Research Laboratories in Kuwait

Notes

The complex comprises several blocks spread across the plot, among which a two-story-high rectangular volume stands out distinctively. Its entry hall contains the lobby, an administration area, a waiting room, and a staircase leading to the upper floor. The entry hall separates this block into two wings: the western wing houses functions related to physical and engineering activities, while the eastern wing includes functions related to chemical activities.

Adjacent to this volume, sits another rectangular block, half its size, and contains activities related to research, office work, and theoretical studies.

Some other building blocks, in the vicinity of the aforementioned main volumes, house the kitchen and cafeteria. The remaining blocks in the complex feature functions that require distancing and isolation, such as storage units for chemical products and waste.

The project’s structural conception focuses mainly on thermal isolation and sun light protection. As a result, the structure consists of heavy walls that extend outwards from the building playing an additional role as louvers. The floor and roof slabs are of reinforced concrete, and the spine corridor walls contain within their thickness in-situ reinforced concrete columns. Cross walls are non-load bearing, thus giving flexibility to future arrangements of the laboratories.

Sources

Architectural Design 3, March 1957, p. 108.

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