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From: "Architexturez." <interface.services@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2006 16:58:42 +0530
Architecture: One steppe beyond
In the middle of central Asia sits one of Lord Foster’s most ambitious
projects to date. Hugh Pearman visits the Pyramid of Peace in Astana
You hear a lot about pushing the boundaries in architecture. In Astana,
the new capital of Kazakhstan, this overused phrase is literally true.
Walk a few hundred yards from the manicured central boulevard, sidestep
the preposterously grand presidential palace and you are quickly into a
shanty town of construction workers’ huts. Cross the river and you are
out on the dusty steppe. There, pushing the city boundary right out, is
the Pyramid of Peace, designed by Britain’s most high-achieving
architect, Lord Foster.
....
As I left, all of this was set in a moonscape of caked earth, whipped up
into dust storms in the wind by the huge tyres of Kamaz trucks. They
were just starting to construct the road to the building. Sometime
around now, Nazarbayev will look out of the back of his palace and, like
some modern-day Tamburlaine, see his religious vision on the steppes
complete. The building looks surprisingly small in the endless
landscape, though Astana will soon close in on it. With its sacred
chamber at the top, it feels more Inca than Egyptian; like a temple, it
is not a thing you can warm to. It is a folly on a grand scale. But it
is a place to wonder at.
cont'd....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2101-2334833,00.html