Monthly Archives

September 2009

Barrak Al-Babtain 6
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SAM StreetUrban
September 29, 2009

Where Do I Sit?

William Whyte, in his book 'The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces', explains why some public spaces work and others don't. The example in the previous post of AlRaya made me wonder how we can adapt his ideas for Kuwait. I highly recommend, if you…
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Other
September 26, 2009

AlRaya

The image below is of the street face of AlRaya. I'm certain that many of you have had this same thought; why have the developers of AlRaya completely wasted this wonderful opportunity? The pavement, which is actually of great quality and well maintained, is yearning…
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Barrak Al-Babtain 18
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Other
September 12, 2009

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Kuwait has forgotten the value of a good public space. The built environment of Kuwait City does not reflect the inherent character and tradition of its citizens. Kuwaitis are a very social people, yet the city has no truly public space. This spatial void has…
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Barrak Al-Babtain 16
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Metro
September 9, 2009

Dubai Metro vs Kuwait Metro

Today, 09.09.09, is the day the Dubai Metro was promised to have been launched. The project is 75% over budget (SkyNews) and with only a small portion of only one line active from the first day, but it will be up and running as promised…
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Barrak Al-Babtain 14
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Urban
September 7, 2009

Bollards in Kuwait

Mark from 248am posted this image of bollards being installed outside his office building. They are spread out wide enough to allow for bicycles and pedestrians to pass through, but not cars. Ostensibly, the reason for that would be to discourage parking on the side…
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Barrak Al-Babtain 17
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ArchitectureEnergyUrban
September 3, 2009

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…
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Barrak Al-Babtain 6
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EnergyUrban
September 2, 2009

Masdar City

Masdar City is a planned, zero-carbon, zero-waste development designed by Foster + Partners currently under construction in Abu Dhabi. A city of 50,000 people with no cars and no pollution. The project sits in stark contrast to the rest of the ecologically unaware developments of…
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