Lara Dunston meets three architects set on making Kuwait a better country to live in Photography_Terence Carter

Barrak Al-Babtain, Jasem Nadoum and Amenah Benjasem are using their blog, re:Kuwait (rekuwait.wordpress.com), to start a public dialogue about urban planning in their country and the direction development should take in the future.

The three became friends while studying architecture at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), they tell me at a large table in the sleek, minimalist conference room of Al-Babtain Design. “AUS was the only choice in the Gulf at the time if you wanted to study architecture,” Barrak explains. “Everyone who studied there went on to do amazing things.”

The trio look set to follow in their footsteps. Al-Babtain Design, Barrak’s company, specialises in contemporary residential architecture. Jasem works as a senior architect at a project development company in Kuwait City and Amenah, who interned with renowned architect Zaha Hadid in London, is working in urban planning in Kuwait while preparing to study in New York.

The website is their collective project and the aim is to encourage a wider discussion about Kuwait’s rapid urban development – what has been done well and what should have been done better. These conversations have happened for years in the offices of architects and urban planners; the trio want to take them into the homes of ordinary Kuwaitis.

“Everybody accepts that life in Kuwait is changing,” Barrak tells us. “We don’t have a social life the way our grandparents did and people don’t understand why.” Jasem agrees: “People know their lives have changed but can’t explain it. We’re using the blog to create a public dialogue so we can come to terms with change.”

Applying the critical skills they developed at university, the three examine problems and attempt to find solutions. When the blog launched last May, Jasem clarified that their intention was to be constructive and not destructive. He wrote: “There is no shame in offering a critique or accepting one, yet in our conservative Arab culture it is often seen as a personal attack. To be critiqued is not an admission of weakness, but an opportunity to explore multiple viewpoints through collective analysis.”

Having set their stall, the trio have tackled Kuwait’s urban infrastructure. They’ve mooted the possibility of bicycle lanes, discussed potential routes for a Kuwait metro and offered suggestions to improve parks. They’d love to see more museums and public art installations. And they cite traditional Kuwaiti architecture – built to cope with the heat in an energy-efficient way – as the inspiration behind many of their eco-friendly ideas.

“You see,” Barrak explains, “development happened very quickly in the 1950s in Kuwait. We went from mud houses to the western model. Kuwaitis weren’t educated then. They had their hearts in the right places, but now is the time for us…” As Barrak hesitates, Amenah leaps in. “To fix things,” she says.