Pearl-Marzouq Complex, Kuwait, Mixed-Use Building Development, Apartment Complex, Property, Al-Ras Housing Architect
Pearl-Marzouq Complex in Kuwait
9 May 2022
Design: pad10 architects + designers
location: Kuwait

Photos by pad10 architects + designers
Pearl-Marzouq Complex, Kuwait
Of resemblance to the social housing typology, Pearl-Marzouq Complex, ‘Lou?lou?at Al-Marzouq’, embodied the complete opposite; a private housing for the affluent. Built in the early 70?s on al-Ras, a peninsula-like landform; with remoteness from the city center, al-Deira, yet at a distance close enough to be gazed at. With its red roof tiles and warm sandstone walls, the building infused a Mediterranean feel to the Arabian Gulf. For white collar expats partaking in the spur of Kuwait?s economy, it was home away from home.
Similarly, it was convincing for well-to-do locals to substitute the privacy of their single residences, seeking a new ?urbanized? experience, by claiming their prime villa-like duplexes and penthouses with an elevated vantage point back to the city and its sea. The excitement inherent to this dense typology, was further amplified by subverting the building law to equate the number of floors to skip-stop elevator corridors. Connecting midway to duplex apartments, the area (sqm) was almost doubled, as the building height from its surrounding.

With the changing zoning laws seeking higher density, more than 50% of the modernist structures have been razed in al-Ras i...