Kuwait: a livable future?

There is an opportunity for Kuwait to provide a livable future….BUTwe need:•better educated clients [public and private]•better trained and more professional architects and engineers•to re-establish the concept of “public interest”

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….

“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.

• In many countries, a small percentage of the building stock is replaced each year against a background of very limited population growth……a 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 faster……more competitive in the global market place.

we can certainly design and build high quality individual buildings

….and there are more to come

on the other hand……..

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

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 doesn’t rain….

In Islamic Law, you are allowed to encroach onto the Fina providing you do no damage!

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 collectivelyowned, not owned by a remote “government”

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…

we have trivial pastiche

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]

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

……….just how devalued?

Structural system was chosen by a vote of the Main Board of PAAET

INAPPROPRIATE DEMOCRACY

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.”

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

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.

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.”

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 or…it may collapse]

THOUGHTLESS OPPORTUNISM

NEGLIGENCE

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

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

INSIDE DESIGN OFFICES

Important to understand the institutional culture that allows these stories to unfold!Design fees too lowToo many small officesToo much reliance on international officesNot very professionalProfit not service

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…

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

There was a small group of technically competent people who actually did the work, perhaps twenty percent of the staff.

These were the workers.

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)

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.

No wonder the quality of what is produced is so poor

The interest of most offices is not service

POPs AND POMs

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

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.

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?

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

What do we need to respond to the opportunity?

• An end to tribal battles between POPs and POMs

• Professionalism• Education

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

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.

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?

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]

Thank you