UK architect designs new HQ for Kuwait bank

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UK architecture studio Foster + Partners has created a landmark 300-meter-high skyscraper for the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) headquarters in Kuwait City. 

The second tallest building in the country “incorporates a sustainable, functional, and iconic design that signifies NBK’s unique presence and identity in the city,” said Foster + Partners head of studio Stefan Behling.

It stands alongside the country’s tallest building, the 412-metre-high Al Hamra Tower in the city’s Sharq financial district.

The skyscraper is wrapped in a series of concrete fins that extend the full height of the tower to provide solar shading for the sixty-three floors of office space.

With views of the Arabian Gulf, a boardroom is located on floor 48.

Designed to provide office space for all of the bank’s staff, employees enter the skyscraper through an 18-metre-high lobby on the ground floor, while the office floors are broken by “sky lobbies”, a double-height restaurant on floor 18 and a gym on level 19.

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