This project constitutes a strategic spatial plan aligned with Kuwait’s National Vision 2035, covering the Silk City and five major islands: Bubiyan, Warbah, Failaka, Miskan and Auhah. Adopting **active urbanization** as its core philosophy, the plan is grounded in Kuwait’s institutional characteristics, including predominantly state-owned land, a lease-based development system and restrictions on foreign investment access. It locally adapts the domestic concept of “white land” into implementable spatial strategies such as flexible regulatory planning, phased development reserves and mixed-use zoning.
Following the integrated port-industry-city development model, the project takes Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port as its gateway hub, linking logistics parks, industrial zones and urban functions. It will be implemented in three phases from 2020 to 2045: Phase 1 kicks off with port, airport and logistics development; Phase 2 gradually fosters urban centres and completes supporting facilities; Phase 3 delivers mature diverse communities and public spaces.
In terms of spatial layout, the plan embraces the grid city concept and 15-minute neighbourhood framework to build an efficient road network and homogeneous block units. Addressing the challenges of inefficient land use and land monopolies in Kuwait (in response to the 2023 Anti-Land Monopoly Law), reserved plots are classified into strategic reserves, development reserves and optimization reserves, with tailored development timelines and intensity ranges to balance planning flexibility and practical deliverability.
The plan aims to build a prototype future city of Kuwait featuring **ultimate urbanization, ultimate intelligence, ultimate human-centric design and ultimate sustainability**. It will help Kuwait diversify its economy away from oil dependency and consolidate its position as a regional financial and trade hub.
Grounded in Kuwait's land tenure system and legal framework, the project transforms the domestic "white land" concept into a flexible zoning strategy, allocating reserved parcels across three categories—strategic, developmental, and optimized white space—each bound to defined development timelines. Appropriate strategic white space reflects respect for the future; "filling up" is not equivalent to "building well." By preserving elasticity for technological iteration, industrial evolution, and functional upgrades, the plan ensures both flexibility and implementability.
Adapted to Kuwait's structural characteristics—including a high proportion of expatriate labor and a resource-based economy—the project focuses on inter-island functional division and diversified industrial implantation: Bubiyan Island hosts the port and port-linked industries, Warbah Island is planned as a seaside wellness city, Failaka Island is upgraded as an international humanities university, while Miskan and Auhah islands serve security and resort functions respectively. Following the "port-park-city integration" pathway, the port acts as a gateway hub linking urban functions, fostering the city's self-generative development capacity.
The plan adopts grid-based urbanism and the 15-minute living circle concept, establishing an orthogonal road network as the foundation for smart mobility, with neighborhood functions organized across walking, cycling, and transit-oriented commute circles of varying scales. Shifting from industry-led planning toward urbanization-led planning, the scheme disperses macro-zonal functions into homogenized block units, promoting functional mixing and urban vitality to achieve a livable, workable, and visitable environment.
All key elements—including white-space ratios and types, industrial linkage intensities, and block unit scales—are converted into adjustable design parameters serving as generative constraints. By flexibly calibrating their arrangement across the land, multiple planning alternatives are generated through iterative simulation, then optimized against Kuwait's local land regulations, population distribution, and transportation capacity. This approach ensures the plan's adaptability and decision-support capacity under multiple dimensions of uncertainty.
| Education
Future-oriented educational space — breaking traditional classroom boundaries for a flexible learning community
| Commercial
A corporate headquarters where nature and technology coexist, with courtyard layout for eco-office environment
| Urban Renewal
Industrial heritage revitalization — transforming an abandoned steel mill into a creative industry hub
| Residential
A boutique resort hidden among mountains and water, redefining travel experience with minimalist Eastern aesthetics