Kuwait would have benefited from a stricter building height limit. When a city tries to spur development by removing height restrictions the result is usually the opposite. Landowners end up waiting to sell as prices skyrocket because of speculation. The few skyscrapers that get built suck up all the density and leave the rest of the urban fabric with far less demand. You end up with a few shining gems that stand tall amongst impoverished neighbors.
Washington, DC, is a great example of a low rise city that is very dense. Kuwait really had no justifiable reason to start building forty, fifty level towers. It would have been far more beneficial for everyone had this development been spread out over a larger area of Kuwait City. Instead of a few shining, glistening, resource draining towers built by a handful of developers, we could have had hundreds of four or five level mixed use developments. That sort of democratic urbanism would generate a richer urban environment.
Skyscrapers are monuments to ego and hubris, nothing more
9a7 lsaanek!
il meshkela ena fee nas aghbeya 3abalhom: skyscrapers = ta6awer!
From the point of view of the developer, he makes more money from what little land he has by building as tall as he can. More floors, more rent.
The thing is, it’s our country, and the welfare of our country should come before the profits of developers. They shouldn’t have a say in this, we’re the ones that should be making the rules, not them.
Whose gonna fill all these skyscrapers?! And
Shouldn’t the infrastructure of the city be updated first before they are built?! Just smell the sewage on a humid day!
Good post. Thanks for saying out loud what so many of us here think.
Your blog is always a breath of fresh air…..(not on a humid day 😉 though )
there is a skyscraper fever in the gulf region .. I am not a big fan of a city of multiple skyscrapers (other than NYC) … although some cities lak the luxury of space .. we have a plenty of space … so why go up when we can spread wide?