PAD10’s intervention for the KFH Bank Headquarters was developed in two stages, addressing the building at both the scale of the pedestrian and that of the city.

The first stage reimagines the landscape and public realm in front of the headquarters as a mediator between the city sidewalk and the bank lobby. A series of wedged pathways responds to the differing geometries and orientations of the lobby and street, negotiating between the two rather than imposing a separate formal order. Toward the street, angular islands incorporate cascading water to create an acoustic buffer from traffic; closer to the building, they become planted elements with integrated seating, transforming the forecourt into an inhabited urban landscape.

Existing geometric motifs from the building are selectively borrowed and reinterpreted throughout the intervention, adding texture while remaining integrated with the original architecture. At the tower podium, engraved stone panels are articulated with brass trims. The engraving gradually fades as it rises, providing texture and tactility at pedestrian level while becoming progressively quieter above—a transition that responds to the changing scale of the building from the body to the skyline.

The second stage emerged from the client’s request to replace the existing muqarnas. PAD10 used this as an opportunity to resolve the previously accidental relationship between the curtain wall, the muqarnas structure and two independent structural columns. The proposal partially removes the problematic curtain wall together with the existing muqarnas and replaces them with a new curtain-wall system and suspended substructure, establishing a clear, continuous and unobstructed geometry.

A metal mesh overlays this new façade intervention, unifying the composition while introducing another potential layer of use. Conceived to accommodate an integrated LED display, the mesh could transform the façade into a dynamic urban surface—a valuable addition to Kuwait City’s continually evolving skyline.