Increasingly, contemporary artists strive to turn their masterpieces into something functional because the world is full of off-beat projects that cause only aesthetic enjoyment. Sometimes it happens so that the creators of such structures as lighthouses or water towers didn’t think about art. However, having lost their initial purpose, their projects still impress greatly, finding a second life as art objects. And some both easily fulfill their function and serve as a tourist attraction, such as the famous Kuwait Towers complex in Kuwait City on the scenic promontory in the Persian Gulf.

The modern architectural complex consists of three towers, two of which are designed to maintain the water pressure in the city water supply system. The third, with floodlights and electrical equipment, lights the first two.

Thanks to the original design by renowned Swedish architect Malene Bjorn, the Kuwait Towers have become a popular tourist attraction and even won the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

The graceful futuristic silhouettes of the Kuwait Towers, which are made of reinforced concrete, were built in 1977. Despite significant damage during the Gulf War, they have survived to this day. The two water towers are decorated with steel discs in traditional Arabic colors, making them resemble the domes of mosques in the southern sun rays at day and in the light of a thousand artificial lights at night.

The height of the central tower is 187 meters. At the height of 123 meters inside its giant ball, there is a luxurious restaurant designed for 90 seats. Every half hour, the ball makes a revolution around its axis so that each guest can admire the fantastic views of Kuwait, the other two Kuwait towers, and the fabulous seascapes of the Persian Gulf. The second tower’s height is slightly less, 147 meters, and it has only one freshwater storage ball. Only the central tower with the restaurant and the panoramic observation deck is open to tourists.

The Kuwait Towers architectural complex adorns a 1 Kuwaiti dinar banknote with its fantastic view.

It took more than 40,000 steel discs of gray, blue, and green in different shades to decorate the three giant spheres of Kuwait’s water towers. About ten hues of steel discs are arranged in a spiral, like on the domes of ancient Arab mosques. At the bottom of the towers is a vast area of landscaped gardens crowned by the famous Aqua Park Kuwait.