ABSTRACT
Chemically, oil and water do not mix, but in Kuwait the history of oil and the history of water flow together. This chapter argues that the prominent public display of water through architecture and infrastructure in Kuwait City occurred in the visual, spatial, and material absence of crude oil. Therefore, potable water, whose production, transport, and distribution has relied substantially on petroleum and the petroleumscape in one way or another, became the representative liquid of Kuwait’s oil-based modernization. Laura Hindelang examines how petroleum has been written into Kuwait City’s urban space, social practices, and also into its urban visual culture through a form of waterscape—the spatial, material, social, and symbolic production of water. Integrating perspectives from architectural history, petro-culture studies, and the environmental/energy history of the Middle East, this chapter examines key historical moments and case studies where layers of the petroleum(scape) and water(scape) intersect and form a palimpsestic relationship; examples include the power and desalination plant and its water distribution network, the Kuwait Water Towers; and contemporary water coolers. Kuwait’s waterscape offers an analytical lens for investigating petroleum’s spatialization and social and symbolic representation beyond the oil fields.
