Public Services Architecture award for Kuwait at the Africa & Arabia Property Awards 2018-2019

11/10/2018

The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) has been named winner of the Public Services Architecture award for Kuwait at the Africa & Arabia Property Awards 2018-2019. The award for ASCC was presented at the official ceremony on 11 October 2018, at The Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah Hotel, in Dubai.

At the event, ASCC was also announced as a five-star Best Public Services Architecture regional category winner and nominated to compete with other regional category winners for the global International Property Awards, which will be announced at a gala presentation dinner in December 2018 in London.

“To be nominated for the International Property Awards, as well as being a regional winner at the Africa & Arabia Property Awards, is a great honour,” said Simon Dennison, Design Director of SSH. “On behalf of our client, the Amiri Diwan of Kuwait, and SSH, we are extremely pleased with this award, which goes toward validating our architectural and engineering pedigree across the MENA region.”

As part of the Amiri Diwan of Kuwait’s vision for the country to become a cultural hub for MENA region and beyond, ASCC is a new world-class museum district within Kuwait City and is a celebration of Kuwaiti, Islamic and Arab culture and history. Since its inauguration on 5 February 2018, the centre has embraced and showcased the rich diversity of the world’s finest cultural achievements, with the scale, shapes and shades of the buildings designed to convey a sense of wonder and awe worthy of such accomplishments.

The complex is tied together by its central ‘street’; a covered thoroughfare forming ASCC’s spine that evokes walking down a traditional, busy Kuwaiti street. Meandering through the district beneath the spine’s technologically advanced canopy is a journey of surprises, revealing exciting spaces, Islamic patterns, corners and walkways, while offering stunning views deep into each museum building.

Visitors can enjoy six distinct experiences, each housed within their own buildings at the complex, which are a Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Museum of Islamic History, and Space Museum, as well as a Fine Arts Centre and Theatre. Each building contains an array of permanent and temporary world-class exhibits and artworks.

SSH was appointed by Al Ghanim International as lead architecture and engineering designer on the complex. Working collaboratively with world-leading museum specialists, SSH was able to deliver the ASCC project for the Amiri Diwan to the stringent standards required of world-class public cultural buildings.