Accidental Greenhouse

By Ali Al Yousifi 

If you take a walk around Building 5KH, home of Kuwait University’s College of Architecture in the Khalidiya Campus, you might encounter an intriguing rectangular blue volume. This alien object excitedly stands out amidst the ‘beigeness’ of its surroundings. It is actually nothing more than a number of steel poles that were recently used in an art exhibition organized by some of the College of Architecture’s students. Fearing the steel poles to rust if it rains, the students covered the poles with a plastic blue tarp.   

Unfortunately, the blue tarp helped contain moisture and heat inside the enclosure, accelerating the rusting process of the poles. But, while the poles suffered, the ‘greenhouse effect’ of the tarp created the ideal conditions for young vegetation to sprout. At the feet of the brutal rusted bases of the steel poles, countless plants are growing, benefiting from the contained heat and moisture.

The bizarre juxtaposition of the soft innocent leaves with the harsh mute steel is striking, and yet it is only because of the rough poles that these plants got the appropriate environment to flourish. This coexistence of two seemingly contradictory elements in harmony is exactly what the recent Ecological Urbanism movement is advocating. Ecological urbanists, such as the GSD’s Mohsen Mostafavi and Charles Waldheim, refuse the notion that cities and nature have to be in opposition; they call for the fields of architecture and landscape to merge, creating environments where both man-made cities and nature can mutually benefit.