Architecture of Kuwait got their hands on a ton of renderings of the new airport and have posted them all online. Compared to our current airport the new one is HUGE. I’m still going through all the pictures trying to decide if I like it or not. There are some things I have question marks on like all these steps in the picture below. I think they’re also covering the whole airport roof with solar panels which is a great idea.
The new design is a major and I mean MAJOR improvement over the current airport. Not that the current airport wasn’t as beautiful when it was first designed by the legendary Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. But over time with all the expansions and changes they’ve made the current airport just looks like a mess now. Anyway you can check out the pictures of the new airport [Here]
42 replies on “Take a peek at the new Kuwait Airport”
the roof looks like a solar panel!
Looks great, hoipe it turns out to be half good at least.
Am i seeing Wataniya airways in the rendering above?
yeah they’re predicting a comeback 😉
Is that true? Wataniya is coming back? That’s another mirage. I miss that carrier so much and to go through Sheikh Saad Terminal was such a pleasure. Really?? A comeback? They did tick alot of boxes. There is room for another discount carrier in Kuwait because Jazeera seems to think that it is competing with Emirates. They are not Emirates. By the way, I heard from reliable sources that they are in discussion about taking Sheikh Saad Terminal and they can bankroll it.
I don’t know man, even the smallest project in Kuwait take a long time to finish, and most of them never even see the light of day. It would be awesome if we had a new, more modern looking airport, but I don’t think it will see the light of day anytime soon.
yeah i hope they will have decent air circulation 😉
2017: Contractor will be selected after bickering from majlis el khamah
2019: Contract will begin work, after project is scaled down and changed a zillion times.
2026: Project will likely be complete.
Look at Jaber Hospital..the projected was first announced in the late 90’s
+100 !
2036 commission and testing begins
The only place we’ll see this is in our own imagination…:3
shut up all of you
in kuwait we finish projects on time
+ i have this too prove it
https://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/283592_10150738057735503_815005502_20163546_608957_n.jpg
LOL
Good one, I live there !!
How did you get a hold of this 1983 alwatan article ? Pretty cool.
i have my sources 😉
There were a lot of proposed projects in the mid to late 80’s that were stopped and there’s a lot of reasons for that. First and foremost is the gulf war. After that, Saddam kept threatening us of another war. These threats continued up until his capture in 2003 which made investors run away from Kuwait (a lot of whom moved to Dubai, surprise surprise). After that we started seeing new project proposals and approvals, 20 story building cap was increased (or removed?) and skyscrapers and large scale projects began to develop and that was during the whole nuclear development program in Iran which increased tension between Iran, US and Israel. Then a few years later we were hit by the economic crisis and that’s when a lot of projects slowed down, postponed or just completely stopped. From 1990 up until today, it has been a pretty crappy period for Kuwait. Add to that our lovely MP’s who disapprove of any new project and criticize everyone of theft and you just never get anywhere.
Probably because there is alot of prone for theft and corruption, but it is apparent that no one is really taking the reigns of progress and moving this country forward and I feel that it is the core of the matter. Or are they travelling? It is easy to put blame on the outspoken few, however, if someone really wants to get these critical projects moving, I think it can be done easily. You haven’t noticed the vultures flying around Kuwait Airways lately? How tragic that a national carrier is orchestrated to downgrade to embarrassing levels so that people can low-bid the carrier. Someone has to be concerned about national pride and a new airport is just the right project to do that – God help Kuwait!
Spot on!
Not true. A lot of these claims of theft are false. Remember when KAC attempted to purchase the new airplanes a few years back? Rather than getting the planes directly from the manufacturer (Airbus) which takes some 7 years or so before they take delivery of these planes, they decided to pay a couple more million KD’s or so and get them directly from Alafco which reduced time down to some 2 years only. The purchase was just about to be completed when Musallam Al-Barrak jumped in and claimed that there was theft going on because they chose Alafco instead of Airbus. The whole thing stopped in order to run an investigation which had to take a few years and eventually had to stopped for good (Alafco’s decision). The deal never went through and guess what? There was NO THEFT. You can thank Al-Barrak and his BS for that.
so u see all this info. and all our fustration. there are lots of youth in kuwait that are unaware, and unfortunatly the ones that pay attention will use their knowledge to their advandtage and move and shake kuwait to their ideals, while everyone else complains. so we could do with a few more knowledgeable and motivated people and start some sort of blog or website, gain some awareness and maybe then enough people will be know enough not to allow these stupid events to happen.
hahaaha! nice one!! So someone was sitting in the office, having nothing to do, found some archive file and said “Wow, a ready project to put on my to do list. That will show the others that I am working on something”
yes i do 😛
You know guys we are here to say it.
Let’s keep our hypocrisy aside !!
No more AlKhrafi or AlAhmadia Let’s just bring an international firm to take care of this like ; Samsung, or Mace group. That will really make Kuwait feels right !!
Everything around us got constructed by these two companies and non of them feels efficient or urban or right !!
And I’ll not start with the name of the projects !
Hathe mo steps, chenha nwafeer look closely.
They missed pasting all the Asians (Indians – Afghanis – Iranians – Bengalis) that live in the airport in those photos.. For me they already lost there credibility 😉
They can have this terminal and continue to live there the rest of their life. It is apparent that they live there, you feel like you have been whisked into the subcontinent in that terminal – it is an overwhelming nightmare of chaos during high-peak periods.
The new airport looks similar to the old airport, the difference being solar panels on the roof.
@AAM +100 on that comment
Dream on Kuwait! The last expansion project that was awarded to a Spanish firm just a few years ago was cancelled and now this project is being re-bid. Just a few months ago Municipality was fighting with The Kuwait Airport Authorities on where the airport is going to be built. This is the single MOST important project in this country and NO ONE will take this country serious unless they breakground on this project. So, all you people out there that truly love this country, better make sure that this contract breaks ground ASAP. The present airport is a disgrace to this nation, however they will need to airport as the other airport progresses and I think they should give the old airport to the sub-continent carriers for their use. Kuwait always had two airports and maybe they need to continue this even with the new one. Dubai has four terminals and Kuwait I feel needs two to handle the passenger levels.
trust me their are more important issues in kuwait. #1 education #2 findout where all the money that is put into the multimillion kd contracts u read about everyday for roads and sewage goes to. everyday theres another # million kd contract sign, but the roads are shit. so either somebody is just giving the company money as a favor in exchange for crappy work a blind eye and a favor returned. You see apparenlty Kharafi built some amazing stadiums in south afirca, what keeping the company from doing it here? also dont the companies that agree with kuwait on a contract get paid a large sum of money when the contract is broken, ifloos oboookom itcaneloon ilcontract? and i’d be intrested in knowing exactly where every kd of the break of contract money goes to.
This is a perfect example of how this government has failed you. The new project has Mr. Foster as the key architect that is purportedly going to bid. So the government trashed this beautiful project years ago. Someone please get the ball rolling in this country and quit bullsh***ing the country. It is not fair to future generations of people that rely on this government to run a progressive society for the population.
i saw some pics which it was great especially the solar roof,, but it will take time like forever to finish any project here in Kuwait 🙁
you should post it under the joke section
Wow! i hope its done properly and if not and kuwait gets a dusty year could help the workers and cleaners in that airport. Plus i believe in this project once its completed.. till then enjoy the pics…
Another mirage in the Kuwait Desert!
I agree totally. The current projects built are completely short-sighted and don’t account for the population explosion this country is going through. But that is only part of the problem. The main one is that there is a disregard of the laws coupled with a complete lack of enforcement. I mean where have you ever seen a country where the employees/security/etc smoke in an airport ? Bahrain also has a small airport, yet its much more organized. Even if we were to build an airport that was the fanciest in the world, it wouldn’t matter. It will still be totally chaotic, the restrooms will stink, and the guys at the counter will still be busy– one hand holding a cigarette and the other sending a ever so important whatsapp or some other social networking message.
It wouldn’t be if you hire a western management CEO to run it like in Dubai. That is the problem. One time I was at immigration around 3AM and this immigration employee had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, with ear phones on connecting to his mobile which he was speaking on whilst stamping my passport. I have NEVER seen that in any airport in the world and I have travelled through many from Beijing to Honolulu. Then to top it off, when I returned in country, I was told that I did not have an exit stamp in my passport, which I did, and the policeman screamed at me in front of my children at the top of his lungs in my face. They were wrong and the exit stamp was shown to them. It was reported at the time in the press that they were letting people out of the airport with bribes who had travel bans etc. , NOT MY PROBLEM! Outrageous!
Thank you Mark, you made my day, at least my day dreams. Just look at the entrance and think back to what you saw at the entrance or what you had to go through to get the entrance of the present airport. What a dream come true and what a good government there would be in this country that would build such a valuable project for this nation. They would really value the reputation of this nation, but I guess that is another dream also. At some point in time, someone has to care for this nation. It is so frustrating to live in an oil-rich nation that sometimes looks like the back streets of Bombay?@#$
Dear mark,
Its nice to see the feed back from all the readers
But I would like to infrom all the readers that the Ministry of public works is working hard to insure that this project, will see the day of light.
We are still in the design stage at this point in time.
Planning to start construction in march 2013 and finish in march 2016.
All airport take time to design & constructed for exmple dubia airport took almost 11 years from start to finish.
My team and I will try to keep you and your reader up to date.
thank you
Plz put these nots in mind :
– isolate stores, coffee shops, restaurants from travelers way. The current one feels like aswaq alqurain mall !
– Something must be done with Those Asian goodbye packs blocking the way! 150 Travelers with 400 farewell band behind them blocking the way is silly. I only see this at Kuwait airport.
Woow it’s good , but i hope to starting it 😉
This is NOT THE DESIGN of the new Airport.. ITS THE TERMINAL ONLY.
The approved design includes another runway which will be in the east..
A large area for cargo stands between the third runway and the center runway.
AND much more.
Kuwait A.T.C
Well… as a person working at Kuwait airport, i dont think this is the approved master plan.This images have some flaws and look amateurish.Third runway which is already under construction is not seen in the image and the proposed location layout of the new terminal obstructs it. Access to Sheikh Saad terminal is also seen to be blocked. A 3D rendering of the approved masterplan is put on display in the departure hall (near duty free) of the airport by the DGCA itself
Don’t get me wrong, Foster + Partners are an excellent architectural firm, but did they forget that solar panels on the roof reflect the sunlight upwards? (very dangerous). And second of all, this kind of looks like an extension at avenues. If you take away the header, I’d honestly believe this could be the potential phase 53 at avenues :p
On another note: I love the fluidity of the whole design. Very Zaha Hadid-esque.