Project

The Kazakhstan Pavilion offers an open space – the expo plaza under a raised multi-purpose box that during the expo serves as exhibition space and after will be re-used as library of the university and offices. Executed, the plan will live up to the ambition of creating a tangible legacy of this mega-event as we already successfully developed it for the Olympic Legacy Masterplan for London. Astana held the World Expo 2017. The event was meant to showcase how the world would transfer from the carbon economy in a third industrial revolution to becoming independent from fossil fuels. The proposed masterplan and the layout of the expo and its monument address this while also coping with Astana’s monumentality. Instead of creating a ‘white elephant’ which will be empty and unused after the exposition, the icon proposed is a concentrated solar power plant which doubles as Kazakhstan pavilion, vista tower, and monumental symbol – the tower of the sun. Astana has one of the highest numbers of clear sky sun days worldwide and therefore the proposed solar power plant would be able not only to cover the energy needs for the Expo but could provide enough heat and power to serve the entire wider Expo site.

Client

National Expo Company

Program

179 ha Expo and Post-Expo masterplan

Stages

2013 Competition

Team

MLA+