Located on a prominent site in Kuwait City, the 300-metre-high headquarters tower for the National Bank of Kuwait will have a distinctive presence among the high-rise buildings of Sharq, the city’s growing financial district. The design combines structural innovation with a highly efficient passive form, shielding the offices from the extremes of Kuwait’s climate, where temperatures average 40 degrees in the summer months.

The form of the tower is equally driven by the needs of the bank. The spatial arrangement is tailored to the Bank’s organisational structure, while providing the flexibility to anticipate and respond to future change and growth. The crescent form maximises cellular office space at the perimeter, and the tower’s sixty floors are punctuated by three double-height sky lobbies, which provide a social focus and meeting facilities for staff. These communal areas are complemented by the chairman’s club with panoramic city views in the dramatic 18-metre-high volume at the tower’s apex. Dunbar and Boardman provided vertical transportation design services from the initial concept to the
completion on site.

The form of the building is such that core space is at a premium and to ensure adequate viable office space was provided we developed a scheme using Thyssen Krupp TWIN (TM) lifts which allows two cars to run in the same shaft. In parallel , we developed a scheme using conventional technology, to show the potential saving in core space. The client decided to proceed with the TWIN (TM) scheme. In addition, we provided facade access consulting which includes a highly complex BMU located on level 52 which is used to clean the ‘crown’ of the building. This is believed to be the heaviest and longest BMU in the world.