01 December 2007

Work is now in progress on the concept designs for an estimated KD14 million ($50.52 million) mixed-use project for Injazzat Real Estate Development.

The project – known as Plots – aims to integrate leasable shopping and office spaces into a cohesive whole while considering the local climate and the end-users’ requirements.
SSH International is the consultant on the project and is required to provide consultancy services relating to the various disciplines such as architectural, structural, and building services, landscaping, acoustic engineering, vertical transportation engineering, quantity surveying and contract documents. Project Analysis & Control Systems (Projacs) is the client project manager.
“The trend today is for retail and office spaces to grow in scale into huge and lifeless malls and office towers,” says a spokesman for SSH International. “However, this mixed-use complex engages the human scale as it reflects a typology of the past, when these activities were part of a single physical entity that was the core of Kuwaiti merchant culture. This design attempts to eliminate a spatial sterility – which has emerged due to global demands for rapid office and retail expansion – by rendering a more social space that is visually connected to a world of multimedia and the internet at the human level. All the available office and retail space is aligned to a predominantly pedestrian circulation system – as was the case in the Kuwaiti merchant offices and shops of the past – through which the overall objective of the project can be attained.”
Through this project, Injazzat Real Estate Development saw an opportunity to offer Kuwait an amalgamation of functions while demonstrating a sensitivity to the local environment through using energy conservation techniques and creating hospitable pedestrian spaces. The project will stand out as an integrated synthesis of industrial and commercial outlets that blend together the physical and social aspects of work and shopping, says the spokesman.
SSH International, a leading architectural practice, is also engaged in the design concept development for a project that involves the construction of six prototype administrative complexes in six different governorate of Kuwait. The estimated KD12 million ($43.4 million) project for the Ministry of Public Works entails the study, design and construction supervision of the complex, each of which comprise a main police headquarters, a police patrol building and a clinic. They will be located in the Capital, Hawaly, Al Ahmadi, Farwaniah, Mubarak Alkabeer and Al Jahra and will cover sites ranging from 13,000 sq m to 24,000 sq m in area, within a partly developed area with governmental agencies surrounding most of them.
“The site in the Capital area dictates a unique treatment both urbanely and architecturally because of the historic landmarks surrounding it. The police headquarters building will be looked at as a source of pride for the police staff as well as to provide a feeling of security for the public,” he comments.
Since its establishment in 1961 in Kuwait, SSH International has grown in size and extended its capability to become one of the region’s leading consultants providing services to public and private sector clients in architecture, engineering and planning. Having completed a wide range of projects locally and throughout the Middle East, it aims to become a leader in the region by assembling top talent and developing innovative systems to design projects that realise client aspirations.
SSHI follows a structured and methodical design approach that ensures consistency of quality across all projects. Over the years, it has successfully completed a number of planning and engineering as well as architectural projects in various sectors such as commercial and retail buildings, office buildings, leisure and hospitality, educational, recreation, interiors and some special projects.
Some of the firm’s clients and associates include the ministries of public works, energy, planning and defence, Kuwait Municipality, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum Association, among others.

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