𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗘𝗥𝗨𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘

More than four decades later, the sandstone was beginning to let go and fall away.
Yet its timeless warmth remained — resting against the cerulean of the Arabian Gulf.

The question was never to overload the façade, nor to strip it from its identity.

The intervention relied on the widest possible mesh apertures to continue revealing the stone beneath, while echoing the original anodized steel tones already present on the building. Smaller mesh apertures allowed the corners to turn softly without framing or visually hardening the mass. The overlay of the mesh simply rested over the stone skin, stabilizing it without overburdening the building.

The newly introduced windows were intentionally popped outward instead of retreating inward like the original punched balconies. Not to imitate the old, nor compete with it, but to establish a quiet dialogue between what was there and what was added — another layer to the building without pretension.

Sometimes preservation is not about freezing a building in time.
It is about allowing it to continue aging with dignity. ...

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗔 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘

Since the day I stepped back into Kuwait, this building caught my attention during my early morning walks by the sea with my father — may his soul rest in peace. Docking by the waterfront, it carried something whimsical about it. Its alternating fenestration and articulated façade already hinted, back in the 70s, that behind it was not your typical apartment building.

The question was how to maintain this, amplify it, while optimizing the relationship with the sea. How to open the eye of the building to feel its surroundings.

You could already hear the hum of the sea at night, sitting on the balcony facing the pitch dark horizon while the waves whispered below, as if boarding a ship docked along the shore.
So why not wake up to it in the morning? ...

𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐀

Set on a one-of-a-kind peninsula where the city meets the sea without the burden of a highway, this residential retooling was less about adding space and more about restoring a forgotten relationship with the horizon.

The original apartment layout placed closets directly along the façade, turning the sea into something peripheral — present, yet disconnected from daily life. We relocated the storage spaces deeper into the plan, transforming them into a mediating walk-in closet between bedroom and bathroom, while carving out a V-balcony bay-window allowing the bedrooms to wake up to the sea.

No additional square meters were created.
What changed was the experience of living, from waking up onwards.

Light, depth, perspective, and the constant presence of the horizon became part of the architecture once again.

I still remember one of the tenants when we explained the intervention saying:
“But I already know the sea.”

Knowing the sea and living with it are two very different things. ...

PAD10 Architects + Designers’ finalist proposal for the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), links the Headquarters (HQ) and Convention Center (CC) along Kuwait’s waterfront. The project extends the existing promenade into a continuous “Science Mile,” connecting architecture, landscape, and public space.

The Convention Center rises as a landscaped form at the peninsula edge, while the Headquarters anchors the marina promenade with transparent façades and shifting terraces. A continuous waterfront path links both buildings, creating a civic sequence that frames the marina and strengthens the relationship between city and sea. ...

The KFAS Convention Center rises as an inhabitable landscape: its sloping green roof extends the promenade upward, offering elevated views back toward the city and outward to the Arabian Gulf. Programs such as the library, exhibition areas, cafés, and public gathering spaces open toward the sea, allowing cultural activity to spill outward into a stepped waterfront plaza.

PAD10 Architects’ proposal was selected as a finalist—ranked 5th out of 110 entries from 25 countries—in the anonymous two-stage international competition organized under the Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA). ...

PAD10 Architects’ finalist entry for the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) interlaces two new buildings—the Headquarters (HQ) and Convention Center (CC)—along Kuwait’s most prominent coastal stretch. Together with the existing Scientific Center promenade and a newly proposed elevated pedestrian bridge, the project extends the waterfront into an exploratory “Science Mile”: a continuous public sequence that links science, landscape, architecture, and the sea. ...

PAD10’s finalist proposal for the KFAS HQ &
Convention Center interlaces two key buildings along
Kuwait’s most prominent coastal stretch, extending the
existing Scientific Center promenade into a continuous
“Science Mile” culminating in a shaded public plaza
beneath the Convention Center’s cantilever.

The HQ rises as an L-shaped volume, stepping from 3
to 8 floors—set back to preserve and frame views to
and from Pearl Marzouq, while minimizing solar
exposure and opening toward the sea. Its terraced
façade forms an urban canopy, shaping shaded public
edges and a vertical promenade that connects
landscape, offices, and roof gardens.

Together, the HQ and Convention Center operate as a
layered civic landscape—where architecture,
promenade, and waterfront merge into a continuous
public realm.

Finalist Award — ranked 5th out of 110 entries from 25
countries (Phase-EINS competition 2-stage
competition).

#PAD10 #Architecture #CompetitionDesign
#WaterfrontArchitecture #UrbanDesign
#CulturalArchitecture #FacadeDesign #PublicRealm
#MiddleEastArchitecture #KFAS ...

In our award winning entry for KFAS new HQ, the L-shaped building steps back as it rises, allowing the existing promenade meadow to spill into the site—expanding the public open space while establishing a respectful setback from Pearl Marzouq. This gesture opens reciprocal views between both buildings toward the Arabian Sea.

Conceived as a landswell, the meadow integrates technical services and parking beneath, merging infrastructure with landscape and reinforcing the continuity of the public realm along the waterfront.

PAD10 Architects was selected as a finalist (5th out of 110 entries from 25 countries) in the international anonymous 2-stage competition for the KFAS HQ & Convention Center, organized by Phase EINS. ...

In our award winning entry for KFAS, the Convention Center extends and ends the new scientific center promenade with a raised landscape—tilting upward to both look back at the city and be seen from it.

This lifted ground plane pushes the building’s upper programs toward uninterrupted sea views, cantilevering outward to form a shaded canopy below. Beneath it, a continuous public realm unfolds—housing cafés, a library, and cultural programs that open onto the waterfront promenade.

Landscape and architecture merge into a single gesture: a civic topography that frames views, shelters public life, and anchors the project along Kuwait’s coastline.

PAD10 Architects was selected as a finalist (5th out of 110 entries from 25 countries) in the international anonymous 2-stage competition for the KFAS HQ & Convention Center, organized by Phase EINS.

#PAD10 #Architecture #CulturalArchitecture #ConventionCenter #PublicRealm #LandscapeArchitecture #WaterfrontArchitecture #CompetitionDesign #MiddleEastArchitecture #kfas ...

FABA Residence — Kuwait

Set on a compact corner plot in Dahiyat Abdullah Al Salem, FABA Residence unfolds through a continuous sequence of terraces that rise from the setback to the rooftop, creating a layered spatial journey between interior and exterior.

Designed by PAD10 Architects + Designers, the villa balances privacy, openness, and light through an architectural language that is elevated, porous, and sculpted. Rooms extend outward through thresholds and terraces, turning the house into an inhabited topography rather than a conventional enclosed form.

The ribbed façade and angular geometry frame views while softening transitions between public and private space, creating a contemporary retreat where materiality, landscape, and atmosphere work together.

Currently under construction in Kuwait City.

#FABAResidence #KuwaitArchitecture #LuxuryVilla #ModernVilla #ContemporaryArchitecture #ArchitecturalDesign #FacadeDesign #CGIArchitecture #KuwaitDesign #PAD10 ...

A CROP OF CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION WORKS: Faba Residence is currently under construction in Kuwait City (Dahiyat Abdullah Al Salem).

Set on a compact corner plot, the house is shaped by a continuous sequence of terraces that wind from a generous setback up to the rooftop—forming a spatial gradient where interior and exterior become one. Layered, elevated, and porous, the project unfolds as a series of rooms and thresholds through which life extends outward.

Architecture here becomes an inhabited topography, carefully balancing privacy, light, and openness.

PAD10 Architects + Designers #Architecture #ResidentialDesign #KuwaitArchitecture #ModernVilla #ContemporaryArchitecture ...

A CROP OF CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION WORKS: A sculpted veil wraps the villa—filtering light, framing privacy, and softening the boundary between inside and out. Layer by layer, the architecture unfolds: solid and porous, intimate yet open, grounding the home within its context while elevating the experience of living.

A contemporary retreat where materiality, light, and landscape are in constant dialogue—where the façade is not just enclosure, but atmosphere.

Description and read more: https://pad10.com/veil-residence-kuwait/

#PAD10 #Architecture #KuwaitArchitecture #VillaDesign #ModernArchitecture #FacadeDesign #LuxuryLiving #ArchitecturalDesign #MiddleEastArchitecture ...

Akai — a new commercial destination in Kuwait by our award-winning office — activates the street as a social stage. Retail spills outward beneath a canopy of palms, while the sloping roof invites life upward to a sequence of terraces and cafés. Day transitions into night as light, movement, and gathering redefine the edge between city and architecture—where the sidewalk becomes destination.

#AkaiKuwait #RetailExperience #UrbanActivation #AwardWinningOffice #PAD10Architects ...

Akai — a new commercial destination in Kuwait by our award-winning office — frames light, movement, and encounter as part of the retail experience. Sunlight filters through layered louvers, casting depth and rhythm across the façades and into the heart of the project. The open void draws the landscape inward, connecting levels through air, greenery, and visibility—where circulation becomes promenade, and commerce unfolds within a spatial continuum.

#AkaiKuwait #CommercialArchitecture #LightAndShadow #AwardWinningOffice #PAD10Architects ...

Akai — a new commercial destination in Kuwait by our award-winning office — redefines the shopping experience by extending the sidewalk into the building and elevating it to the roof. Layers of outdoor space dissolve into the interior, softening the boundary between luxury and everyday ease. The slanted, wrapping geometry connects street life to rooftop cafés, creating a continuous dialogue between levels—where seeing and being seen becomes part of the architecture.

#AkaiKuwait #CommercialArchitecture #UrbanContinuity #AwardWinningOffice #PAD10Architects ...

The barn, reimagined.

Its archetypal skin unfolds as an interface between in and out—
sea and sky, pool and garden—
revealing and concealing in equal measure.

An unflattened surface, shaped through iterations, wraps the volume,
cocooning the family—afloat above the underpass that connects garden to seashore.

#architecture #modernarchitecture #facadedesign #fromsketchtoreality #architectsofinstagram ...

Between line and light.

What begins as a precise section becomes a lived atmosphere—
a quiet shift from drawing to dwelling.

The rigor of geometry holds,
yet the building softens in reality:
light filters, materials warm,
and space is finally inhabited.

Architecture is not only what we draw—
it is what light reveals,
what time shapes,
and what people make their own.

From line → space → life.

#architecture #builtwork #designprocess #lightandshadow #pad10architects ...

The landscape swells—
rising, folding, and penetrating the guesthouse at multiple levels,
turning access into an act of hospitality.

What was once a boundary becomes porous,
an architecture to be crossed, entered, and inhabited from all sides.

The structure stretches along the terrain,
within it and through it—
impregnating the landscape rather than sitting upon it.

Spaces unfold as continuities rather than rooms,
each threshold dissolving into the next,
until it stretches out to claim an outpost— far-reaching, looking toward the sea beyond - and meet the viewer stepping out of the clay studio, topping the barn.

Photograpphy: @joaodmorgado

#architecture #modernarchitecture #builtwork #designprocess #pad10architects ...