Architects win $38m Kuwait University deal

Architectural firm KEO International has said it has designed a new college at the University of Kuwait in a contract worth $38m.

The company said in a statement that it has designed a new 27,000 sq m Institute for Science and Technology that will accommodate 1,500 students.

The project is part of the university's expansion plans which has seen it add a College of Architecture, the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering and Petroleum and the Design Department at the College for Women in recent years.

The new KEO-designed campus will include three-storey wings housing the administration, academic faculty, classrooms, academic support, and laboratories.

Two 220-seat lecture halls and one larger 520-seat lecture halls will also be included in the design, KEO International said.

Raj Patel, design director at KEO International Consultants, said: "The inspiration for the project stemmed from the site's natural desert scape located outside the urban fabric of the city.

"The entire campus has been appropriately coloured in sand tones emphasizing a horizontal movement similar to the shifting plane of the desert landscape."