Hawally Courts Complex
Hawally, Kuwait
One of Kuwait’s landmark buildings, the Hawally Courthouse design symbolizes stability, permanence and stature. The architecture exemplifies these qualities with the use of clear, simple geometry and form. Careful attention to interior layout segregation was developed to help ensure equality and fairness for all, reinforced by innovative security technologies.
The plan composes the courtrooms about a square lobby filled with natural light introduced by an atrium that rises along the North façade. Service cores and stairs in each of its four corners anchor this formal arrangement. The plan is articulated in a straightforward fashion, expressing clearly the distinct functions within in a composition of opaque masses and large fields of glazing. A play of traditional Arab square geometries in plan with square and Arabesques motifs in elevation create a tower that is clearly modern yet evocative of a traditional Islamic vocabulary.
Client: Ministry of Public Works
Area: 9,000 m2
Completion: not announced
Components: Court Complex, and Multi-Storey Car Park
Associates: Fentress Architects
