Architectural tour of the futuristic city – Astana, Kazakhstan

The Kazakh capital Astana is a planned city built 20 years ago. Astana has probably been the weirdest capital city I’ve every visited (I had never been to any other of these planned cities before, such as Canberra and Ankara or Brasilia). It is sometimes not so understandable how they moved the capital from the green, historic and lively Almaty to the inhospitable Central Asian steppe, the world’s largest expanse of steppe. If you look at the map, Astana is basically located in the middle of nothing.

Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa made the master plan of Astana with his utopic and futuristic vision. Now follow me to a architectural tour in Astana.

0BBCE821-7187-4F3C-92AD-E8A21F7D260B.jpeg
In front of Astana EXPO 2017 center.

E02476E4-7774-4C4A-AE3F-4D37E910F78A.jpeg
Inside the EXPO center.

BC7F3D8C-B756-409E-A219-385F2FD6AE80.jpeg

2397C823-4B3F-4AED-B66F-597407ACFD73.jpeg
Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center, the world biggest tent.

372E46F7-D804-4EEA-8810-EAB065E0E74C.jpeg

822E614E-8376-41FD-9D70-05997077C456.jpeg

DC4C9B5F-F497-4CB9-8E6A-BFABFFEF80DE.jpeg
The door shaped architecture behind is the headquarters of KazMunayGas, the state-owned oil and gas company.

33471942_10212193585457606_2447976125717020672_n.jpg
Headquarters of the Nur Otan Party, ever since 2007 it is headed by the President, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

223948E7-E888-497D-BBA5-31B5E0A4CD48.jpeg

65C92B1A-6364-4991-857A-95CDA159EC05.jpeg
Independence Square and monument “The Kazakh Eli”.

33299992_10212193714180824_6041224823013638144_n.jpg
Pano view of Palace of Peace and AccordHighville complexNur-Astana MosqueShabyt (aka the Dog Bowl) that includes a school of fine arts, lecture, exhibition halls, performance spaces, …

632ED5B7-9D83-4C66-BD70-53E65A8F25B5.jpeg
Aqorda Presidential Palace.

33635809_10212211218778428_2884857531891449856_n.jpg

33573429_10212211229778703_2701244153819299840_n.jpg