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Al Sawaber Couldn’t be Saved

I was watching the video below and wondering if demolition had started on Al Sawaber, or if people were able to save it. Sadly as you’ll see by the end of the video, Al Sawaber couldn’t be saved.

33 replies on “Al Sawaber Couldn’t be Saved”

That is really sad.

Had family members living there back in the day.

Remember visiting them as a kid. The building was so distinguished from the rest and easily recognisable. I used to call it the staircase type building as a kid lol

How disappointing. I wonder if we will have people who understand the value of architectual heritage and it’s importantance to our country. If we build another Dubai we will fail. We have so much more history and none of it is being paid attention to. People will not want new shops.

Thank you everyone who made an effort. We need to find somebody with a say in parliament

I am really curious to know what lead to its down fall, and were the people living there forced to move out? Or were they at least bought out?

Imagine getting this awesome apartment many years ago, only to lose it down the line. That’s pretty sad

Excellent question. They were bought out. It’s alleged that the govt paid up to 200,000kd, now I highly doubt they paid that to each tenant or if that was the total I don’t know. But they did pay each tenant a sizable sum.

If you thought you all could save an already approved demolition of a building with the contractor assigned etc., you must be pretty delusional.

If you (refers to everyone) wanted to really save Al-Sawaber, you should have done something about it when it was rotting from years.

You’re assuming people knew that Sawaber was going to get demolished years ago. People just found out about it now, even the press just picked up on this so thats why people are reacting now.

The government has been taking about sawaber for years and has been forcing people out since the early 2010s. I mean what did people expect was gonna happen? It was definitely gonna be brought down and replaced with something else.

it could be possible that the government has thought of a better protect or a facility that would be much needed. moreover there could be chances that the old structures were supporting illegal activities. The Graffiti i have seen does prove it that it supported illegal activities which are evil in nature, and also have connections to drug trade and use.

this place could be saved if people had united earlier, and organised events and grown many plants. it would have been a lot greener and productive that way rather than just stand still.

ITTTTTTTSSSSSSSS UUUUGGGGGLLLLYYYYYYYYY THERE’S NOT ONE SINGLE THING ABOUT IT THAT’S PRETTY FOR THE EYES WTH IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE CALLING IT NATIONAL HERITAGE IT LOOKS WORSE THAN THE PROJECTS IN THE STATES
WAAAAI333 DESTROY IT WITH FIRE

I’m afraid people are too emotional, buildings are built, buildings fall as was ancient civilisations and will always continue. Saving this building will not save your memories and lost loved ones. The location is great for investment, the buildings were old and unremarkable. I’m completely backing the government’s conservation of the buildings next to the British embassy or the salam palace but this building just has little meaning to Kuwait. Tbh I’m still sad that Zaha hadid died without Kuwait commissioning her to design any of our projects.

The issue with Sawaber is that it’s so uncared for such a long amount of time, that renovating it now is just not a good idea. I mean it was just left to rot for all these years. If it was in a better condition I would have been a staunch supporter of not demolishing it, but it’s condition is just so so bad…

And I really hope what’s planned instead is something good, unfortunately I can’t think of anything suitable for that area… so I’m sure the govt doesn’t have any idea either and they will probably fuck it up with some kind of mall/restuarant plaza.

I sincerely hope against hope that that 1 crane will not be demolishing the entire Sawaber complex !! as is the case with the other building demolishings in Kuwait.

Good riddance, I hope they build a branch of Avenues Mall on top of that housing project rubble.
Just kidding, I liked that building, but people above are right, it was neglected even when occupied.

Something new will be built and everyone will forget what was there before. I can’t even remember what was on ground where Marina Mall is, probably some cool looking sea chalet from the 1950’s.

I keep thinking to start a photo album of my favorite places around town before they get destroyed.

Do Arabs realize there’s no such thing as “Arch.” or “Eng.”?

It’s crazy… Can just write “Architect” underneath their names instead of trying to create odd conventions like Arch. and Eng…

Do non-Arabs realise that Arabs have their own long-standing culture, language, and conventions that dare to differ from whatever it is your arrogant ass thinks is ‘the norm’?

Believe it or not, ‘Arabs’ have had architects and engineers for raaaaather a long time – far longer in fact than the Western world – so don’t you think we have the right to choose to give the same respect to our Architects and Engineers as doctors, vets and dentists receive?

Don’t we have the right to have our own, Arab convention as to how we address each other without waiting for the West to grant us permission?

Some of the very foundations of modern day architecture, city planning, engineering, agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, science and literature were being created right here in the ancient Middle Eastern civilisations ~ 10,000 years ago – Western Europe 10,000 years ago? Hmmmm….bunch of neanderthals and savages still, right?

LOL. Your ignorance is astounding.

We know history, sweety. We don’t go around just insulting people because we’re so outraged.

Can you point me to a source, where we put Arch. or Eng. before someones name, in the Arab world, say 500 years ago?

I dare you, find me a source from hundreds of years ago.

You won’t be able to, because you’re making things up, sweety.

Found the girl who went to KU for engineering and only accomplishment in life is putting Eng. infront of her name lol.

Hi Mark, Just to let you know that it’s not entirely true that Sawaber couldn’t be saved. There is still hope!

True, the contractor started demolishing the pedestrian bridges, but technically this was done unlawfully – as a lawsuit had already been filed, and the contractor was personally served the court order – as were all the responsible authorities – BEFORE they began the destruction.

They should NOT have proceeded with any demolition until after the decision of yesterday’s hearing.

As it happens, before the court hearing, the contractor was stopped from any further demolition by Kuwait Environment Public Authority (KEPA), due to the suspicion that the buildings contain asbestos. Further demolition cannot occur until the results of asbestos testing have been verified by KEPA: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs2f0E2hxSi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.

In the meantime, the public court hearing yesterday saw a large group of Kuwaiti architects, urban planners, engineers, professors and government employees in attendance to support saving Sawaber. The judge ruled that further evidence was needed and the next hearing was set for February 5th.

https://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/court-holds-first-hearing-in-case-to-halt-sawaber-complex-demolition/

Any further acts of demolition are currently unlawful, and would be in violation of KEPA as well as the Courts.

Hope this helps 🙂

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