Scape Design to create Kuwait’s largest public park

London-based landscape architectural practice Scape Design Associates has announced the approval of its concept design for Kuwait’s largest public park and associated Mall of Kuwait, in collaboration with architect Eric Kuhne & Associates.

The park and Mall, with its striking architecture, will comprise numerous retail, recreational and leisure facilities amid a series of contemporary gardens, ornamental brackish lakes, promenades and water features, setting it apart from any other shopping destination.

Situated within a staggering 361,000m2 of parkland (over twice the size of Bluewater shopping centre and its landscape) and featuring more than 7000 indigenous palm and shade trees, the landscape carefully plays on the relationship between Islamic and native desert themes. Human micro-climates via plant associations, shade and wind control are also being created.

To complement the development’s main entrance plaza to the north of the site, Scape has introduced a ‘performance hall’ garden with 12 fountains that sit flush with the surrounding paving and automatically turn off when driven over. Original, large light cubes dance colours across the surface of the water animating the space further.

At the south-west corner of the site, an ‘oasis garden’ with a central wadi and marginal and aquatic planting habitats, houses informal dining terraces, play areas and a central tea-house located at the water’s edge.

A contemporary twist on the traditional Persian water garden has been imaginatively created for the parkland’s north-west corner, where delicate water tricks provide a focal point for Kuwait’s finest speciality fish restaurant.