Fosters Big Top Opens In Astana

Fosters Big Top Opens In Astana

Just because there's a credit crunch that doesn't mean countries have stopped building crazy structures. The latest to be completed is Norman Foster's Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre, which is the world's tallest tent - or "tensile structure" if you're writing an architectural press release.

The building is basically a modern big top with a central pole leaning to one side a triple-layered EFTE skin hanging from it connecting to the ground in an expansive circular footprint that surrounds 100,000 square metres of space.

The idea behind the scheme was not to build a home for Crusty the Clown, but rather construct something that can offer all round entertainment for the citizens of the city of Astana. Astana experiences some of the most regular extremes of any city on the planet with summer days reaching 35 degrees centigrade and winter nights plummeting to minus 35.

Between the outer and middle layer of EFTE, to cope with the cold temperatures and the danger of ice that would damage the façade, warm air will be circulated around to keep it from freezing. Added to the EFTE to help with the summer heat is an outer coating of foil that provides solar shading.

Much of Foster Associates (now Foster + Partners) early work was done in conjunction with futuristic architect Buckminster Fuller who was best known for his huge but lightweight geodesic domes that for a period in the 1950s seemed like they might offer a glimpse of how the future would be everywhere.

In seeing the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre brought to life, one can perhaps draw a straight line from the design all the way back to the influence of Buckminster Fuller and see that a little bit of Spaceship Earth has landed in Astana, albeit in the shape of an intergalactic circus.

Hold My Painting
stretch mark treatment