Streets of Chaos: Kuwaiti Style

By Ali Al Yousifi

A pink house!

Walk (well, we all know that’s not going to happen… just drive then) down any residential street in Kuwait and witness the shocking chaos. Compare any two houses on that street and most probably the size, shape, and color of each house will be completely different from the other. Even the sidewalks will be different; some houses will have parking spaces, some will have palm trees, some will have Conocarpus hedges, some will be paved, some won’t, and some will even have random piles of sand (What’s going on with these piles of sand in front of houses?).

A bright-yellow house!

The bottom line is that here in Kuwait, we don’t really care about architectural unity in our residential streets. Kuwait’s municipality gives freedom to every home owner to design the outer appearance of their house as they wish, with very little restrictions. Compare this phenomenon with other cities around the world that place strict rules on the building aesthetics in order to create visual unity. One example of this is the Greek island Mykonos, where all the houses are of about the same size, they’re all rectilinear in form, and they’re all painted white. 

A purple house with red window frames!

In fact, we don’t even need to review examples from around the world; let’s just take Kuwait City, but sixty years ago. Most houses were a single story high (maximum two), they were all rectilinear in form, and they were all built with mud. Walking down a Kuwaiti street before oil revenues allowed us the luxuries of concrete houses and asphalt roads revealed a visual unity that we have long lost. 

A house with green and blue stripes!

The question here is: should we attempt to create visual unity in our residential streets? Should Kuwait’s municipality place rules on the shape and color of houses? Or should people have the freedom to choose exactly how they want their houses to look (as ridiculous as those choices may be)?

An orange house!

I’ve thought about this questions many times, and I still can’t decide what I’d prefer. Yes, having our streets lined with houses of a similar aesthetic would give our neighborhoods an elegant beauty, but I can’t deny that I sometimes enjoy the randomness of our streets. There’s something quite honest and authentic about having each house reflect the personalities and preferences of its inhabitants. Also, we can see it a physical manifestation of democracy and personal freedom, where every individual is able to express his ideals on the façade of his home.

A dark-brown house!

But what do you think? Should people be allowed to design their houses however way they want, or should Kuwait’s Municipality place restrictions?

Another pink house!