KAZAKHSTAN HISTORY MUSEUM

KAZAKHSTAN HISTORY MUSEUM

Competition proposal
Astana, Kazakhstan
Project: 2010
Client: Astana administration

Authors of the project:

Architects: Nikita Yavein, Vladimir Zenkevich, George Snezhkin, Sergey Aksenov, Vladimir Lemekhov, Ivan Kozhin
with the participation of Mariya Vinogradova, Veronika Zhukova, Evgeny Novosadyuk in cooperation with "Bazis-A" company

Structural engineer: Vladimir Gorshtein

The general idea of the project is the spiral motion symbolizing the eternal development with its cyclic processes: each point of the spiral is both the end of one cycle and the beginning of another one. There are two main spiral trajectories. The first is running inside the building, the second is running along its operating roof, along the bas-reliefs featuring the plots of the Kazakh history. Moving along the exhibition spiral, the visitors of the museum take an excursion tour into the history of Kazakhstan from the ancient times to our days. The kernel of the building’s internal space contains the museum funds that are provided with a special route and a spacious atrium with vertical communications.

From the exterior, the building is referential to tumuli, or kurgans – "steppe pyramids", the most reliable custodians of the traces of material culture left by the nomads, that in Kazakhstan were often constructed in the shape of step ziggurats.

Data
Parcel area – 11,6 ha
Footprint area - 50 550 sq. m
GFA - 63 500 sq. m
Usable area - 55 240 sq. m
Exhibition spaces area - 18 368 sq. m
Structural volume - 380 940 cub. m
Number of storeys – 1-5 storeys

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