Less than a year ago, Nikita Yavein's team completed the construction of the Palace of Schoolchildren's Creativity in the capital of Kazakhstan. And although now "Studio 44" creates an object of a different typology, the Martial Arts Palace can be considered as a logical continuation of the work of the architectural studio on the new look of Astana. Moreover, for this palace in the capital of Kazakhstan, a more than noticeable and important place from an urban planning point of view has been allocated - the sports complex will close the axis of a large-scale esplanade leading from the building of the Ministry of Defense to new buildings in the southern part of the city.
“Perhaps one of the main tasks set for us by this project was the search for the optimal balance between the dimensions and architecture of the object itself and the spaces that it must“hold”,” says Nikita Yavein. The architect is not exaggerating: in Astana, which is being created before our eyes by the political will of the country's leadership, there are almost no chamber buildings - this city is made up of huge clusters, each of which becomes a "beacon" of a noticeable object in every sense. The mentioned ministry is no exception, and the esplanade that starts from it is a wide boulevard stretching over many blocks. Naturally, such an axis cannot simply break off, but what if the projected palace has only three floors? The architects found a way out: the projected volume itself was interpreted as a landscape object, due to which the boulevard here actually soars up, acquiring an additional dimension, and the roof becomes the main accent element, "a traditionally strong place for sports palaces," Yavein says.
The authors of the project are transforming the section that closes the esplanade into a landscape park, lined with pedestrian paths into geometric segments - exactly the same from which the general plan of the whole Astana is formed. In the middle of the park there rises a hill - in fact, the Palace of Martial Arts - and behind it there is a spacious ground parking, which the gentle green slopes are very well camouflaged. This is not the first time Studio 44 has used such a compositional technique - "growing" a building out of a landscape: in Nizhny Novgorod, the studio proposed to hide it in a giant green hill.
a football stadium, and for the same Astana two years ago she designed a museum of the history of Kazakhstan in the form of a ziggurat inscribed in the park. Both of these ideas never came to fruition, so the architects used their ideas of that time with a light heart, giving the spectacular idea maximum profitability and practicality.
Under the grassy slopes, the authors remove the two-story stylobate of the building, in which all the premises necessary for the sports palace are grouped. This includes a lobby with wardrobes, gyms and warm-up rooms, a medical center for athletes, a media area, and even premises for VIP guests. Only the auditorium with stands and commentary booths rises above the hill, while the entire "inner" life of the palace will take place on the two lower levels. This was done, first of all, for the purpose of diverting the streams: athletes and their attendants will not intersect with spectators, for whom the entrance to the building is provided not only from the ground, but also from the roof of the "hill", conceived as an open public space. It will be possible to get to this viewing platform, raised above the ground, both from the palace and directly from the park - along the numerous gentle staircases.
As already mentioned, the roof is primarily responsible for the charisma of the building. From a bird's eye view, the palace resembles several reels of film made together, and the film from some of them seems to creep out, bringing additional intrigue to the appearance of the structure. In full face, these bobbins turn out to be through spatial arches - it is from them that the architects assemble the large-span vaulted roof over the gymnasium. In plan, the arches are shifted one relative to the other in such a way that their belts are connected to each other only on a part of the span, and then they adjoin the arches along the outline of the arches - at different heights. The resulting openings are filled with glass, which creates a silhouette that seems to be simple, but memorable.
The structure on the hill resembles a railway landing stage, which the architects first dismantled and then reassembled, deliberately mixing up individual elements. You can compare the roof with many bridges thrown over the hill, some of which go a little higher, others a little lower, and all together form a very picturesque arcade. However, the authors themselves say that such a tense pattern of the vaults is associated with "muscular wrestlers, whose bodies are intertwined in unity and opposition to a decisive battle." In any case, the roof, assembled from arches, is expressive and in itself, looks especially advantageous in contrast to the soft outlines of the hill. Combining landscape design elements and extremely technocratic completion in one building, the architects of Studio 44 perfectly convey the character of modern Astana - a city in which large-scale parks are organically combined with ambitious high-tech architecture.
