The Heart of Kuwait...

If someone who has never been to Kuwait before asked you to show them the 'heart of Kuwait', where would you take them? What part, neighbourhood or feature of the city is reflective of Kuwait's essence and character? Which elements are unique and culturally ingrained enough to make it distinct form surrounding places and nations? There are perhaps a few obvious answers, such as the bulbous Kuwait Towers or the blue and white striped water-towers, but the discussion needs to move beyond such national symbols as, just like one doesn't visit Paris only for the Eiffel Tower or New York for the Empire State Building, the query needs to expand beyond the notion of the iconic and begin exploring an idea closer to something that could be referred to as 'urban ambience' – the experience of being and inhabiting a city.

As a historically seafaring and trading state, there is an inherent transient quality to Kuwait's being that may be difficult to capture and retain, nevertheless, there are still scattered evidence of buildings and pubic places from a few generations ago, many of which, sadly, are in a very dilapidated state. A nation's core being and nature, the connective tissue that links one generation to the next, is retained in the collective memory of its people. These are kept alive in the stories, anecdotes, and legends, as well as the poetry, literature and art made by respective generations. Cut or ignore this link, and the dynamic thread connecting these generations is lost and pastiche, the repetitive and sterile re-appropriation of old ideas, prevails. The same applies to it's cultural foundations, the defined and experienced body and presence of a nation, which is stored and reflected by its built and occupied environment – the streets, squares and buildings of its people and cities. These are the places where the everyday, but defining, communal happenings of a population take place. In Kuwait there is a shortage of these type of spaces, as there really aren't many outside areas where people can congregate. Malls don't really count, as how they are used is overly controlled and too choreographed, with little place and space for spontaneity (how long would a busker would be allowed to perform at Avenues Mall?). Interestingly enough, however, there are sign that even here some degree of subversiveness applies, as, for example, Avenues Mall has become for many an air-conditioned arena for an ambulatory afternoon workout (power window-shopping?!) evidenced by the countless individuals in sneakers and sweatsuits (some with added hand-weights) making their way across the extended concourses. This non-planned adaptation of a haven for shopping as a place for exercise is what provides it with at least a degree of inherent character, something that is unique for Kuwait and that separates it from the predictable and generic role this type of places usually entail. In a small way this adapted use of the mall becomes a small individualistic beating Kuwaiti heart in its own right. Wouldn't it be great to begin exploring and understanding these types of hybrid uses better? Wouldn't it be interesting to actually build upon this, and adapt, say, a part of the concourse into a track with a bit more forgiving and textured friction surface, or even build an additional adjacent track only for such beneficial activities? But I'm deviating from the subject matter...

Where are the romantic places in Kuwait? Where would one go to write a novel, to meditate, to enjoy a sunrise, a sunset, for some urban flâneuring, or to privately grieve in Kuwait? A city needs places and venues for all such life events. Settings for such happenings need to both be designed as well as left to evolve by themselves in a city. Places for chance encounters, private moments, play, exercise, along with locations for more formal and choreographed affairs and ceremonies. It is also important that this type of environments are allowed a more extended presence, to develop across generations, for it is here, in the core of daily activities, that the pulsating heart of Kuwait is located...

So perhaps the heart of a place lies in the smaller, everyday, actions rather than the bigger, monumental, interventions. It is in the seemingly mundane and familiar that, paradoxically, provides a place with its identity. The stray-cats that occupy the nooks and corners of the city; the annual sandstorms that turn the air golden-yellow; the fragrance and taste of oven baked flat-bread (khobez Irani) and broad-beans (bagilla) from the neighbourhood co-op; the fragrance of shisha and murmur of muffled conversations at street side coffee-shops; the wall of heat that hits you when walking out the door, and the gust of chilled air that greets one when entering a premise – all these experiences, things one misses when away, and, after a trip, confirms one has returned to Kuwait, are the qualities that the 'heart of a Kuwait' is made of. These attributes, which can be designed but seldom re-created, are reflective of some of the timeless ingredients which, regardless of technological advances or shifts in cultural norms, provide a place with its inherent individuality.