Client: AUK
Consultant: Unknown
Designer: Option-1
Location: Al-Ardiyya - M.Bin Al-Qasim st.
www.option-1.org

The pictures has been published on Option-1 website:
www.option-1.org

It's located in Al-Ardiyah! It will be near to the under construction two PAEET's colleges and Jaber Al-Ahmad Sport City... So the area will be crowded in the coming few years... By the way, I live close to it... I think we will face some troubles in mornings when trying to reach works or schools :nuts: But great to have such projects in my area...
It looks good... Thanks for posting... and Welcome to Kuwaiti Forum :)

Any reason of the relocation? The current campus looks fine by me :nuts:

Acctualy, and as i heard (rumors) they will keep the current location for managerial purposes . .

Thanks for the info, WAZ_1981. :)

I've heard a few stories myself.

I [tragically] go to AUK, and the new campus has been talked about for quite a while now; there's even a poster with four renderings hung up in the Office of Student Life.

They've got a few good reasons to shift to a new campus:
1. The current campus in Salmiya doesn't have adequate facilities or any room for expansion to accommodate new programs; i.e. constructing new buildings, classrooms or sports facilities isn't possible because they've choked up almost all the space they can use.
2. Parking: the bane of all AUK students and visitors. It seemed big enough when they first built it, but with the large influx of new students [AUK's student population is now well over 1500], there just isn't enough. Students are resorting to parking on sidewalks, outside the Symphony/Hotel Missoni, in front of neighboring apartment buildings, at the nearby mosque and so on. I once got to the parking at 8:20 on an April morning and managed to park at 9:15. It's ridiculous.
3. AUK wants to appeal more to international students and raise its reputation. The new campus will allow it to build housing and student dorms to better house students from outside Kuwait, giving the university a more global feel.
4. The new campus would have more room for larger numbers of faculty and students, creating more class openings [also a pain for us], more offerings and more overall convenience.

I heard that the plan was to open the new campus in phases, so that both campuses could be kept and used. The new one was supposed to open in 2011, but I was told that that's been pushed to 2013 at the earliest. Seeing the new Kuwait University city at Shadadiyah and how far that one's gotten [you know, with all the segregation talk being bantered about in parliament and whatnot], I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen way later.

Hope this helps.

CT

I've heard a few stories myself.

I [tragically] go to AUK, and the new campus has been talked about for quite a while now; there's even a poster with four renderings hung up in the Office of Student Life.

They've got a few good reasons to shift to a new campus:
1. The current campus in Salmiya doesn't have adequate facilities or any room for expansion to accommodate new programs; i.e. constructing new buildings, classrooms or sports facilities isn't possible because they've choked up almost all the space they can use.
2. Parking: the bane of all AUK students and visitors. It seemed big enough when they first built it, but with the large influx of new students [AUK's student population is now well over 1500], there just isn't enough. Students are resorting to parking on sidewalks, outside the Symphony/Hotel Missoni, in front of neighboring apartment buildings, at the nearby mosque and so on. I once got to the parking at 8:20 on an April morning and managed to park at 9:15. It's ridiculous.
3. AUK wants to appeal more to international students and raise its reputation. The new campus will allow it to build housing and student dorms to better house students from outside Kuwait, giving the university a more global feel.
4. The new campus would have more room for larger numbers of faculty and students, creating more class openings [also a pain for us], more offerings and more overall convenience.

I heard that the plan was to open the new campus in phases, so that both campuses could be kept and used. The new one was supposed to open in 2011, but I was told that that's been pushed to 2013 at the earliest. Seeing the new Kuwait University city at Shadadiyah and how far that one's gotten [you know, with all the segregation talk being bantered about in parliament and whatnot], I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen way later.

Hope this helps.

CT

well said, however i went to 3ar9'ya and i was not able to find the campus can you give me a hint on where it is?

http://i40.tinypic.com/1535f6b.jpg

I've heard a few stories myself.

I [tragically] go to AUK, and the new campus has been talked about for quite a while now; there's even a poster with four renderings hung up in the Office of Student Life.

They've got a few good reasons to shift to a new campus:
1. The current campus in Salmiya doesn't have adequate facilities or any room for expansion to accommodate new programs; i.e. constructing new buildings, classrooms or sports facilities isn't possible because they've choked up almost all the space they can use.
2. Parking: the bane of all AUK students and visitors. It seemed big enough when they first built it, but with the large influx of new students [AUK's student population is now well over 1500], there just isn't enough. Students are resorting to parking on sidewalks, outside the Symphony/Hotel Missoni, in front of neighboring apartment buildings, at the nearby mosque and so on. I once got to the parking at 8:20 on an April morning and managed to park at 9:15. It's ridiculous.
3. AUK wants to appeal more to international students and raise its reputation. The new campus will allow it to build housing and student dorms to better house students from outside Kuwait, giving the university a more global feel.
4. The new campus would have more room for larger numbers of faculty and students, creating more class openings [also a pain for us], more offerings and more overall convenience.

I heard that the plan was to open the new campus in phases, so that both campuses could be kept and used. The new one was supposed to open in 2011, but I was told that that's been pushed to 2013 at the earliest. Seeing the new Kuwait University city at Shadadiyah and how far that one's gotten [you know, with all the segregation talk being bantered about in parliament and whatnot], I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen way later.

Hope this helps.

CT

i share the same concerns ...i go to auk as well :ohno:

The land area is 150,000m2 according to the website.. That's a good size.. Same size as the GUST mishref campus i believe...

But there's no info on the size of the budget allocated, huh?

The renders are sorta ugly btw.. Very un-inspiring..

it looks like a soviet prison camp to be honest!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It's hideous.

I know the gate is a modernized take on a traditional Arabian portal, but it looks like the choked-off entrance to an impenetrable fortress. The buildings are bland and imposing, the Arabian elements [the lengthened building tops with wooden stakes to resemble wind towers, the geometric shapes] are immature and half-witted and the entire complex comes off as completely dull, lackluster and uninspiring.

The current AUK campus is equally dreary; everything is grey or white, making the place feel like a sterile hospital facility rather than a university. Paint is peeling in places, lots of space is wasted due to the lack of proper architectural planning, the university space is not properly optimized at all and the build quality is ridiculous. For those of you who have been to the campus or are planning to in the future, keep your eye out for this: the Liberal Arts building, or the B building, was initially built with four floors. The fifth floor was added only after the building opened, but it's clear that it was built hastily and cheaply. Why? Stand on any corner outside the B building and look up: you'll notice that the building starts to lean outwards from above the fourth floor.

The interior is also quite spartan; the white hallways are now slapped with burgundy and yellow walls [integrating the mascot colors into the interiors], the classroom furniture is falling apart [etched desks, generations of chewing gum, missing screws - we've got it all], the projectors aren't properly aligned with their corresponding screens... For a private university, you'd expect the proper funding and facilities to keep it up to par, no? I mean, when you look at GUST...

But, I digress... The new campus doesn't appear to be a step in the right direction. For an educational environment, I would expect engaging buildings, something dazzling to fascinate students and get them interested in their surroundings. What's the difference between one of the rendered buildings above and some dingy, aging ministry in downtown Kuwait City?

The new Kuwait University campus has had its masterplan drawn up by WZMH Architects of Canada and several buildings on campus designed by notable American architects NBBJ and Cambridge Seven, with more to come as they are announced. From the released renderings, KU is going to be hands-down incredible. AUK, on the other hand, had its masterplan and entire architectural snafu designed by Kuwait's own Option One. If you've looked at any of their projects, like the Amwaj Residential Tower in Salmiya and the Mermaid project in Mahboula, they all bear a resemblance of some sort to one another [you know, just widen one project here, add a few floors there and so on].

It's a shame; they could use this space for something far more creative, yet it's come down to this.

Oh well.

CT

any update on this project?

As far as I know, the project has been cancelled.

I heard that AUK has ceded the land to Kuwait University; this doesn't make sense seeing that Ardiya is along the Fifth Ring Road and the new KU campus is on the Sixth, but I'm going with the rumor. Even with delays, they were supposed to move in to the campus by 2013 but, naturally, they haven't even broken ground on the site and now the entire project is a no-go.

AUK is instead investing in its current campus, with plans to expand it vertically. They're finalizing the addition of a new floor on the Sciences building and I heard talk of them wanting to demolish some of the single-story buildings and replace them with five- or six-floor buildings instead. It's ridiculous for a campus that doesn't even have sufficient parking space or enough space for faculty offices. Did you know that they want to start [or possibly already started] renting out floors in neighboring towers and buildings to serve as faculty offices because their current campus is full?

What a bleak failure of a university.

CT

that's ridiculous. instead of paying the rent they should invest in a new campus.

As far as I know they haven't built a new campus because they have requested a better location for their new campus from the government but apparently the government has not done so.

I see. Maybe this project is on hold.