Kuwait Towers

Listen first. Water slaps against the rocks below the promontory, and a warm wind comes in off the Gulf, carrying salt and a faint smell of diesel from passing boats. Above you, three slender shafts rise from the shoreline. Two of them carry spheres covered in small discs of blue, green and silver. When the sun moves, those discs catch the light one by one, so the spheres seem to shimmer. This is Kuwait Towers, and you are standing at the edge of the Arabian Gulf.

The group is easy to read once you know what each tower does. The tallest one carries two spheres, a large one lower down and a smaller one near the top. The middle tower carries a single sphere. The third and thinnest tower carries no sphere at all. It looks like a needle beside its neighbours. Each shape has a practical purpose, and that purpose is the first surprise. These towers were built, above all, to hold water.

In the decades after oil wealth arrived, Kuwait grew very fast. A country with almost no rivers and very little rain needed fresh water for a growing city. The answer was desalination, which means turning seawater into drinking water, and then storing it in tanks across the city. Many of those tanks were built as water towers. Most of them are plain mushroom shapes. Kuwait Towers were designed to be the showpiece of that network, a water tower that could also be a landmark.

The design came from the Danish architect Malene Bjørn, working with the Swedish engineering firm VBB, which held the wider water tower contract. Her idea was simple and bold. Instead of hiding the tanks inside a box, she put them inside spheres and lifted them high on tall concrete shafts. The towers opened to the public in 1979. A year later, in 1980, the project received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, a prize that honours outstanding buildings in Muslim societies.

Look closely at the spheres now. Their surface is not one smooth skin. It is made of thousands of small round steel plates, set in rings that curve around each globe. The colours shift from deep blue to green to grey. Some people say the pattern recalls the tiles of a mosque dome. Others see the scales of a fish, or the shine of the sea itself. The architect left that open, and it is worth deciding for yourself.

Here is the second surprise. The lower sphere on the tallest tower is not only a water tank. Part of it holds a restaurant and event space, with windows looking out over the water. The tank and the dining room share the same globe. Higher up, the small top sphere holds an observation deck. That upper deck turns slowly as you stand inside it, so the whole view moves past you without your feet taking a single step.

From up there, the city opens out in every direction. To one side lies the long blue sweep of the Gulf, often hazy with heat and dust. To the other side, you see the towers of the business district, the roofs of older neighbourhoods, and the wide roads that curve along the shore. On a clear evening, the coastline lights up below you, and the boats look like small white marks on dark water.

And the thin third tower? It does not hold water at all. It carries lighting equipment that shines on the other two towers after dark. So the needle is the lamp for the whole group. When night falls, watch how the spheres change. The discs that shimmered in the sun now glow under artificial light, and the towers stand out clearly against the black sea and sky.

The towers have also lived through hard years. During the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990 and 1991, the towers were damaged, and parts of the interior were looted. After liberation, the structure was repaired and reopened. For many Kuwaitis, that return carried strong feeling. The towers had survived, and so had the country. That is part of why you see them on stamps, banknotes, souvenirs and countless family photographs.

Years later, the towers closed again, this time for a long renovation. The work replaced many of the steel discs, updated the interiors and modernised the lifts and systems. The towers reopened to visitors in 2016. If the surface looks fresh and bright today, that is the reason. Look for small differences in tone between the discs. The sea air is harsh on metal, and maintaining these spheres is a constant task.

Now look around you at ground level. The towers stand on a point of land along the Arabian Gulf Street, the long coastal road that runs beside the water. Families walk here in the evening when the heat eases. Joggers pass by. Fishermen sometimes cast lines from the rocks. In the cooler months, people sit on the waterfront and talk late into the night, and the sound of conversation mixes with the sound of the waves.

The best way to understand the towers is to walk around them slowly. From the north, the three shafts line up and overlap. From the side, they separate into a clear family of tall, middle and small. Step back toward the shore and the spheres frame the sky. Step close to the base and the concrete shafts feel enormous, rising straight up above your head. Each angle tells you something new about the design.

Before you leave, stand still for one more moment. Feel the wind from the water and look up at the discs catching the light. These towers began as a practical answer to a basic need, which was fresh water in a dry land. They became something more, a shape that people across the country recognise as home. As you walk away along the shore, turn back once. The spheres will still be watching the Gulf.