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Astana Expo 2017

Finalist in the competition of an Urban and Architectual Concept for the Expo 2017 “Future Energy” in Astana

Region

Central and Southern Asia

Date

2013

Service

Urban Design and Public Space

Competition Winner

Project Details

Location

  • Astana (Kazakhstan)

Type

  • Competition

Client

  • JSC National Company

Partners

  • BuroHappold Engineering

Surface

174ha

Awards

  • Shortlisted competition entry for an urban and architectural concept for the Expo 2017 “Future Energy” in Astana.
Our concept interprets the term energy in the widest sense possible. Energy is all kinds of activity, production, economy, transport, social life, etc. So far urban development has been dealing with these energies separately. The results are inefficient and mono-functional systems that waste energies instead of creating synergies. Our project is radically integrating Astana’s energies to create multifunctional and hybrid spatial systems that work on different scales and that use infrastructure more efficiently, a quality that Astana’s car-dominated city layout currently lacks.
Ring of energies as a link between all venues.
Project location and existing network
Unactivated urban space in Astana
Astana. Mixed-use & Dense urban tissue and small-scale public spaces

While the Expo Event lasted only three months, the Expo site will remain for decades to come. The Expo Event is an opportunity to upgrade the urban infrastructure of Astana and to implement a prototype for long-term, sustainable, and energy-efficient urban development in Kazakhstan.

Left: Expo mode. Right: Post-Expo mode.

Future Energy not only means changing energy production but also minimizing the impact and energy needed for the built environment.

To achieve this, the flexibility and lightness of built structures are key factors. While the public infrastructures proposed have long life spans the Expo and the Expo City have shorter ones. The Expo complex is a statement about lightness through its light and transparent architecture that has a minimal impact and that is temporary and fully dismountable and reusable after the Expo.

Left: of Energies: Central circulation system. Right: Ring of Energies: Roof
Left: thematic pavillons. Two right columns: performance, and Kazakhstan
Decentral Energy Grid
Decentral energy grid
Mixed-use and Dense Urban Tissue and Small-Scale Public Spaces
Mixed-use & Dense urban tissue and small-scale public spaces

Mixed-use and Dense Urban Tissue and Small-Scale Public Spaces