Kuwaiti schools: building the nation through modernist and welfare architecture (1952-1989)

School architecture is an essential aspect of Kuwait's prosperity towards modernisation and welfare state development, and along with oil income and independence, school architecture has significantly contributed to the nation's knowledge-based growth and quality of life improvement. The educational system shifted dramatically from the 1930s to the 1980s, resulting in a population that was previously largely illiterate becoming educated, culturally aware, and politically knowledgeable, while also developing the resources and abilities needed for a modernist welfare nation. All these activities took place primarily in schools called Madrasah.
Following the Industrial Revolution, modernist architecture emerged in the West as a brand-new, high-tech architectural style. This style was introduced to the rest of the world, where it influenced the development of distinct regional architectural legacies. This thesis attempts to contribute to modernist architectural knowledge by investigating the development of school buildings and their historical and cultural contexts in Kuwait's modernisation era from the 1950s to the 1980s. This research employs a historical-interpretive approach to create a cohesive understanding of past architectural contexts by meticulously analysing the complexity of culture, policies, and social impacts. It delves into several interconnected research methodologies, such as archival studies, interviews, and architectural fieldwork.
This is the first thesis to analyse modernist school buildings in Kuwait in the context of the country's modernist and welfare architecture. It emphasises the critical role that school architecture plays in reflecting sociocultural norms through spatial arrangement and space adaptability, demonstrating that school architecture is and can be more than just a school. The analysis indicates that, prior to the discovery of oil, a movement towards modernism had begun, and it was facilitated by the creation of new school buildings. It then discusses how the establishment of Kuwait as a nation, with an emphasis on mass school production afforded by urbanisation, led to the development of a welfare state programme. Subsequently, it explains how school buildings culminated in modernist architecture, which eventually led to modernity and provided a means for Kuwait to achieve modernism. The significance of this is that the architecture of schools is brought into focus not by modernist aesthetics but by the historical contexts in which they are narrated.