The project consisted on two tasks: in gropus, design a residential area in the grounds of the Astana expo planned for 2017. Then, individually, design two of the buildings in the neighborhood.

A general analysis of Astana is useful to shape the first ideas of the project. The climate, city structure, how people live in the city in general will determinate numerous aspects of the residential area.

After getting in context, a more thorough exploration of the surroundings of the Expo grounds, and the area itself is needed for determining the connections and hierarchy relations between city - district - area - neighborhood.

We had to design the neighborhood in the context of the winning proposal for the Astana Expo 2017, by architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.

The selected area to work sits below the main dome in the middle of the expo grounds and the school area in the south-west corner.

Designing the buildings I had three main goals:

 

1. Improve relationships and bounding between neighbors of the same building by creating large semi-private common areas.

2. Improve thermal isolation by design instead of isolating only by technical means (Astana is the coldest city in Kazakhstan).

3. Design a permeable facade that can be changed when neccesary to adapt to the weather in Astana.

 

To achieve this goals I took references from several projects.