Project Name: Shell House

Location: Abdullah al-Salem, Kuwait

Design Team: Alhumaidhi Architects

Floor Area: 1,788 m²

Completion: 2025

Design Features: Alhumaidhi Architects has completed Shell House on a corner plot in Kuwait's Abdullah al-Salem district, a 1,788-square-metre residence that reimagines the traditional courtyard home through the language of softness, light, and spatial layering. Drawing formal inspiration from the organic morphology of a shell, the building presents a protective exterior while opening inward to a warm, nurturing core. At the heart of the project lies a lush, intimate courtyard anchored by a pool, visible from the home's primary living spaces and gym, functioning as both a spatial and emotional nucleus around which the architecture gently wraps. Soft, continuous curves replace conventional hard edges, lending the building a sculptural presence that is simultaneously contemporary and timeless.

The home unfolds across three distinct outdoor levels, each carefully positioned to maximise privacy, openness, and year-round usability. At ground level, the main living areas open directly onto a shaded garden and pool zone, with full-height sliding panels connecting to a setback garden, allowing the client to toggle between enclosure and openness. Above, a generous balcony terrace extends the upper-level living room, offering an elevated outdoor room that balances views with seclusion. The spatial journey culminates at the rooftop, where a solarium and a fully glazed room offer panoramic city views, marking a moment of escape, contemplation, and visual release.

The architectural strategy prioritises continuity and contextual sensitivity. The building's staggered volumes pull progressively away from the street, creating a structure that reads as a single-storey dwelling from the outside while unfolding dramatically across multiple levels within. Cascading vegetation planted across the setbacks filters sunlight into the interior, animating surfaces with dynamic shadow and improving thermal comfort throughout the year. Material choices are guided by climate and tactility: a palette of light-toned plaster and muted stone reflects Kuwait's intense sunlight and resonates with the surrounding desert landscape, while a planting strategy of native, drought-tolerant species underscores the practice's commitment to sustainability and low-maintenance living. Shell House stands as a rare architectural achievement — introverted yet expansive, sculpted yet serene, rooted in tradition yet boldly forward-looking.

Design Team: Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Kuwait, Alhumaidhi Architects is a full-service architectural design practice that has built a distinguished and diverse portfolio across residential and commercial typologies, both locally and across the Gulf region. The firm is led by Principal Architect Abdulaziz AlHumaidhi, a dual graduate in Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), who brings over 21 years of accumulated expertise to redefining Kuwait's architectural landscape through a design approach that reconciles contemporary thinking with the country's rich cultural heritage and demanding environmental context.

The practice operates from a philosophy that positions architecture as a legacy rather than a product. Each project is approached as a tailored programmatic and spatial response, shaped by the client's aspirations, the specificity of site and place, and a rigorous commitment to material and tectonic clarity. Sustainable strategies are integrated from the earliest stages of conception, producing spaces that are at once visually compelling, climatically responsive, and socially responsible.

Under Abdulaziz's leadership, Alhumaidhi Architects combines technical expertise with a hands-on, exploratory design methodology to develop solutions that are innovative, practical, and adaptive. The firm's portfolio spans luxury residential and commercial projects, each a tailored response to its context, merging functional integrity, cultural relevance, and aesthetic excellence. With over three decades of consistent practice, Alhumaidhi Architects has firmly established itself as a cornerstone of architectural excellence across the Gulf region.