When Kazakhstan’s capital was relocated from Almaty to the small city of Tselinograd in 1998, the very notion of the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center would have seemed ridiculous.
Not any more.
The once-provincial town located on the country’s bleak northern steppes has been transformed into a cosmopolitan metropolis now called Astana. In less than a decade, the city’s population had more than doubled to over 600,000. And that number is expected to top 1 million by 2030.
out With the old
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has spearheaded Astana's growth, pouring in an estimated US$15 billion to create a futuristic city filled with novel projects.
Astana's old Soviet-era buildings are gradually being replaced with massive marble sculptures, gigantic glass pyramids and other innovative structures like the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center, already dubbed the “biggest tent in the world.”
As their new capital emerges from the steppes, “many ordinary Kazakhs are very proud of what is now looking like a very modern capital,” says Saule Mukhametrakhimova, Central Asia program manager and online editor at Institute for War & Peace Reporting, London, England. “Even the Western diplomatic missions, who were originally worried about the lack of infrastructure and harsh climate, have now moved there.”
Much like Astana itself, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center is a global affair. Renowned British architect Lord Norman Foster of London-based Foster + Partners developed the design for the conical structure. And Sembol, a Turkish design, construction and project management firm, is responsible for the actual building process.
inside the tent
Bent as if under the force of strong winds, the tent-like structure is supported by a 150-meter (492-foot) -high tripod with a 60-meter (197-foot) -high vertical back leg and two 70-meter (230-foot) splayed front legs.
“The ‘tent’ concept was a response to the inhospitable climate of Astana. Temperatures can fall as low as -35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter and reach 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer,” says Filo Russo, a Foster + Partners partner closely involved with the project. “The tented form has great resonance in Kazakh history as a traditional nomadic building form.”
welcome to babylon
The 100,000 square-meter (1,076,391 square-foot) building will contain everything from shops and theaters to indoor beaches. There will also be 7 acres (2.8 hectares) of terraced gardens inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
cushioning the schedule
Some elements of the project had to be scheduled around the harsh winter months.
Because the installation of the ETFE “cushions” needed to be completed in its entirety before the temperature dipped, the design team decided it would use prefabricated components manufactured offsite and erected as weather permitted.
pitching the tent
Work on the tripod started onsite in April 2007, with the driving of large, bored piles for the tripod's three bases. Once sections of the tripod that had been constructed in Turkey arrived in Kazakhstan for final assembly, the structure was then lifted into place by four cranes over a two-week span.
The 2,000-ton tripod structure finally stood against the Astana skyline on 20 December 2008. Although it still needs to be clad in ETFE and interior work remains, the project is scheduled to wrap up by the end of the year.
layer upon layer
The soaring structure is clad in a three-layer envelope of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE). The fluorocarbon-based polymer will allow daylight to wash the interiors while sheltering them from Kazakhstan's infamous weather swings.
“In winter, a key challenge is to prevent the formation of ice on the inside of the envelope, but we achieved this with a combination of temperature control and directing warm air currents up through the inner fabric surface, which also prevents downdrafts,” Ms. Russo explains. “In summer, fritting on the outermost foil layer provides solar shading, and inside, low-level jets direct cool air across the space, while opening vents at the apex induce stack-effect ventilation.”
PM NETWORK NOVEMBER 2009 WWW.PMI.ORG