigid linearity of the design. The swimming pool is small compared to others (3m x 8m), however it also includes a 16m long lap pool. The large panels can be used as a projection screen for movies and videogames.

Courtyard

This particular design is 400m2 on one street facing east, with 5 bedrooms and a 2 car parking garage. There is no basement. The project is a prototype examining the alternatives to the typical residential offerings in Kuwait. I am currently looking for investors to help me build the house.

Form Generation I

There are no limits to the number of methods that can be used to generate forms, yet at the start of every project we tend to get stuck on the derivation of the form. Of course, there is always the option of letting the project’s requirements determine it, but where’s the fun in that?

In this post I’m presenting one of the ways of generating a form by manipulating an existing object. This method mimics playing with play-dough (clay) using a 3D software, except that in play-dough the reactions of each force applied to the existing piece of dough is predictable. On the other hand, a force in 3D software applied on an object can react differently to different set of rules and limitations determined by the designer.

In the preceding image, the initial form was a sphere. Due to forces applied using the mouse the shape of the sphere mutates to a more interesting form. As we cannot determine the amount of force applied on a virtual level, I have used the distance from the mouse click and drag to the release as the force amount and added a power option to the script to specify the amount of pressure applied. The shape of the form changes based on how far I move the mouse. The rules that inform these changes are a sort of mathematical formula.

Now that the concept of the form derivation is set, we can play with the initial forms to create different effects. The following are explorations using the cylinder as an initial form.

Basically, this method of form generation depends on three elements;

1. The initial object. If the object that we started with was a cube instead of a sphere, the reaction to the forces applied will be different, hence different mutations.
2. The direction and amount of forces applied. This is the variable.
3. The system or the set of rules that are used to determine the reactions.

Beijing National Stadium by Herzog & de Meuron

Contemporary architects are using parametrically derived forms using these methods to create buildings that simply can’t be generated using traditional methods. A great example is the ‘Bird’s Nest’ in Beijing. The form and arrangement of the structural cage was designed using a mathematical algorithm. The designers could manipulate the form endlessly, while the computer would arrange the individual elements accordingly to best fit the structural framework.

On a smaller scale, parametrics are used to generate the form of a buildings facade. The computer would make sure that all rules set for fenestration and structure are met, while the designer can manipulate the form to generate the best looking outcome. The example below is the Airspace Tokyo project by Faulders Studio.

Airspace Tokyo project by Faulders Studio.

Boring Schools

What is a school? Is it simply a building where children go to learn about the world, or is it more important? It’s a cliche to think that our greatest natural resource is not the oil under our feet, but those kids in our schools. Even so, I think that we should be very careful in the way we design the spaces where they learn and play. Almost all of the schools in Kuwait have not been designed with kids in mind. They’re all drab, dreary, unimaginative and boring. I remember my school had a fence with barbed wire surrounding the playground. What kind of message does that send to the kids?

What’s with this recent obsession with new schools being named ‘X’BS (Bilingual School), seemingly oblivious to the common use of BS in the English language? It’s not as important what kids learn, but rather that they know how to learn. Most of the schools have the same curriculum and pedagogical model, and they all even look the same, except that they’re all painted a different color.

I want my future children to have every opportunity that can be provided to them. The problem is that looking around, the choices are depressingly scarce. What is a kid friendly space? The most important thing is that the physical space around them sort of gives them the permission to be free and curious. An authoritarian space drives discipline and order, but it also discourages freedom of expression. When kids feel like they can’t express themselves openly, they’ll find other ways to do so in secret, destructive ways.

I’m not a defender of the flowery self-esteem movement that has practically created a generation of Americans that feel undeservedly self-entitled and content with their incompetence and ignorance. I don’t want that for Kuwait. What I want is the option to have a school that understands the importance of creativity and imagination in the development of a young child, and would do everything it can to encourage that. The first step is to build a school that is, for lack of a better word, cool. It has to challenge children to be creative, to live up to and exceed the example set by the building.

Second, the curriculum needs to be flexible and geared towards the independent development cycle of each child. Every child is different and some need more guidance and supervision than others. Simply putting thirty kids in a room and demanding that they all learn at the same pace is very illogical. Similarly, tests will always be a part of the school system, but the curriculum should not revolve around what’s on the test. School has to be fun. For example, a teacher discovers that an unmotivated student in an English class is a hip hop fan; The teacher could ask that student to write a rap song as a class project. It’s not in the curriculum, but with some flexibility, that unmotivated student would be extremely interested to do something in class.

Finally, teachers should be allowed to experiment with alternative methods of teaching based on the situation they find themselves in. For example, if there are disruptive students in the class, they shouldn’t be allowed to slow down the rest of the class. They should quickly be reassigned to a special, albeit temporary, class that would include all the disruptive students. Of course, this special class would have a far more disciplined teacher and stricter penalties and a more structured environment. What I mean to say is that the environment has to be malleable enough to adapt to most situations. Every child is different, and we can’t treat them all the same.

No Boxes, Please

I’m beginning to be concerned about a very bad trend in Kuwaiti residential design. Clients are asking for a ‘modern’ look and style without really understanding what it is they’re asking for. To most people, it means a cold, boxy, straight edged look with lots of rectangular windows and expensive furniture. Modernism is not a style, it’s a process. You can change the frosting on a cake, but it’s still going to be chocolate on the inside.

The most important thing, especially for residential architecture, is that the space improves the quality of life of it’s inhabitants as much as it possibly can within the available budget.

Belinda George Architects

Clients are demanding that they not live in boxes. When you ask them to articulate the reason for this, they usually end up arguing that everyone is building boxes and it looks boring and not very ‘creative’. I think that they’re worried that the boring shape represents a boring inhabitant. Who cares? Why should the outward appearance be the primary goal of a design? Homes are not something to be looked at. You live in them.

What I try to emphasize as much as I can is that the quality of life is the most important element; not the number of rooms or floor space. Those are just ways for developers to sell houses, they really are meaningless in reality. What’s the point in having more rooms than you need if they all face the neighbor, are badly lit and the furniture doesn’t fit right? Why have a grand entrance foyer if you end up living most of your life upstairs and hardly ever spend time on the ground floor? The opportunity cost of such a frivolous waste of space is enormous. People just can’t visualize the alternative and ultimately that is the architect’s failure because it’s our job to help illustrate what can be and should be done.

Villa Savoye

Villa Savoye is a supposed masterpiece of modernism. Designed by Le Corbusier, it was hailed as a symbol of modernity and of the international style because it was completely new and different. It can be placed anywhere in the world. A machine for living. In truth, it was a disaster. The architect demanded that the roof be flat, because he believed that was how a modern roof should look. The roof leaked. The architect demanded that no furniture be added to his design. There are many good ideas to be taken from the Villa Savoye; the piloti mode (how the house was raised one floor on columns to free it form the ground plane), the wonderful interaction between the spaces and the courtyard on the first floor. The problem was the architectural vanity that allowed style to supersede practicality. As a result of this, modernism has gained the reputation of being impractical. In Kuwait, I see the same with people building homes with giant windows facing the sun. Of course they’re not practical, but hey, it looks Modern so the people living in them must be cool.

Climate in Kuwait

Kuwait is hot and arid. Most people complain that the sun prevents any kind of outdoor or pedestrian activity during most of the year. How can we manipulate the weather in such a way as to create microclimates that can produce tolerable and even pleasant local weather?

The weather in the winter is very pleasant, and can be controlled through appropriate clothing. The challenge is how to design for the summer. The three major obstacles are:

1. Intense summer heat
2. Dust
3. Lack of precipitation

In a way, we can count ourselves lucky that we are not in a hot/humid region. As you can see in the above graphs, the humidity levels drop sharply during the summer months. This gives us an incredible advantage in that we can use the process of evaporative cooling to cool our buildings and ourselves. Our bodies regulate heat by many processes, one of them being the secretion of sweat. The sweat evaporates from skin and cools down the body. One of the properties of water is that when it evaporates, it requires a lot of heat energy, and it absorbs this heat from the area that surrounds it. The problem in hot/humid regions is that the air is usually saturated with water molecules. You still sweat, but it never evaporates. This means that you can’t regulate the heat generated by your body and you feel hotter still.

We can use this process to cool down our buildings and outdoor spaces. One of the easiest ways to do this is through water misting. These are simple water sprays that shower an outdoor space with small water droplets. The droplets begin to evaporate into the air and will slowly cool down the space. This can also be used to cool down roofs and walls by adding sprinkler systems, but the water waste becomes a problem as well.

Plants and trees can be used to control both heat gain and dust. They act as a natural air filter, trapping dust particles and filtering the air while adding oxygen too. They shade the ground underneath it and cool the air that passes through it. Trees absorb water from the soil which passes through it and eventually evaporates from stomata in its leaves. This process is called evapotranspiration and it cools down the air around the leaves in the same way as sweat.

Different materials absorb and reflect heat radiation at vastly different rates. Aluminum would heat up so much faster than concrete, which heats up faster than grass. The air that passes through these materials will heat up accordingly. The space around a building has to take all these factors into account. Hot air passing through trees will cool down considerably.

Hot air is lighter than cold air. This means that hot air rises and cool air drops low. A courtyard home therefore has an incredible advantage in that it creates pockets of space where cool air will collect. This property along with a well shaded space means that you can naturally and passively cool down a courtyard to a tolerable level even in the most intensely hot summer days.

There are many drought tolerant species of plants and trees that are able to survive and thrive in Kuwait. The example below is Bougainvillea, locally known as al-Majnuna. It is a flowering vine that is able to be trained to grow on trellises and along pergolas and arbors. It is fairly disease and pest free and requires little maintenance and watering. A courtyard entirely shaded with this vine would create a wonderfully pleasant microclimate where families can enjoy a private outdoor gathering in the hottest summer day while the sunlight filters through the beautiful colors of the flowers.

The cooler air dropping from above will be cooled further by the vines, which would trap all the dust that is in the air. The filtered cool air would collect in the courtyard and any air that heats up will rise and escape. I would suggest a large fountain, or a pool with a waterfall be added to the landscape of the courtyard so that a water misting effect is created to cool the space even further.

A courtyard home is not a luxury. It should become the template in which all homes in Kuwait are based on. We must remember how our ancestors used to live and adapt those methods to our contemporary, modern lifestyles. We cannot hide from these challenges in our sealed refrigerators. We have to take control.

The data used in this post was taken from this meteorological study: http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/weatherdata/2_asia_wmo_region_2/KWT_Kuwait.Intl.AP_KISR.stat

The Kuwaiti Home

What is a Kuwaiti home? How do we define it? To begin answering this question, we first have to define what being Kuwaiti and living a Kuwaiti lifestyle is and then attempt to manifest this into a built environment. A home has to find a balance between the environmental factors of the site and the lifestyle choices of it’s inhabitants.

Of course, no two people are exactly the same, but we can at least identify the basic needs, aspirations and cultural parameters that makes a person Kuwaiti. We all have a basic desire for personal privacy. Nobody wants to live in a Dutch house where the activity inside is visible to all passersby. We all have a desire for closely knit families where all three meals are shared and as much time is spent together as possible. Most people feel the need to have a dedicated public space to entertain guests.

Our climate is basically dry, intense heat in the summer with north western winds. Winters are cool and slightly humid. The dry heat can be mitigated through shading and evaporative cooling. The winters are gorgeous and need very little manipulation to feel comfortable in.

Taking these basic rules one would assume that we would be living in courtyard houses which are inward looking. This would allow for maximum privacy and create a microclimate which would lower the heat gain of the house and create comfortable outdoor spaces even in the hottest days of summer. This is how Kuwaitis traditionally lived. Courtyard houses in well established neighborhoods where all the amenities are available at a walking distance.

Yet as we look around today at the vast majority of houses in Kuwait we see that they are all giant pancake houses. We live in refrigerators in the desert. When did this change in mentality happen? Why did we blindly adopt the western model of a house in the middle of the plot with windows looking out in every direction?

Look around at all the houses in Kuwait with the giant windows facing the street. It seems that almost all of them always have the curtains drawn or simply shuttered completely. Why have the windows so big in the first place? The simple act of having them higher than your eye level means that you can see the sky and let the light in, but not have people look into your house from the street.

Why do people feel as if bigger is always better? Huge rooms for your kids means that they will have everything they need. They will not only sleep and study in them, but they will entertain themselves and their friends and you will never see them. If we think of a child’s room as simply being a place to study and sleep then you will find that you see them far more often. They will be forced to leave the room to be entertained. They will learn the art of conversation instead of being trapped in their big, fun playrooms. You would also save the reclaimed space for more important things, like a shaded outdoor area with greenery and natural light.

The choices people have in entry level real estate is pathetic. All the houses look the same and they don’t belong in Kuwait. In the coming weeks we will highlight alternatives that are cost effective and are adapted to our climate and culture. We cannot continue on the same unsustainable path. We have to wake up.