Following up on the post about a new architectural landmark to be built in Astana, I stumbled across a website about city planning in the Kazakh capital - Kasachstan Projekt (GER). Taking into account that the relocation of the capital was probably one of the most ambitious city planning tasks in Asia, it’s an interesting topic for all architecture and city planning students.

So, it’s no surprise that students of the German Technische Universität have cooperated with the Eurasian University Astana and the Kazakh Academy for Architecture and Construction to study the plans of this ambitious project. The project took place some years ago - so it’s not breaking news, but nevertheless a great insight into what changes Akmola/Astana underwent and is still undergoing.

Of particular interest are the systematic photo galleries, the city plans and the large posters the students designed for an exhibition (also in Russian).

Industrial Zone:
The cityscape in the northern parts of Astana are characterised predominantly by large factory halls but also by small enterprises. Many of the former factories are not in operation nowadays and are lying idle. There are also smaller settlements of the typical prefabricated style (using concrete slabs) and single-family house areas which mostly in bad conditions. Typically built as workers’ settlements, they are today distant from the ‘new’ city.