EXPO REVIEW
Kazakhstan’s National Pavilion, designed by Smith and Gill, formed a centrepiece at the Expo
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Astana Expo Astana Expo 2017 said goodbye to the last of its four million guests in September. So was it successful? Christian Lachel, creative director for the United States Pavilion, shares his highlights
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azakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to Astana in 1998, and embarked on a fiendishly difficult task that has defeated many city planners: building a visionary, futuristic city that incorporates a number of styles and functions into a single cohesive, awe-inspiring whole. The same kind of visionary thinking went into the design of the site for the Astana Expo. The Expo plan fitted snugly in the context of greater Astana: elegant and modern, guided by a design
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intention to present a “future that works for everyone.” The brevity of the Expo – three months – and the modest ambitions of the Expo planners (Astana drew 4 million, in contrast to Shanghai’s 73 million in 2010) contributed to its success. Expo participants embraced the challenge of creating entertaining, charismatic pavilions on short schedules with limited budgets. Almost every participant created a solution that contributed to the liveliness and pure fun of this Expo.
CLAD mag 2017 ISSUE 4