A new type of multi-family living. Wafra Living by AGi Architects
30/11/2021.
[Jabriya] Kuwait
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
Description of project by AGi Architects
Wafra Living‘s design by AGi architects proposes an innovative housing organization in Kuwait, a new type of multi-family living as a social response to housing needs in the country. The design is guided by the requirements contemporary life while balancing traditional norms, and reintroduces urban life to the building level.
Wafra Living is designed as a high-rise building set back from the street, with an L-shaped building defining the street edge. It is conceived to maximize privacy within the community, whilst providing ample natural light and usable indoor and outdoor common spaces. Cuts have been made on the ground floors of the front building to provide better views for the tower apartments.
The complex combines at different levels domestic and collective scales that are both private and public. The architecture defines the edge of the block and creates a series of open spaces within the plot for the community, with various uses. The building cantilevers off the ground to draw street life into the building. The ground floor level opens up to the neighborhood with accessible retail facilities on the street level, integrating into the urban fabric, and links up to a high square through an inclined, stepped garden.
The project is composed of 16 types of living typologies -ranging from two bedroom to fourbedroom duplex- distributed across five cores to cater to a variety of tenants. The project public amenities include multiple gardens, gyms, pools, kids playing areas, squash court, public terraces and community multi-purpose space.
A “High Square” is created. It acts as a large-scale, private communal area for all tenants that includes various landscaped pockets, pools, and access to the gym to enjoy leisure activities in a more private setting.
The building envelope provides a safe environment for the inhabitants, protecting them from the hustle and bustle of the street. From this level, one can see an aluminum mesh: a double skin that climbs the internal facade containing the emergency routes, and conceals the various service spaces that do not relate to the public. Behind the lattice are the five cores, which connect the residential floors.
Passive design techniques and innovative materials are used to maximize thermal insulation and minimize light consumption, also enhancing ventilation of the building, avoiding the “heat-island” effect that occurs in this type of urban development.
With the pandemic, typologies like this one have taken on a renewed interest as they offer a variety of ‘communal’ and public space and how crucial it is to our well-being as a society. Wafra Living is socially driven, environmentally responsive and behavior-conscious. This development has set an example of how to approach urban issues and redefining areas; thereby becoming a catalyst for the city's future growth.
The international design firm AGi architects was founded in 2006 by two young architects educated at Harvard University, Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea and Nasser B. Abulhasan.
With a noticeable international character and a multidisciplinary focus, AGi architects offers a professional service emphasizing quality,creativity and exclusive design. AGi has a vision to create environments that create a lasting value for clients through distinctive and imaginative solutions. At present, the studio has offices in Kuwait and Madrid, with a team comprised of more than 50 professionals.
The studio's architecture is based on four founding pillars: innovation, an inherent life component, ecological and social interventions andresearch. AGi architects provide comprehensive services in architecture, urban planning and design, interior design, research, consultancy and complementary services.
Among the latest acknowledgements for AGi architects are a nomination for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies van der Rohe Award 2015, "Highly Commended" at WAF 2015, four WAF Awards (2014, 2013, 2011 and 2010 editions), ten Middle East Architect Awards(2015, 2014, 2013 & 2012), two mentions at MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects Awards 2012, and various awards granted in the last editions of Cityscape Awards and International Property Awards, amongst other prizes.
Joaquín Pérez- Goicoechea and Nasser B. Abulhasan.