Bait Sharq: According to the Arch Lab, “Bait Sharq is a restoration project that presents a challenge of rehabilitating a historical residence dating back to the 1950s, while repurposing it to meet the client’s contemporary needs.” I took the photos below in the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2023. Here are some more photos of the building before it was renovated.
Sheikh Ahmad House on Failaka Island: According to UNESCO, “the rest house of the Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber dates to 1927 and rests on the top of the Bronze Age Tell. With its four internal passages creating a cross, with four gates leading to the central hall and without courtyard, it stands out from traditional local architecture.” The first photo below dates to 1991, following liberation, and I took the second in 2024.
Aisha School: according to this Kuwait News Agency article, the Aisha School was the first informal girls school, inaugurated in 1926. Renovations were completed in 2026 and it now houses LOYAC. The first photo below comes from the blog of Maha Alessa, I took the second in 2022.
Modern Art Museum: opened in 2003, the Modern Art Museum is housed within a former school that was built in 1939. In Kuwait Transformed Farah Al-Nakib writes that, “by the 1930s more people were sending their children to larger state-run schools… such as the Sharqiyya School in Sharq… because of their more extensive curricula and better facilities.” According to this article, it started as a school for boys, but after the increase in the number of female students, it turned into a girls school. The photos below come from the Instagram of Ali Al Rais and show the building before its renovation. The framed photos can be seen in the museum.
Bait Ghaith: an old, pre-oil home of a merchant, built in the 1930s, in what is now largely a vacant lot. In Kuwait Transformed Farah Al-Nakib writes that, “houses in the pre-oil town were not used as projections of social status or as makers of ethnic identity” and that “most looked the same from the outside.” You can see how the house fell into disrepair, but thankfully it was not torn down and instead was renovated by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters and today houses a “ceramics house.” At the beginning of 2020, there was a porcelain handicraft workshop titled “the murals of Failaka old houses” at Bait Ghaith.
This image was posted on 248 and comes from a study, “by architect Khalid Alsafi highlighting the constant aggressive destruction of Kuwait’s heritage and cultural areas.” You can easily spot the Maritime Museum with its two large ships out front, the Museum of Modern Art and Bait Ghaith nearby.
Sadu House: according to their website, Kuwait’s Sadu House is located within an old, pre-oil home, built in 1936. In addition to being a museum, the space also hosts many art exhibits and workshops, including traditional weaving, which you can find out about through their instagram. In the 1970s the house was purchased by the State under the Ministry of Information and later was acquired by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters. It was renovated and opened as a museum in the 1980s.
Bait Al Ghanim: in her work The Voice of the Oud, Jehan Rejab writes that Bait Al Ghanem was built around 1915 by Sheikh Khaza’al, a close friend of Sheikh Mubarak. She notes that the house had 2 stories and about 80 rooms and that by the 1960s, it was painted red, which was not its original color. Across the street is the Diwaniyah of Sheikh Khazal. From 1957 until the 1980s, it served as the National Museum. Rajab notes that both the Diwan and Beit Al Ghanim suffered years of neglect and then were further destroyed during the invasion. In 2022, renovations began on Bait Al Ghanem.
Al Salam Palace: in May of 1969, Nat Geo had an article on Kuwait. They reported that Al Salam Palace was, “Kuwait’s official guesthouse. Planned as the private pleasure dome of a royal sheikh… Peace Palace was purchased by the government $8,400,000. It witnesses glittering receptions held by and for the Emir.” Like many other buildings, the palace suffered severe destruction during the invasion. It was abandoned for many years, but was renovated. Today the palace is a museum, but you can only visit with an appointment.
Bait Al Othman: located in an old home in Hawally from the 1940s, it was renovated and opened as a museum in 2013
Al Othman Mosque: construction of this mosque began in Hawally in 1958, one year after the Old City Wall was torn down. It was never entirely abandoned, but was renovated in 2026.
American Hospital: Roberto Fabbri writes in his article Fragmentarium, “the American Mission Hospital was built by the Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church. The land was granted in 1911 by the late Amir Mubarak at the far edge of town after a missionary doctor successfully operated on his daughter. The missionary regarded Kuwait as the door to evangelize Arabia, but their aspiration was met with skepticism from the local population. The first medical facility was erected between 1913 and 1914… in steel frames and concrete… the technique aroused great interest in a city habitually built in mud bricks.” Beginning with the First Master Plan, much of “Old Kuwait” was destroyed, but the American Missionary Hospital was spared, although it sat vacant for many years. In Mobilities of Architecture, Lukask Stanek writes that, in the 1980s “calls abounded… to preserve the little that was left of the old Kuwait [prefigured by some forewarnings by Saba George Shiber in the 1960s]. The 1981 revision of the master plan declared the Behbehani compound, the American mission, the traditional suq and part of the Sharq frontage as conservation areas. The Al-Ghanim Dasman, the Naif Palace and all historical mosques were to be preserved.” The old hospital was renovated in 2011 and became a museum.
