Features Desk - Planning in Kazakhstan: A Personal Account

Features Desk
Wei Kiang

y2koh.wk@gmail.com

The first time I went to Kazakhstan was in November 2006. Before touching down in the capital Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), Kazakhstan, my only impression of Kazakhstan was that it is a country on the steppes and where the former silk road passes through. Nur-Sultan was an industrial city set up during the Soviet era and was known as Tselinograd, and later Akmola after the independence of Kazakhstan, it became the capital of Kazakhstan only fairly recently in 1997. The name Astana used from 1997 to 2019 literally meant Capital City in Kazakh.

Nurjol Boulevard

Ishim River Promenade

I visited Nur-Sultan with the multi-disciplinary team as part of a project for the transport planning and to propose Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) for the city. It was a surprise for me that the society and culture in Nur-Sultan was heavily influenced by western cultures, likely from the 74 years of Kazakhstan under Soviet rule. The government of Kazakhstan had the city redeveloped quite quickly over the past 10 years, with new office towers and apartments, a presidential palace, a Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in the form of a pyramid, and a massive road network at the administrative and commercial centre of the city. While the team was in the city, we also heard that Lord Norman Foster was also there making a presentation to the president for Khan Shatyr, a shopping and entertainment complex within a tent-like structure later completed in 2010.

Presidential Palace

Palace of Peace and Reconciliation

The multi-disciplinary team was made up of traffic and transport engineers, and urban planners. We also collaborate with our local partners to prepare and make presentations to the city government, and the final reports. We draw on our Singapore experience in traffic management to propose a comprehensive transport system that combines semi-expressways surrounding the city, electronic road pricing (ERP), public transport, and urban planning strategies to decentralize the urban centres and create new TODs supported by railway stations, public transport and the existing master plan for the city designed by Kisho Kurokawa in 1998. The proposal was later adopted in part, with some of the existing road junctions changed to traffic interchanges, and a new railway station built in the eastern part of the city.

Apartment Buildings near Nurjol Boulevard

Ishim River

Streetscape in Nur-Sultan

Street Life in Nur-Sultan

During the time we worked on the project, I made 2 trips of around a week each time to Nur-Sultan. The working language was Russian and Kazakh, both of which were using the Cyrillic alphabet. I had to learn Cyrillic within a very short period of time in order to insert place names in the presentations and graphics. The food in Kazakhstan could be described as European, consisting mostly of bread and cheese for breakfast, and meat with potatoes for lunch and dinner. We often had pizza and pasta as well, which are popular among locals, and helped us fill our tummies while working over lunchtime. The locals usually shop in supermarkets, which are filled with produce quite similar to European fare, with an addition of some unique Kazakh food such as camel milk and fermented horse milk, both which I had tried during my stay. I would say that I prefer camel milk over the fermented horse milk, much to my own surprise. It was only on the last day of our second visit that we had true Kazakh fare, made up of various cuts and sausages made of mutton and horse meats, local breads and rice, and strong liquor.

Ishim River Promenade in the Winter

Night View of the Nur-Sultan (Astana) City Hall

Since we made the trips in November to December during early winter, it was extremely cold too. Often, the strong wind made the experience worse, and I found myself hiding indoors in any kind of opportunity. While not completely frozen over, the Ishim River cutting through the city was covered with thin slates of ice and snow. Light snow would fall in the middle of the night and ice would form on the sidewalks over the next day, making them quite slippery. One of our engineers and I even slipped and fell at the same roadside kerb. Experiencing the harsh, dry and cold weather on the steppes was a significant lesson for me, and helped me in future projects that I participate in this part of the world.

Embassy District in Nur-Sultan

My second experience on urban design in Nur-Sultan come 8 years later, for a township project under a collaboration between a Vietnamese client and a local Kazakhstan Developer. Leading a team consisting of planners, urban designers and architects from Singapore and Vietnam, we developed a master plan within 1 month. The masterplan draws on previous exposure and understanding of the local culture, planning regulations which was based on guidelines developed during the Soviet era, and experiences in the local climatic conditions. This was also combined with the requirements and wish-list from our Vietnamese client, which we had to adapt to the local Kazakh conditions. Our deep understanding of the local insolation (sun exposure of the building façade during winter) requirements also helped us with developing suitable land parcellation, building massing and urban design guidelines that fits the local weather conditions and design for human comfort.

Master Plan for a New Township in Nur-Sultan

Master Plan for a New Township in Nur-Sultan

Although I did not have the chance to visit Nur-Sultan again for this project, we were able to develop the master plan to the next level where we were appointed to collaborate with local architects for the development of the first apartment complexes. We had deep discussions on the architectural design and layout of the apartment units such that each inhabitant would be able to enjoy sufficient sunlight in the winter solstice, and how the courtyard spaces could be designed as comfortable public spaces with amenities for the residents.

Architectural Proposals for New Apartments

Proposed Courtyards in the Apartment Complex

 Although I had the blessing to be able to participate in many interesting projects in Singapore and various countries throughout my working life after graduating from the NUS MA(UD) program, I always find that my experience working on projects in Kazakhstan one of the most unique and memorable.