The Ministry of Social Affairs in Kuwait City commissioned this collection of office buildings. Each department occupies one wing, all of which are provided with natural light through a distribution of cuts and atria. Each atrium brings light from the roof all the way to the ground floor, where these separate buildings merge together. This creates opportunities for social interaction in a very large compound, and provides a legible strategy of way-finding for guests.

The facade is composed of louvres that provide inhabitants with both solar shading and privacy. The louvre design borrows ideas from Optical Art – the overall appearance of the facade varies according to the location of the viewer and the position of the sun. In order to integrate all these properties into a single facade, we developed a custom digital tool in the office that helped us with optimisation.

Type   |   Commission

Programme   |   Administrative office complex, conference facility, parking

Total Area   |   135.000 m2

Status   |   Tender

Date   |   2014 - ongoing

Budget   |   174.000.000 $

Design Team   |   Theo Lalis and Dora Sweijd with Kasper Ax, Luke Tan, Nikos Klimentidis, Doyeon Cho

Executive Architect   |   ASCO Consultants

Engineer   |   ASCO Consultants

Services   |   ASCO Consultants