#abcLaica gracing the spine of this beauty by @lob.tf “Foreign Architecture/Domestic Policy” by Civil Architecture Civil Architecture (Hamed Bukhamseen + Ali Ismail Karimi) explores the architectural meanings and sociocultural implications of Kuwait’s gas stations. Kuwait owns and manages five thousand petrol stations across Europe, all operating under the not-so-subtle company name ‘Q8’. These stations were planned as an investment to secure a foreign market for Kuwait’s oil exports, guaranteeing access to the European fuel market. Over time, these stations became five thousand embassies, each part of an exercise in imagining a foreign policy of architecture built abroad, taking what is often perceived as banal infrastructure and using it to create economic and political co-dependency at the service of state-oriented longevity. For a city-state of a million people exporting ten percent of the world’s oil, the narrative of statehood is inextricably tied to outward projections of wealth and identity, and the Q8 gas station is vital to this agenda. The publication also includes an afterword by Dubai historian and Al Manakh editor Todd Reisz, examining the role of the Q8 stations within a broader projection of regional identities towards the outside world. 612 pages, 3 spot colors, 1 poster, silkscreen-printed pvc sleeve. Authors: Hamed Bukhamseen (@hamedbukhamseen), Ali Ismail Karimi (@aikarimi) Afterword: Todd Reisz (@toddreisz) Research Team: Halah Alessa (@alessahalah), Latifah Alessa (@iamlatifah), Rana Ajrawi Copy-editing: Jake Starmer, Chiara Carpenter Proof-reading: Bennett Bazalgette-Staples Publishing: Humboldt Books (@humboldtbooks) Printing: Longo (@longo.media) Exhibition: Sultan Gallery (@sultangallery) @alessio_dellena #abcdinamo