In the Middle East, the concept of critical nostalgia has gained increasing significance as a lens for re-evaluating the present (Al-Ragam, 2015). In this context, Alison and Peter Smithson’s 1968 review of Kuwait’s redevelopment focused on restoring the “lost” social connections eroded by ongoing modernization. Their proposed solution, the mat-building—was conceived as a means to restore legibility to the city. Unlike the modernist preference for vertical, standalone objects, the mat-building was envisioned as a low-rise, multi-level planning grid and physical framework—an “interlinked megastructure” traversing the downtown, which would provide shade and reintroduce a sense of connectedness to local landmarks. Minarets of inner-city mosques were incorporated as visual organizing elements and focal points. The overall proposal was a low-profile scheme yet embraced the interchangeability of functions reflecting what the Smithsons described as the adaptive quality of the Arab city. Later infill within the mat-building was to be zoned for specific uses, merging Arab urban traditions with contemporary design. Climatic responsiveness was another strategic scheme in the Smithsons’ urban logic. The dense arrangement of built mass, interlaced with shaded pedestrian routes and semi-enclosed courts, functioned as a thermal buffer, which reduced solar gain and harnessed cross-ventilation. The hooded ventilation towers could expel hot air and draw cooler breezes through the internal circulation network. These devices imitated the wind towers (barjeel) found in Gulf vernacular architecture yet were reinterpreted within the modernist language of the mat-building. Although the proposal was never built, it demonstrated a way of organizing the city that could have been adapted through policy, particularly via multi-level zoning capable of accommodating multiple programs within a coherent framework. This approach would have allowed new development to remain sensitive to social and cultural patterns while supporting urban growth. Despite its potential, the Smithsons’ mat-building did not progress beyond the proposal stage. Subsequent changes in urban policy, particularly the relaxation of zoning laws in 2004, led Kuwait into a second wave of large-scale construction-- this time characterized by high-rise towers detached from their urban surroundings and from one another. This approach was an apparent antithesis of the mat-building vision.