Identity Lost and Found: Architecture and Identity Formation in Kuwait and the Gulf

Abstract

The process of identity formation is deeply influenced by the build environment’s capacity to represent common values. In the Gulf, official narratives always praised modern buildings as the perfect representation of the impatient advancement of the society. On the other hand, the rapid transformation of the built environment, which often sacrificed the traditional old town, and the injection of ‘other’ narratives have blurred the contours of the local culture, identity and sense of place.