College of Engineering & Petroleum

Text description provided by the architects. When Kuwait University celebrated its 50^thanniversary, instead of focusing on past accomplishments it looked to the future and announced a new ambitious expansion, Sabah Al-Salem University. One of the main colleges on the new campus is the College of Engineering and Petroleum. Tthis new 2.3 million sf academic complex is organized by a long central spine inspired by MIT’s Infinite Corridor.

Given the scale and complexity of the program, we organized the plan along a continuous spine, then folded the path back onto itself, in essence as a series of compressed S-curves. This unusual plan creates shaded courtyards that allow students to work in outdoor labs, protected from the desert heat.

The College’s six academic departments are now together in a dynamic new facility that emphasizes smart-technology classrooms, labs and lecture halls. Originally programmed and designed to accommodate separate male and female populations, that directive was eliminated midway through construction. Because of our flexible design, we were able to repurpose redundant space and position it instead for projected growth.