This is an English designed pyramid at the heart of the New Astana vision. Revered architect Lord Foster himself spent at least an hour on some scribbles. They are now framed and on display in said pyramid. The concept was made to work by a Turkish architecture firm and built by Sembol Construction. Sembol are a Turkish contractor who seem have built a lot of the new flagship Astana creations. There is not too much evidence of an open procurement process.
It was built rapidly in less than 18 months, and opened in 2006. There is no cost data available, but it would likely to be in the hundreds of millions.
The pyramid is a bit marooned as the New Astana march eastward has not quite caught up yet. It is located behind the new Palace Ak Orda and next to the new Palace of Independence. You can get there only by taxi really it is such a hike (or you can hike and get rained on and windswept like me).
It struck me as a little purposeless. It is vast at 77m high glass and steel pyramid. It changes colour at night. It has a 1500 seat theatre for opera. It has a conference space and some doves. There is some rather attractive, if slightly incongruous, stained glass. The façade of triangular glazing is rather clever when seen from the inside at each storey. At the very top there is a permanent sun symbol, as in the flag of Kazakhstan, so when viewed aerially the sun symbol is always visible to the world. Icarus possibly could have done with one of those before he got too close to the real thing. I might have missed something, but that seems to be it. Sustainability is not really a word in the New Astana vocabulary, but there are other half empty palaces, hotels, conference and business centres that could have been put to this purpose. But Astana is about statement buildings, there are no limits. Surely a building needs to be used, it needs a function, otherwise it is nothing more than an empty box.
This one gets used rarely. The Congress of the World and Leaders of Traditional Religions, as my guide robotically explained to me, happens once every three years. There are some offices apparently in the middle floors, occupied by state organisations and The Turkic Academy.
There is a winter garden as you ascend to the meeting space at the top, a huge hollow white ring suspended from the structure, but none of the plants are real. The doves, 130 in total representing the nationalities of Kazakhstan, thank you robot, look almost cartoonish up close. More sinisterly, they look as if they are trapped.
Hugh Pearman (architecture critic) wrote rather sycophantically in the Times in 2005, that this would be one of the new wonders of the world, a symbol for world peace and global understanding. Lord Foster is a visionary, yes, he has designed innumerable great projects. I would like to know what they both think of the finished product now. Astana being Astana, it seems to be rather cold, devoid of people and purpose. It is not actually peaceful at all, just empty. Whilst I was there a small gathering turned up to take their wedding photos and quickly left, but other than that, it was just me and the cleaners….again.
It was built rapidly in less than 18 months, and opened in 2006. There is no cost data available, but it would likely to be in the hundreds of millions.
The pyramid is a bit marooned as the New Astana march eastward has not quite caught up yet. It is located behind the new Palace Ak Orda and next to the new Palace of Independence. You can get there only by taxi really it is such a hike (or you can hike and get rained on and windswept like me).
It struck me as a little purposeless. It is vast at 77m high glass and steel pyramid. It changes colour at night. It has a 1500 seat theatre for opera. It has a conference space and some doves. There is some rather attractive, if slightly incongruous, stained glass. The façade of triangular glazing is rather clever when seen from the inside at each storey. At the very top there is a permanent sun symbol, as in the flag of Kazakhstan, so when viewed aerially the sun symbol is always visible to the world. Icarus possibly could have done with one of those before he got too close to the real thing. I might have missed something, but that seems to be it. Sustainability is not really a word in the New Astana vocabulary, but there are other half empty palaces, hotels, conference and business centres that could have been put to this purpose. But Astana is about statement buildings, there are no limits. Surely a building needs to be used, it needs a function, otherwise it is nothing more than an empty box.
This one gets used rarely. The Congress of the World and Leaders of Traditional Religions, as my guide robotically explained to me, happens once every three years. There are some offices apparently in the middle floors, occupied by state organisations and The Turkic Academy.
There is a winter garden as you ascend to the meeting space at the top, a huge hollow white ring suspended from the structure, but none of the plants are real. The doves, 130 in total representing the nationalities of Kazakhstan, thank you robot, look almost cartoonish up close. More sinisterly, they look as if they are trapped.
Hugh Pearman (architecture critic) wrote rather sycophantically in the Times in 2005, that this would be one of the new wonders of the world, a symbol for world peace and global understanding. Lord Foster is a visionary, yes, he has designed innumerable great projects. I would like to know what they both think of the finished product now. Astana being Astana, it seems to be rather cold, devoid of people and purpose. It is not actually peaceful at all, just empty. Whilst I was there a small gathering turned up to take their wedding photos and quickly left, but other than that, it was just me and the cleaners….again.
