The Changing Face of Almaty
“Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country currently enjoying the best economic performance. Having overcome financial teething problems following their 1991 independence from the USSR, the city is preparing for some extensive remodeling. After becoming the head of the Akimat (City Administration) in December 2004, Tasmagambetov noticed not only the inexpressiveness of some of the local architecture, which was, as he put it, ‘smartly plagiarized’ from out-of-date European projects from the 1970s, but also increased control over municipal land property. Would it be possible now to put fundamental changes into action, even after some superficially fashionable buildings have already been constructed in badly chosen places? For example, it was recently made public that multi-storey buildings on Dostyk Prospekt are situated on a tectonic break, which real estate companies now have to take into consideration when working with buyers. Yet it is unlikely that these buildings will be demolished.” – ‘Developing Almaty’, Impressions, Yorki Holland - http://impressions-ba.com Kazakhstan and indeed the city of Almaty are poised to become a major player within the global community. And interestingly have reached out to major western, primarily American, architecture firms to provide the ‘image’ of this new development. Firms such as SOM, Zaha Hadid, Rafeal Vinoli, and Eisenman Architects to name a few have been given the opportunity to shape the urban character for a reemerging culture. Specifically, this semester we will be designing a large multi function project that is 200,000 square meters (approximately 2,000,000 square feet) consisting of spec office towers, residential condominiums, and a 5 star hotel. The 3.8 hectare site is located on Republic Square in Almaty, which was the heart of government during the Soviet occupation. The first half of the semester will be devoted to designing the project scheme and how it relates to the existing soviet infrastructure, while the remainder of the semester will be dedicated to detailing the Hotel.