The production of a new Eurasian capital on the Kazakh steppe: architecture, urban design, and identity in Astana

Abstract

In December 1997, the Republic of Kazakhstan officially proclaimed that the city of Astana would be its new capital. The decision to transfer the seat of government from the city of Almaty in the south to the more centrally located Astana was connected to the process of nation building in a multi-ethnic society where the titular nation represents little more than half of the population. Efforts to transform the rather remote regional center, Akmola (later renamed Astana) into a modern capital city have been underway since the late 1990s. One important component of this transformation is the idea of building a “metabolic” and sustainable “Eurasian” city. As the symbolic center of the whole country, this new capital would function as a showpiece of Kazakh culture and identity. The city would also become a symbol of economic prosperity and the regime's geopolitical vision. While the government's intensions are expressed rather openly, it remains unclear to what extent these politically verbalized leitmotivs are actually being realized through contemporary architecture and structure. This article offers a critical assessment of what has been achieved to date and argues that the production of the new Kazakhstani capital has often failed to translate rhetoric into reality.

Keywords:

• architecture
• Astana
• urbanism
• capital city
• Eurasian

Notes

It should be also mentioned that the Alash Orda independence movement chose Semipalatinsk as the capital city for their non-recognized Alash Autonomy from 1918 until 1920.

As in a typical transitional society, the birth rates in Kazakhstan during the first decades after independence were very low; thus, emigration caused significant losses in population on the local and national levels.