Category: Interesting

Arabian Business has a list of GCC’s top employers and the only local company to make the cut and come in at #2 is Alshaya. Siemens Kuwait also makes a cameo appearance due to their state-of-the-art office, which according to the article is fully equipped with a gym, pool and shops. Sounds like my kind of office. Here is the link tot he full list on Arabian Business [Link]

In my previous post I mentioned how the Central Bank of Kuwait was originally designed by Arne Jacobsen. Well I managed to get more information on the Central Bank project in form of a PDF which you could download from [Here]

Update: Found some more pictures of the Central Bank, my favorites are below but you could see them all [Here]

Patrick over at Projekt Cyan posted about the Kuwait Central Bank today. Turns out the Central Bank was originally designed by Danish architect and designer Arne Jacobsen back in the early 70s, the guy who designed the very famous “egg chair“. The Kuwait Central Bank was actually his last project before he passed away. The picture above is how it originally looked when built.

Below is a picture of how it looks like today.

Finally this is how the new Central Bank is going to look like once completed.

You can read more about this on the Projekt Cyan website [Here]

First two photos via Thorsten Botz-Bornstein

There was a press event held today at the Sheikh Saad terminal regarding the new airport design. At the event a CD was given to the attendees which contained various renderings of the airport (previously posted about here) as well as PDF’s containing information on the airport design plus some facts and figures. None of the documents say when the airport will be completed but they do say construction begins next year. Oh and it will have a metro station meaning I will be able to take the train from my home to the airport… that’s if they ever build the metro.

Other interesting facts, the airport will be covered with solar panels as previously speculated and they’re actually aiming to be the first passenger terminal in the world to attain the LEED “gold” accreditation (laymen terms = it will be very environmentally friendly). The steps which in my previous post I thought were weird (check image above) turned out to be water falls which makes a lot more sense. Check out all the renderings below, they’re slightly updated and polished compared to the previous renderings that were posted. Finaly here is a link to a zip file containing the PDF’s in Arabic and English. [PDF LINK]

Thanks Rabee

Found this Alshaya corporate video on YouTube. It’s not all interesting to watch but the parts I liked were the behind the scenes look at some of their businesses. They’ve got one huge ass warehouse! [YouTube]

Update: They’ve removed the video. I guess it wasn’t meant for public consumption.

The rendering above is of the new design for the Pushkinsky cinema in Moscow. It was designed by architect Hend Almatrouk and Gijo Paul George. I’ve never seen anything that looks like it and I also hadn’t heard of Hend before. I was just checking out her blog and she’s got a lot of crazy stuff. Here are some related links:

Time Warp Architecture – Trend Hunter
Rossiya’s Flourish – suckerPUNCH
Hend Almatrouk on YesYous
Hend’s Blog

Thanks Mohammad

Update: Hend sent me an email saying that she has a design studio which she started with her partner Gijo Paul George called “Studio_Toggle”. They’ve got better quality shots on their studio’s website so check it out [Here]

I posted about the LoYAC Academy of Performing Arts (LAPA) before but since then they’ve added extra sessions and courses as well as changed most of the timings. Bloyac just posted the updated list of activities which you can see below:

Hip hop (mixed): Wednesday 6-8 pm / Saturday 1-2 pm
Hip hop (females): Saturday 12-1 pm
Break dance: TBA
Salsa: Monday 8-9:30 pm
Drama: Thursday 4-5:30 pm
Guitar: Sunday 5-9 pm / Tuesday 5-9 pm / Thursday 5-8 pm
Violin & Arabic Orchestra: Monday 6-9 pm / Tuesday 6-9 pm
Ballet: Saturday 4-5:30 pm / Thursday 4-5:30 pm
Piano: Monday 5-8 pm / Wednesday 5-8 pm
Fitness: Monday 6-8 pm / Wednesday 5-7 pm / Saturday 5-7 pm

According to the blog Bloyac, they’ll also add drumming to the list if enough people sign up for it. The classes operate on a six-week basis and the cost is KD36 per course. If you’re interested in taking any of these classes you can call them up on 96653377.

For more information check out the LOYAC blog [Here]

Nawaf al Gheraibah, is a half Kuwaiti, half Indian/Portuguese musician with a pretty weird music style like nothing I’ve heard locally. It’s not mainstream stuff so not sure how many people here will like his music but even if it’s not your style it’s still worth appreciating. My biggest criticism though is the fact that I think his music lacks a local identity. When I listen to the music it sounds like a lot of different things but none of which sound like the songs originated from Kuwait by a Kuwaiti.

Anyway his songs are all available for free to download on his [Website] and Facebook page. I found it a lot easier to listen to the songs on the Facebook page so check it out [Here]

There is a local website called Photo Lenders which rents out photography equipment like lenses and cameras for reasonable prices. This concept isn’t new since it already exists in the States but it’s still great that someone decided to set up something similar in Kuwait. I’m sure all the local photographers are going to appreciate this and I’m personally waiting for them to start renting out cameras as well. Check out the website [Here]

So I was at the popular Al Remal Al Dahabi garage the other day with a friend of mine sitting in the waiting room when someone lit up a cigarette. Right away to my surprise someone comes in over the PA system and announces that there is no smoking allowed in the waiting room and they should go smoke outside.

I was like completely taken aback by this. If a garage in Al Rai has started enforcing a no smoking policy then there’s still hope that malls and restaurants will also stop indoor smoking as well. At least I hope so.

A reader sent me an internal 360 Mall memo which contains more information on the world record attempt that’s taking place at 360 Mall. Turns out Habchi & Chalhoub will be attempting to build the biggest perfumes pyramid in the world using 50,000 bottles of Paco Raabane perfume cartons.

According to the memo the pyramid will be ready and on display starting today since a judge from the Guinness World Records as well as the media and other personalities will be there to check it out. Here are some more details regarding the pyramid:

Base: 36 m2
Height: 5.5 m
Number of perfumes used: 50,000 pieces
Building time: 32 hours for 2 days

Thank Yousuf

No trickery involved, that’s really Rawdatain water that’s turning into ice in the heat. It’s done using a simple scientific phenomenon called “supercooling” where you can freeze water below it’s freezing point without it turning into ice until it gets disturbed. [YouTube]

Thanks Babar

The Chocolate & Chocolate blog posted pictures of the Eastpak event here in Kuwait where you could get your bag customized by graffiti artists. I like the artwork on the bag above and I’m now thinking of passing by and getting one of my bags tagged if it’s not too packed. The event is still on for another 2 days in case you’re interested. Here is a link to the blog post on Chocolate & Chocolate [Link] and here is a link for more information on the event [Link]

Yesterday I posted about the attempt by Kuwait’s Al Farsi family to break the record for the worlds largest kite. They already hold the record but they’re trying to re-break it with an even larger kite. Sadly, the kite ended up getting ripped today and so they couldn’t continue with the record attempt. They are currently working overnight to try and repair the kite and will hopefully be flying it again tomorrow. The BBC website has more information on this as well as a video from today’s flight. [Link]

I first saw the brotips website a month or two ago when one of the sites I frequent linked to it and I thought it was a cute idea. Then, a few days ago I found out the website belongs to a young 16 year old Kuwaiti called Yousef Khraibu and thought that was pretty unexpected.

Because of his dads job, Yousef ended up moving from Kuwait to Morocco to England and eventually landing in Canada where he’s currently living. He was always interested in entrepreneurship so he decided to drop out of school to focus on one of his projects when he ended up meeting his current partner Dominique. Together they came up with the idea of packaging commonsense in a pretty way and they ended up with brotips. Their website has gotten pretty popular and they’re now close to signing a book deal.

It’s an interesting story which I thought was worth sharing. If you haven’t checked out brotips just click [Here]