Description
In the 1970s, the State of Kuwait had a growing interest in investing in Sudan and therefore needed a new, purposely built embassy building to serve the expanding diplomatic interests. At the time, the chief architect Abdallah Mohamed Sabbar was an advisor to the Government of Kuwait and was tasked with developing a brief for the embassy by the undersecretary, Al Duwaisan, of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Subah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Subah. A site was chosen on Africa Road, a prominent location in Khartoum between the city centre and the nearby international airport and on the main trunk road leading to southern Khartoum and beyond to Wad Medani.
The client’s initial intention was for a glass tower. In his capacity as advisor, Sabbar suggested that a low-rise development would be more suited to the surroundings, especially as the proximity to the airport meant that height restrictions were applicable. He also suggested expanding the complex to include residential units to serve the embassy.
Abdallah Sabbar’s office, the Technical Studies Bureau (TEST) was appointed to design the new embassy complex in Khartoum. The office had already designed the Kuwaiti Embassy in Lebanon, and would go on to design the embassy in Bahrain. It was also commissioned to design the Sudanese Embassy in Kuwait but this was never realised after diplomatic relations soured.
The Embassy of Kuwait Complex in Khartoum, built in 1976, was the largest of the Kuwaiti embassies designed by the office, as it was a complex including the main embassy building as well as the ambassador’s residence and the residential units. The site is triangular in shape, with the embassy building positioned on the prow with aspects towards Africa Road and the adjacent service road. The ambassador’s residence is also on Africa Road on the opposite corner, while the seven residential units form a stepped line on the third flank to the northeast. In the centre is a communal court with swimming pool, an area for social gathering and a play area for children. Roche Bobois from France was the interior designer.
The design exhibits an early example of green building in Africa and the Middle East, long before such principles became commonly understood and implemented. Instead of the glass tower originally desired by the client, the embassy building was designed with a double skin. The outer layer was constructed of red brick and rendered with a rough textured plaster, suited to the sandy desert climate and closed against the harsh sun apart from a few large arched openings. The finish matches the colour of the desert sand and it has not needed maintenance since construction. The building’s appearance, i.e. rectangular plan volumes with rounded corners and the sand-coloured finish, appears to be a direct reference to the local vernacular. The inner skin, on the other hand, was of aluminium and tinted glass offering natural light and views in the interior. The 2-metre gap between the two layers is open at the top allowing hot air to escape and there are plants below, cooling the air further.
The main embassy building has two storeys and a glass-roofed atrium, with rooms arranged around it. Large tropical plants were placed in the atrium, which are regularly watered, helping to humidify the dry air of Khartoum. However, some have argued that the green building intentions are negated by the addition of a glass roof above the atrium. The building hosted the country’s first centralised air-conditioning system, according to the architect, with a large plant room in the basement.
When completed, the complex was the largest Kuwaiti embassy in the world, and was symbolic of the deepening pan-Arabist ties between the two nations which were to be strengthened through economic investments. The design team itself was led by the architects Abdallah Sabbar from Sudan and Maath Alousi from Iraq, while the contractor Arabian Construction Company ACC was Lebanese. Relations between the two nations would fracture around the time of the Gulf War, when some Arab states sided with Kuwait while others with Iraq. Sudan had adopted the stance of the latter. The complex eventually became abandoned, although it remained the property of Kuwait, and members of the former Sudanese regime intended to demolish it and redevelop the land. An appeal was raised by the Sudanese Institute of Architects and a letter was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the complex was saved. In 2014, Abdallah Sabbar proposed converting the embassy into a cultural complex but this did not go ahead.
References
Bashier, F. (2012). Heritage and Modern Regionalism in Khartoum. International Conference Sustainable Futures: Architecture and Urbanism in the Global South, Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda.
Bahreldin, I. Z., Osman, O. S. and Osman, A. (2021). “The Work of Abdallah Sabbar”. In: Philipp Meuser and Adil Dalbai (eds.), Sub-Saharan Africa: Architectural Guide, (Vol. 4: Eastern Africa: From the Sahel to the Horn of Africa). Berlin: DOM Publishers, p. 94–97.
South façade
Inner garden with terraces of residential buildings
Originally published in: Uta Pottgiesser, Ana Tostões, Modernism in Africa. The Architecture of Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Birkhäuser, 2024.