From Openness to Division: How Urban Planning and Policy Reshaped Kuwaiti Society

This article explores how Kuwait’s urban landscape was fundamentally reshaped by post-oil urban planning policies, leading to a society increasingly defined by residential, social, and demographic division along national lines. It traces the transformation of Kuwait from an open, integrated port town into a sprawling, car-dependent city dominated by low-density villa housing and rigidly segregated zoning laws. Drawing from historical context, ethnographic observations, and architectural analysis, the article argues that Kuwait’s reliance on automobiles and restrictive housing regulations has eroded public street life, fragmented communities, and has both introduced and entrenched social segregation, particularly between citizens and non-citizens. The decline of walkable, communal spaces has limited opportunities for intergroup interaction and led to the rise of malls as the primary venues for social life, spaces that, in turn, reflect and reproduce the broader stratifications of Kuwaiti society. Ultimately, the article illustrates how urban planning choices, shaped by foreign models rooted in colonial era norms, have not only transformed the physical structure of Kuwait City but also redefined its social fabric, replacing a once-integrated urban life with a landscape marked by exclusion and division.