Digg('  �)
|
Tweet |
|
Stumble |
Share |
The world’s largest tent opened in Kazakhstan this week, soaring up 150m to crown the skyline of Central Asia’s newest capital.
Designed by the British architects Lord Foster & Partners, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in the capital Astana is 150m (490ft) high. The aim of the tent is to provide escape to a people subjected to some of the harshest climes of Central Asia’s vast steppe. Temperatures in Astana, in northern Kazakhstan, regularly dip well below -30C in winter.
The giant tent, which took four years to build, is designed to withstand harsh weather and maintain a comfortable temperature inside.
It is made from three layers of ETFE; a special see-through plastic that allows daylight to wash the interiors while sheltering them from weather extremes.
It is the latest in an extraordinary building programme that has transformed Astana since it became the Kazakh capital 13 years ago.
The Khan Shatyr is Lord Foster’s second design in the city, after opening a “Pyramid of Peace,” which holds an opera house, library and cultural research centre, in September 2006.
Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan with an iron fist since it gained independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. His current presidential term expires in 2012, but under legal changes approved by parliament in 2007, he is allowed to serve as president indefinitely.
