In 1998 Kazakhstan, a continental country of strong contrasts and vast spaces, transferred its capital from almaty to Astana. The energetic but yet prudent impulse of president nazarbayev aims to provide the country with a modern centre, a communication hub.
The ambitious development project of the capital will transform astana into one of the new cities of the XXI century.
Its main urban axis starting from the middle has a double solid/void configuration. It extends towards the river with a pedestrian centre enclosed by two avenues and strong emblematic buildings. After the Ishin river, the gardens and the “palace of peace and reconciliation” (the pyramid) the line continues as a new axis conformed by a series of different monumental constructions.
Our project, located in the avenue of the millennium, after the pyramid, is conceived as a monument. The site with 500.000 sqm of buildable area has been envisaged as a community, as a new centrality that will act as attraction pole for astana inhabitants and visitors.
A garden separates this large enclosure and the adjacent streets. Two tense and curve facades and a low building project a strong exterior image. From this point a spiral emerges from the 7th to the 20th floor towards the centre. The roofs have treated as gardens and conceived as a boulevard and a viewpoint. In the community’s interior generated by the spiral, one finds a series of green planted pedestrian piazzas of different shapes and dimensions combined with gardens and crisscrossed by two perpendicular pedestrian axes to generate different walking paths.
The program includes 300,000 sqm of housing, a retail and leisure area of 60, 000 sqm, rental office space and offices for the communal services, a parking for more that 4, 000 cars and the “city of the arts”.
The facility known as the “City of the arts” is conceived as a place for meetings and exhibitions to encourage creation in the young people and artists of the city. It contains a museum of architecture, plastic arts and history, as well as auditoriums, workshops and coffee shops to complete the offer.
The whole complex will be built in brick, a colour of dark earth, a noble material which resist the extreme temperatures and integrates with the landscape.
The spiral transforms the building into a landmark, into a complex geometric form that in all civilizations represents the aspirations of mathematicians and philosophers, the sublimation of knowledge. It is today the symbol of the development, the vitality and the economic growth of the country and its inhabitants. The project physically reflects Kazakhstan and Astana’s society today.
