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Saba George Shiber’s Kuwaitopolis and the Emergence of the Arab Urban-Architect

Dr. Aminah Alkanderi (Dissertation, 2020)

Portrait sketch of Saba George Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press.
Portrait sketch of Saba George Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press.
Meeting at the Kuwaiti Engineering Society in 1960s Courtesy to Shiber Archive, Washington, DC. © 2018.
Meeting at the Kuwaiti Engineering Society in 1960s. Courtesy to Shiber Archive, Washington, DC. © 2018.
Kuwaitipolis Map by Saba G.Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press., and illustrated by the author
Kuwaitipolis Map by Saba G.Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press., and illustrated by the author
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Portrait sketch of Saba George Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press.
Meeting at the Kuwaiti Engineering Society in 1960s Courtesy to Shiber Archive, Washington, DC. © 2018.
Kuwaitipolis Map by Saba G.Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press., and illustrated by the author
Portrait sketch of Saba George Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press.
Meeting at the Kuwaiti Engineering Society in 1960s. Courtesy to Shiber Archive, Washington, DC. © 2018.
Kuwaitipolis Map by Saba G.Shiber Source: Shiber S G. 1967. Recent Arab City Growth. Kuwait: Kuwait Government Printing Press., and illustrated by the author

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DISSERTATION

This dissertation tells the story of an Arab architect and planner through the (re)development of Kuwait City from a medieval seaport town to a metropolitan city. Palestinian-born Saba George Shiber (1923-1968) conceptualized the idea of the Arab metropolis and delivered the urban and architectural scheme Kuwaitopolis (1960-68), which instigated a new urban design practice particular to the Arab region. Modern Kuwait City followed international standards of urban planning while referencing the particular urban fabric of traditional medieval Arab towns. Arab architects, planners, and engineers were therefore the principal authors of the second chapter of modernization of Kuwait between 1956 and 1968. My research traces the complex genealogy of the Arabic discipline of design instigated by the (re)planning of the city-state Kuwait and its impact on the concept of the Arab metropolis. I inscribe here the emergence of a contemporary discourse on architecture from a variety of architecture and urban archives and interviews, including that of the Shiber family, pioneer practitioners, and Arabic publications in order to assess the form and structure of the Arab Gulf states today.

Aminah Alkanderi