An ambitious new construction plan for a roofed city in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana has been unveiled. The planned ‘city’ will be approximately two kilometers in diameter and capable of housing up to 20,000 people. The project - called Indoor City - will be twice as large as the Millennium Dome (02 Arena) in London.
Aytekin Gultekin, President of the Turkish construction company Sembol,said that Indoor City has already been presented to the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has a keen interest in all architectural evolution in the capital. Gyuktekin said that climate control would be one of the key features of Indoor City as. temperatures in Astana can plummet to below -40°C in winter and rise to +40 °C in summer.
The indoor area is expected to include 10 skyscrapers, squares and streets, shopping centers, cafes, golf courses and other entertainment. The entire area will boast a Venetian-style canal system and contemporary Italianate architecture.
To keep the indoor city warm during the winter months, the site will be covered by a giant transparent tent designed by the British architect Norman Foster. The tent will be made from a special material that absorbs sunlight to create the effect of summer inside. Nearly 500 feet high, the tent is scheduled to be completed in a year.
The project is similar, but even more ambitious than that of the Khan Shatyry complex opening soon in Astana (see below).
Astana was build virtually from scratch and its developers attracted such internationally renowned architects as the UK’s Norman Foster, Italian Manfredi Nicoletti to design some of its grandest buildings, and Japanese Kisho Kurokawa to devise the city plan.
Sembol has been involved in many of the city’s most prestigious projects including the pyramidal Foster-designed Palace of Peace & Accord -built to house the Congress of Traditional & World Religions held in Astana every three years. With an altitude of 150 meters and a volume of 1.5 million cubic meters, Khan Shatyry is yet another Sembol project. This entertainment and shopping complex (designed also by Norman Foster) is a giant semitransparent tent-like structure stretched over a cable base-structure with controlled climate inside. To build the outer structure Sembol brought over 400 Turkish industrial alpinists who could work suspended at up to 150 meters for many hours and in virtually any weather. Construction continued all year ‘round regardless of temperature. The new building is expected to be the focus of entertainment and commerce in Astana with a mini golf course, an amusement park, a small lake, tropical gardens, indoor beaches and water slides, beauty and care centers, concert halls, residential condominiums, offices spaces, and a five-star hotel and shopping center. The project area is 123,000 square meters and the fully functioning building will be formally inaugurated by President Nazarbayev on July 6th, the date of Astana’s 12th birthday.
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