While looking for old photos of Green Island I found a very interesting article on the whole waterfront development project that took place between 1978 and 1988. The Gulf Road was built on land reclaimed from the sea and part of that project was the development of the waterfront stretching 21KM from Seef Palace all the way down to where Scientific Center is today (check the map below).
As part of the waterfront project the Green Island was created and the article shares some of the backstory and design decisions related to it. The article is in PDF format and contains some pictures, so even if you don’t want to read it all you can skim through it and check out the photos. Here is a link to the [PDF]
The current state of the Green Island is very disappointing. I passed by a month or two ago and the place just looked sad and desolate. Not only that but security didn’t even want to let me in because I had a camera with me. They told me no photography was allowed, how stupid.
via Archnet
7 replies on “Kuwait Waterfront Development 1978-1988”
The whole Kuwait suddenly seems sad and desolate.. I was recently talking to some of my friends who grew up here in 80’s and asked them to visit Kuwait but I was kind of unable to convince their kids to come along. The only questions the kids had were how many amusement parks or go to places are there? And I could only name a few.. except malls Kuwait is no longer as fun as it was when I was growing up. I wish we had more places like the old green island .. I miss the old Kuwait suddenly.
Any idea on who sanctions cutting trees and bushes into the shapes of stars, rectangles, triangles etc.?
Would be interesting to see if they had any study on how that contributes to beautification.
😀
If you find out let me know, when you read about the original plans for the waterfront project the trees were planted to give shade. But, someone thinks turning all our trees to cubes and spheres is a better idea. I drive on the Gulf Road daily and I love it when the trees and bushes grow widely, then one morning i’d be heading to work and realize they’re all cubes and triangles again.
Whenever I see one of the trees growing naturally giving shade – I use that as an opportunity to remind my 3 year old that that’s how a tree is supposed to look like.
I was told when I first arrived in Kuwait that the trees were butchered so that people could not hide behind them and commit illicit acts!!! The topiary was to protect the morals of the public
Yeah someone was pulling your leg
Thanks for posting about this Mark. Interesting topic and article. I have to say i am always surprised by the lack of comments around topics like this. It seems people are really not very interested in the design and development of our infrastructure at the large scale. I suppose it’s because maybe few people realise what a huge role urban planning and implementation have on the QUALITY of our lives, in every sense of the word.
The way our cities are built shapes us, molds our culture and habits, and actually changes who we are – for better or for worse…
I wish more people would get on board helping to develop our infrastructure NOW when we need it so urgently in order to build a future country that is more liveable, resilient, progressive and sustainable. If we all cared it can be done!!! But it ain’t gonna do itself. WE have to do it.
Instead everybody is more concerned with opening the next slider restaurant of coffee shop. Seriously? Those are short term, short-sighted investments in our culture.
If we fail to design and implement a robust infrastructure that supports a truly diversified economy ASAP, none of these comparatively insignificant cultural ‘advances’ will even survive the resulting crumbling of this country.
The Waterfront Project and Corniche is one of the last large-scale civic projects we have had in Kuwait. And it’s one of the best and most popular. Since the 80s we haven’t had any other proper, large-scale civic projects! How crazy is that??!
I’ve heard that the only reason the waterfront project even managed to happen was because it was during a time when there was no parliament (and so they could not thwart the planning efforts by tying it up in endless debate and lack of decisiveness) and the project got pushed through. I’m not entirely sure this is true, would like to know if it is…?
If even just a fraction of the brains and talent and passion we have residing in Kuwait decided to focus on building a better future, together we really could transform this country into an incredible model for progressive planning and infrastructure.
PS…I agree re: the super-dorky topiary efforts. Whyyyy???