Kuwait: a livable future?

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Kuwait a livable future?
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• There is an opportunity for Kuwait to provide a
  livable future.
• BUT
• we need
• better educated clients public and private
• better trained and more professional architects
  and engineers
• to re-establish the concept of public interest

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• THE OPPORTUNITY
• Winter edition of Dispatches mentions
• Bubiyan Island container port
• The new causeway
• Two new cities for 500,000 and 750,000
• Failaka Island tourist development
• Roads
• Hospitals
• Schools
• 500,000 square meters retail
• 350,000 square meters office space
• 8 new or expanding private universities.

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• Kuwait population hits 2.992m Citizens up in
  number, down in percentage
• The latest statistics on demographics and the
  labor force, issued by the Public Authority for
  Civil Information (PACI), indicate that the total
  population of Kuwait had reached 2.992 m. by the
  end of 2005, and 3.052m by June 2006 At a
  conservative growth rate of 3.5 this means that
  the population will double in less than 20 years.

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• In many countries, a small percentage of the
  building stock is replaced each year against a
  background of very limited population growtha
  very gradual improvement in the average quality
  of the environment.
• In Kuwait and the Gulf region, with a much higher
  proportion of the environment needed new each
  year, the rate of improvement should be
  fastermore competitive in the global market
  place.

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• we can certainly design and build high quality
  individual buildings

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.and there are more to come
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on the other hand..
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• So while the smart projects are being
  constructed, the rest of the country is
  disintegrating into a third world mess
• ..No three things in a row

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• THE PROBLEM
• We are all familiar with the problems of living
  in Kuwait
• we know to avoid Salmiya and Hawally late
  Wednesdays and Thursdays,
• we know to avoid the northbound morning rush
  hours, that now seem to last from before 7 till
  after 9.
• we know the car park will flood when it rains and
  the drains will smell when it doesnt rain.

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In Islamic Law, you are allowed to encroach onto
the Fina providing you do no damage!
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• contaminating the air with smoke is an
  encroachment on nature(Imam Alhilaly)
• new render on wall to avoid encroachment onto
  public space.

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traditionally public spaces were
collectivelyowned, not owned by a remote
government
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• contaminating the air with smoke is an
  encroachment on nature(Imam Alhilaly)
• new render on wall to avoid encroachment onto
  public space.
• traditionally public spaces were collectively
  owned, not owned by a remote government
• but instead of carrying forward powerful and
  practical concepts from the past..

But instead of carrying forward strong concepts
from the past
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we have trivial pastiche
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WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

• Where is the civic pride, the public interest,
  the concern for the quality of shared spaces that
  mark out a civilization?
• Indeed, that marked out Islam as an urban
  civilization from the start
• Where is the town planning framework with which
  Kuwait led the Gulf until recently? abandoned
  and not replaced

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• Not difficult to identify some of the
  contributing factors
• Government confusion
• Privatization without guardianship
• Cost-cutting and short-term investment
• Politicization of technical issues
• Reliance upon out-sourcing for public service
  contracts
• Devaluation of design professions
• Tribalism architects and engineers

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• .just how devalued?

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INAPPROPRIATE DEMOCRACY
Structural system was chosen by a vote of the
Main Board of PAAET
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CLOSED MIND
Structural problem on the fifth floor. Did you
look at the rest of the building? The Owner only
asked me to look at the fifth floor.
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The Owner and one of the consultants involved
with the design decided to show that errors in
the design were so serious that the building
would have to be demolished, thus ruining the
responsible consultant. The Owner appointed three
allegedly independent engineering entities to
report on the structure and instructed them to
conclude that the building needed to be
demolished. This plot failed, the structure was
sensibly repaired and the office survived.
CONSPIRACY
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DISHONESTY
A survey company, finding that access was
difficult, proceeded to survey another site
nearby, to which access was easy, and to report
as if it were the right site.
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EQUIVOCATION
EQUIVOCATION
Consultants had designed an innovative cooling
system that had been approved early in a design
report submitted to and approved by the Owner.
They were somewhat taken aback to find that the
system was rejected at a very late stage and
referred the Owner back to the approval. Oh,
said the Owner, the fact that we approved your
report does not mean that we approved what was in
it.
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THOUGHTLESS OPPORTUNISM

• The number of floors permitted in Kuwait City
  office towers changed during the construction.
  Eight floors were added without any
  re-calculation of the structural integrity of the
  building.
• This means either that the building was grossly
  over-designed to start with orit may collapse

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NEGLIGENCE
A new private hospital was designed with a single
air-conditioning system serving all four
operating theatres
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DEVALUATION OF DESIGN

• there is going to be twice as much real estate
  in Kuwait within 20 years
• some comfortable assumptions about density and
  transport are going to be severely tested
• this is a real challenge
• to improve the product, the built environment,
  we need a better process

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INSIDE DESIGN OFFICES

• Important to understand the institutional
  culture that allows these stories to unfold!
• Design fees too low
• Too many small offices
• Too much reliance on international offices
• Not very professional
• Profit not service

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• Normally, a new project arrives in the office
  and an assessment is made
• how many people are needed to achieve the dates
  required by the owner
• architects, engineers, draftspersons

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A different model. All the work in the office
mysteriously filtered through the staff that
happened to be there. The concept of meeting a
deadline by hiring additional staff, according to
the needs of a programme. unheard-of
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• There was a small group of technically competent
  people who actually did the work, perhaps twenty
  percent of the staff.
• These were the workers.

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• Next there was a group of people whose work was
  to make excuses for delays and mistakes and
  generally to cover the tracks of the workers.
• These were the dissemblers.
• 1. trans. To alter or disguise the semblance of
  (one's character, a feeling, design, or action)
  so as to conceal, or deceive as to, its real
  nature to give a false or feigned semblance to
  to cloak or disguise by a feigned appearance.
  (OED online)

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• They were not always successful and hence there
  was a need for another group.
• These went, often under cover, into the
  Ministries re-arranging files and documents in
  support of the dissemblers team.
• These were the manipulators, final resort of an
  unscrupulous office organization.

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• No wonder the quality of what is produced is so
  poor
• The interest of most offices is not service

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POPs AND POMs

• We have seen that the design offices have their
  problems
• These became much worse when they were attacked
  by a new tribe

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The construction industry is divided into two
distinct major tribes. Design offices, the
POPs, are Paid on Performance, while
Construction Managers/Project Managers, the POMs,
are Paid on Monthly basis of inputs, usually
measured in man-months.
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• The POP tribe is trying to finish the design
  the POM tribe, working for the owner, has the
  responsibility to review their work.
• The POM tribe has an incentive to help the POPs,
  to give helpful advice, to advance the interests
  of the project, to keep to the agreed programme?

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• No way. They have an overriding interest to
  delay the project, to add to the complexity and
  to exploit the extra monthly payments as much as
  possible for their own benefit.
• Generally the influence of PM/CM companies has
  been very bad

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• What do we need to respond to the opportunity?
• An end to tribal battles between POPs and POMs
• Professionalism
• Education

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PROFESSIONALISM

• Professionalism requires
• Academic qualifications
• Professional qualifications involving experience
• Membership of an organization responsible for
  administering the qualifications and ensuring
  compliance with a code of conduct

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• There is no tradition of professionalism in the
  disciplines associated with the built environment
  in the middle-east.
• Regulations in different countries vary but
  there is generally no requirement for
  professional training, only academic.

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• Professionalism
• Helps to make design decisions objective
• Avoids the risks of technical issues being
  politicized or commercialized
• Is professionalism compatible at all with the
  pursuit of self-interest we see at work in the
  Middle East?

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EDUCATION

• We need to educate
• Clients to behave responsibly
• Engineers and Architects to behave
  professionally
• Kuwaiti Engineers and Architects
• Everyone to increase environmental awareness and
  re-establish the concept of the public interest

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Thank you