Designs have been unveiled for a landmark oil & gas museum and exhibition centre set to be built in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait for the Kuwait Oil Company.
The 8,800sq m exhibition and display centre has been designed by UK-based Architect Morgan Professional Services (MPS) and will be arranged over three floor levels with a viewing tower above.
Nine interactive exhibition spaces will form an integral part of the building and are housed in the building’s Centrum or central zone.
The exhibition galleries, which include a multimedia theatre, will tell the history of Kuwait and its oil industry, providing an educational experience for visitors – including the opportunity to hear from the experts what working in the industry is like through interactive presentations.
Above the main roof rises the viewing tower with its silver-coloured rainscreen cladding and a 360 degree viewing area.
According to MPS' design team leader, Chris Bennett, the circular building has been inspired both by the culture of the Middle East and the nature of oil itself.
“The brief was to create a landmark building in sympathy with local architecture and building traditions but which would also demonstrate the awesome scale of Kuwait’s oil industry and inspire a sense of wonder,” he said.
“The curving outer wall references the city walls which are seen across the Middle East. The ammonite, which inspired the overall shape and structure of the building, is linked to the very origins of oil which is formed from the organic remains of marine organisms subjected to extremes of temperature and pressure over millions of years."
On entering the museum site, visitors will pass along a tree-lined walkway, featuring three different colours of granite paving with a black granite ‘oil line’ leading to the main entrance, under an expansive bronze finished canopy.
The museum will have ground- and first-floor areas set around the Centrum with a basement and a viewing tower which rises to 16.8 metres above ground level.
The building will be made up of stone-clad concrete walls and slabs. The Centrum area, viewing tower and roof will be built using a steel-frame system supported on central columns with universal beams radiating out to create the main roof construction.
MPS is part of Morgan Sindall, a UK-based construction and regeneration group which operates through five specialist divisions of fit out, construction, infrastructure services, affordable housing and urban regeneration.
