←
Yasmeen Abdal
Typography & Publications → Taboog: A Concrete Catalog
Pratt Institute
Edition of 60
16-page Catalog
Dimensions: 5.8 x 8.3”
Paper: 30lb newsprint
In December of 2022, I was driving on شارع السور (Al Soor Street), and I noticed an embossed image of البوم (Al-Boom) on a highway. I thought there was a certain irony in placing an icon of the pre-oil economy on a bridge, a structure of industrial progress now used by cars powered by the very oil that fuels Kuwait’s contemporary economy. The بوم (Boom) was once a historical bridge connecting Kuwait to East India and East Africa; the contemporary bridge now connects different routes through the city of Kuwait. The connectivity of the bridge has shifted, from a predominantly maritime internationalism to a ground-bound, industrial one. This bridge, the symbols, located on شارع السور (Al Soor Street), aligning with the historic first wall of Kuwait, blends echoes of the past and the present. This observation marked the beginning of a deeper investigation into how cities communicate—how the visual language and narrative of a city weave together into an architectural printscape.
Symbols such as the embossed image of the pearl diving boat on a highway are markers between past and present, signaling how history infiltrates the modern image. Even as Kuwait continues to build new structures with new materials, the current printscape will still be embedded within its architectural remains, a part of the city’s unconscious.
Building on this found urban artifact, I explored a speculative design project titled Weaving Heritage that expands on the existing motifs in Kuwait’s highway infrastructure. This hypothetical concrete catalog imagines a series of historically inspired blocks. Highways, often transient and utilitarian, function as non-places—spaces of movement rather than memory. This project challenges that impermanence by embedding cultural symbols into the infrastructure, transforming a symbol of modern connectivity into an urban palimpsest and carrier of information.
Personal Responsibilities