Category: Design

The NUQAT design conference is taking place this year from October 4th to October 9th. There will be a ton of lectures and workshops to suit everyones interest. Below are the speakers participating this year:

SULAYMAN AL BASSAM
Theatre Director

DR. NASSER ABULHASAN
Architect, founder and partner of AGI architecture – Kuwait

RANA SALAM
A world renowned branding designer, based

TAREK ATRISSI
Internationally acclaimed graphic designer and typographer based in Holland

ELIE BOU JAMRA & MIRNA HAMADY
Co-founders at Kashida, Lebanese product design studio

ALFRED TARAZI
Political mixed media artist from Lebanon

JASSIM AL SADDAH
Kuwaiti Architect, Founder of Bab Nimnim

KHALID SHAFAR
Emirati product designer

SH. ALANOUD AL SABAH
Kuwaiti jewelry designer, founder of the label, Octium

AHMAD ANGAWI
Up & coming product designer from Saudi Arabia

PLUS AZIZ
Senior Trend analyst at NYC based marketing company Fathom+Hatch

LAMYA GERGASH
Emirati Photographer and Artist

HALEH ANVARI
Iranian published Writer & Photographer

NUR KAOUKJI
Fashion Designer, owner of Noon

YOUNES DURET
Global design agency creator from Marakesh

SALEM ALQASSIMI
Graphic Designer, Artist, Instructor, and Founder of Fikra

PASCAL ZOGHBI
Acclaimed Type Designer Founder of “29 Arabic Letters”

L’ATELIER NAWBAR
Jewelry Designer

For more information or to register visit the NUQAT website [Here]

I’ve driven by the site and I have to say it’s going to be HUGE. [YouTube]

Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah is planning on creating an 86,000-square-foot Exhibition Hall, scheduled to open in 2014 inside Kuwait City’s 360° Mall. Who is he getting to design the hall? The legendary Rem Koolhaas!

Like the glass cube that is Villa Moda, the new department store will consist of transparent facades, punctuated by circular cutouts to let in natural light. Unlike the average high-end mall, however, its design and programming will pay homage to its surroundings: Corridor-shaped shops reflect “the geometry of the Middle East,” WWD reported, with a special push towards spotlighting homegrown talents.

“We want to introduce the future Elie Saabs and Zuhair Murads,” Al-Sabah told the fashion industry paper. It’s a timely decision, in light of the Arab Spring uprisings. As a result of the region’s tumultuous political climate, there has been increased interest among denizens in local leisure activities and, consequently, local art as security concerns in cities like Beirut and Cairo have kept would-be travelers grounded.

Here is a link to the full article [Link]

Note: Dear Sheikh Majed, please let me know when Rem Koolhaas is in Kuwait so he can sign my S,M,L,XL book!

The Kuwait Towers have been closed for a few months due to the fact they’re being renovated. If you’re curious to see how they will turn out after the work is completed check out the video above. [YouTube]

Update: I just found out the video above is a design proposed around six years back but was never approved. There currently isn’t an approved design since they’re still getting proposals from various companies and this process requires another 6 to 9 months. There are plans to have a 3D theater and some other features you can see in the video above but again there is no design finalized as of now.

Currently the Kuwait Towers are closed and the interiors of all three towers have been ripped out since they’re upgrading the fire system, plumbing, electricity cables etc.. in preparation so that once a design is approved they can start work immediately. It’s expected to take 3 years for the project to be completed and the towers to reopen.

Earlier today I got a press release from Avenues regarding their new Multi-Purpose Hall that’s being constructed as part of Avenues Phase III. Since I hadn’t heard any information for quite sometime on the Avenues mosque that was designed by Zaha Hadid (pictured above) I asked them about it. Turns out for some reason they decided not to build it! Turns out it was only a concept design but never got the go ahead.

I think that’s such a major disappointment. Zaha Hadid is such an incredible visionary and I’m 100% sure the mosque when completed would have looked a hundred times nicer than the rendering above. Just watch the video below and look at what she did with the Guangzhou Opera House in China.

[YouTube]

Imagine how beautiful and futuristic this mosque would have turned out to be. It would have been a landmark for sure and now it’s never going to happen. I’m pissed off.

Agi Architects was awarded with a “A’ Design Award” for their proposed hospital design which is pictured above.

You can find out more about the Kuwait Children’s Hospital design [Here] and you can read about the award [Here]

The AlJazi Villas are the villas located right in front of The Village in Abulhasaniya. I always thought they looked interesting from the outside but was curious to know how the inside looked like as well. Conveniently, I just noticed ArchofKuwait have pictures of the interior as well as some information on how the project originated. They’re pretty cool villas and you can check out the photos [Here]

Back in April I posted a rumor that the trendy furniture brand BoConcept might be reopening again under new ownership at Avenues Phase III. Well today I finally got a confirmation that the rumor was true. Turns out Behbehani have taken over the brand and they should be opening at the end of the year.

A beautifully designed chalet in Bnaider by AGI architects. Lots of pictures and details [Here]

According to AlMaha, Pink Moon Boutique are inviting graffiti artists to come and spray paint the exterior wall of their shop located in the Seef strip near Slider Station. That should be interesting to see how the wall is going to be shared with different artists. For more information check out the post on AlMaha [Here]

That’s kick ass! It’s by Mohamed Kanoo and Khaleejesque have an article about him [Here]

The photo above was taken by Ahmad Alnusif’s father and shows the Fatma Mosque being built back in 1972. I found the shot below taken by Cajie also on Flickr showing the mosque today.

I think these two shots work really well as a before and after since the angles match up pretty closely. I’ve actually cropped into Ahmad’s photo above so that it matches todays photo (I hope he doesn’t mind) but you can see the full image in high resolution on his Flickr page [Here]

The website Home Design Lover have information and pictures of this beautiful house in Al-Nuzha called The Mop House. I hadn’t seen or heard of this house before but I think it looks amazing. [Link]

Taken from Skyscraper City:

This is a proposal for a Hyatt Regency hotel and full-fledged convention center that was proposed way back in 1975. I can’t help but be completely floored by this concept – the hotel and overall complex look absolutely massive! The hotel building itself has a timeless classicism to it; I think it would cohesively fit in with all the modern, glassy buildings we have today while retaining its 70s feel. This could have been our equivalent of the Sheraton in Doha, which began construction way back in 1978 and opened in 1980. That Sheraton is one of Doha’s iconic landmarks today, something Qataris are proud of. –ChaoticTranquility

Client: Kuwait Hotels Co.
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Starting Date: 1975
Completion: 1977
Cost: 33,000,000 KD

Project Description:
The site of Hayatt Regency Kuwait on Kuwait Bay, overlooks a traditionaly landscaped Arab park in downtown Kuwait City. The focus of six floor, 586 room luxury hotel will be a large landscaped atrium lobby. Restaurants, commercial space, recreational facilities, service amenities and the hotel rooms will face on the atrium. The fully air-conditioned hotel will feature 16 special duplex suites on thetop two floors in addition to its many luxury suites. An adjoining conference center, similar in character to the United Nations General Assembly Hall, will provide seating for 700 presons. Fixed seating for 400 will be placed on the main floor with 300 filling the balcony, which can be subdivided for smaller conferences. Parking for 885 cars will be below grade. Recreatinal activities such as swimming and boating and the hotel’s health club will be linked to the hotel by an underpass to the beach. [Source]

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you might have seen the tshirt pictured above. I wasn’t planning to post about it just yet since the tshirt isn’t available yet but I also didn’t expect to get a lot of emails asking about it.

Those of you who’ve been reading blogs for quite some time might remember a blogger called Tatabotata. Well he shutdown his blog ages ago but it’s going to be relaunched again soon as a tshirt store. He used to have a lot of cool and controversial tshirt designs back then (snapshot here) and when he showed me the design above last year I told him I wanted first dibs which is how I became his first customer (and #1 fan).

If you also want this tshirt or his others you will have to wait until his website goes live which is very soon. Right now you can sign up to be notified when his tshirts go live so if you’re interested you can head over to his website [Tatabotata.com]