CAPITAL VS CAPITAL_3rd International Architecture Biennale of Rotterdam

Astana new capital is placing architecture to the ultimate test by investing billions of dollars in an attempt to create a new identity for Kazahkstan. The idea is to combine the successful architecture monumentality of Brasilia with the synergy that can provide a city the sources of apparently endless cash derived from oil. A cynical could claim that Astana is a sort of beach less Dubai with temperatures varying from –40 celsius in the long winter to +40 in the summer, yet that is perhaps not far from true.

IND documented the overlap of recent multiple master plans drawn in a rush that included metabolist Kurokawa’s winning scheme and Bin Laden Group among many others and observed the surprising vitality of the Soviet quarters. The focus of the master plans went again for the monumental axis discarding any attention for the Soviet dominated city of the previous era.

IND proposes to capitalize on Astana’s undervalued Soviet urban tissue with a great scale intervention of 1001 domes roof that interiorise public space between the slabs in the north bank of the capital.