CITY PORTRAITS: ASTANA

Università Iuav di VeneziaScuola di DottoratoPalazzo BadoerSan Polo 246830125 Veneziainfodottorato@iuav.itwww.iuav.ir/scuoladottorato

City portraits: Astana22 > 23 ottobre 2015Badoer, aula TafuriSan Polo 2468Veneziasala 70CConference CenterExpo, Milano

City portraits: Astana 22 > 23 October 2015Università Iuav di VeneziaBadoer, aula TafuriMilano Expo 2015Conference Center, sala 70C

infodottorati@iuav.itwww.iuav.it

@iuav 2015a cura delServizio Comunicazione Iuav – Venezia

Università Iuav di Venezia S CUO LA D I DOT TORATO

curatorsGianni TalaminiAnna Laura Govoni

assistant to curatorsMaria Medushevskaya

in collaboration with partner & sponsor sponsor with the support of

October 22nd 2015, conferenceVenezia, Palazzo Badoer

opening session9 Greetings from alberto ferlenga, Rector of the Università Iuav di Venezia9.20 Greetings from pierluigi aluisio, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Venice 9.30 Introduction by the curators gianni talamini anna laura govoni

morning session10 edoardo canetta Academic-assistant of Ambrosiana Academy, Milan History of Astana and Symbolism of its Architectures 10.40 amanzhol chikanayev Professor of the International Academy of Architecture, Member of the Architecture Council under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana Astana: the Search for Urban Planning Ideas of the XXI Century11.40 philipp meuser, PhD, Architect and Publisher, Berlin The Eurasian City Model: Ideas, Parameters, Typologies

Q&A discussion

12.20 video previews

12.30 Lunch break offered by Consorzio di Tutela della Denominazione di Origine Controllata Prosecco

afternoon session14 takashi tsubokura, TG architect, Director of Kazakhstan Branch, Almaty Kurokawa’s Master Plan for Astana: What Went Wrong? 14.40 christian von borries, Orchestra Conductor, Composer and Producer of Site-specific Psycho-geographic Projects Astana – A Caesarean Rome 15.20 anuarbek mussin, General Commissioner of the Kazakh National Section at Expo Milano 2015 - Managing Director of National Company “Astana Expo-2017” JSC Astana – City of opportunities (I)

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16.20 mateusz laszczkowski, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw Unexpected Connections: Ethnographic Notes on How Worlds Are Made, with Focus on Astana and Thoughts on the Expo and Certain Other Surprisingly Related Things 17 saverio pesapane, Author, Politecnico di Milano Aral Citytellers

October 23th 2015, round tableMilano, Expo 2015

10.30 Welcome by Kazakhstan Pavilion Communication team jacopo stecchini10.40 Introduction by the curators gianni talamini anna laura govoni

participants10.50 benno albrecht, Professor of the Università Iuav di Venezia11 pierluigi aluisio, Kazakh Honorary Consulate in Venice, Consul 11.10 riccardo garosci, President of the Committee for Expo Milano 2015 at the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR)11.20 luciano caffini President of National Housing Co-ops Association (Legacoop Abitanti) and Italian Cooperative Alliance (ACI)

presentation11.30 azamat temirbekov, Team Expo Astana 2017 Astana – City of opportunities (II)

discussants christian von borries Orchestra Conductor, Composer and Producer of Site-specific Psycho-geographic Projects, edoardo canetta Academic-assistant of Ambrosiana Academy, Milan amanzohol chikanayev Professor of the International Academy of Architecture, Member of the Architecture Council under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

marco granata, Executive, Italian-Kazakh Chamber of Commerce mateusz laszczkowski, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw saverio pesapane, Director, Architect, Politecnico di Milano takashi tsubokura, TG architect, Director of Kazakhstan Branch, Almaty

Q&A section

13 Refreshment offered by Future Food District Coop at Expo Milano 2015

14 Visit at the Kazakhstan Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015

Collateral event Wednesday October 21th, 18 > 21IPHONECHINA by Christian von Borries S.a.L.E. Docks, Venezia

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City Portraits: AstanaRepresentation, symbol and form

In the middle of the '90s of last century Nursultan Nazarbayev, in the foot-steps of Atatürk and a drawing inspiration from Peter the Great, moved the capital of Kazakhstan from the verdant slopes of Tian Shan in the deep south of the country, to the vast and desolate steppes of the north. Giving shape to a new Ankara, but also opening a window on the contemporary world, as it was Saint Petersburg. On close examination, Astana does not look really like neither Ankara, nor like Saint Petersburg, rather it looks like Dubai. There are soviet buildings, contemporary architectural objects which are simple and out of con-text, domes of Islamic tradition, chinese multi-inclined roofs, classical stylemes and many constructions that could be coherently ascribed to the post-modern tradition. The amalgam of reference is so varied that the only category which is able to include them all is the eclecticism. This highlights the crisis of the hege-monic system. A crisis that reveals itself in the juxtaposition of references and that is intrinsic to a larger and deeper mutation of the contemporary globalized world, both economical and cultural.

Astana is an architectonic melting pot, a place where the world is meeting and representing itself, often in a symbolical way. The city, indeed, can be understood as the attempt to represent materially and symbolically, a system of reference values and, at the same time, power relations. But Astana is not only like this. It is also an unripe, but vibrant city, in constant ferment and evolution, young and projected into the future. Even though it is just eighteen years old, twelve years less than the average age of its inhabitants, it is already a consolidated symbolic effigy of the rising of Kazakhstan and, more generally of Central Asia, in the contemporary geopolitical panorama.

This is the twelfth appointment of the series City Portraits, promoted by Iuav School of Doctorate Studies. The portrait aims to examine the (unforgotten) symbolism of architectural and spacial forms. The conference is an occasion of exchange and discussion about the relationship between representation, symbol and form in the transformation of the space and infrastructural deve-lopment of the territory.

Edardo Canetta Ambrosiana Academy, MilanAmanzhol Chikanayev International Academy of Architecture, Architecture Council under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, AstanaPhilipp Meuser Architect and Publisher, BerlinTakashi Tsubokura TG Architect, Director of Kazakhstan Branch, Almaty Christian von Borries Orchestra Conductor, Composer and Producer of Site-specific Psycho-geographic Projects, BerlinAnuarbek Mussin Kazakh National Section at Expo Milano 2015 – National Company “Astana Expo 2017”, Joint Stock CompanyMateusz Laszczkowski Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw Saverio Pesapane Director, Architect, Politecnico di Milano

Abstracts

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edoardo canettaHistory of Astana and symbolism of its architecture It is believed that the city foundation dates back in 1830, when Schubin, co-lonel of the imperial Russian army, commanded the construction of a fort on the bank of Ishim River. Within few years a small town named Akmolinsk was developed around the fort, which, by the end of the the XIX century, was alre-ady considered to be the economic hub of the area. It is necessary to remind that approximatively in the same period other forts were build along the rivers of the same area, from which later on small cities (today already big) were developed like Pavesclav, Semipalatinsk, etc. It is crucial to know that in the steppes peoples tradition, rivers are not considered as borders, but as meeting points. Therefore in those places it was easier for the Russians to control the local populations. Over the time Akmolinsk became an important rail hub and new refined houses started to be built. Traces of them can still be found near the former central square, which is located near the former Parliament House.An important moment in the life of the city was in 1961, when Khrushchev launched the Virgin Land Campain. All the land around Astana is cultivable, suitable for corn and other seasonal crops. The climate is extremely harsh, with temperatures in winter (almost 6 months long) often dipping below -25°C and reacing -40°C. The city holds the record of the lowest temperature pick in whole Kazakhstan, -51.6°C. Agronomists and volunteers came from all over the USSR to conquer this new frontier. To come, indeed not as volunteers, increasing masses of deportees, most of them later “putted up” to work in the mines of the nearby Karaganda region.In the summer of 1991 the USSR dissolved and in December of the same year the citizens of the Kazakhstan Republic, through a dedicated referendum, ac-claimed the full independence (even if it was not really clear from whom …). It is useful to remind that in the referendum promoted in May of the same year by Gorbachev. He asked if the different republics would like to be or not to be part of the USSR. About 90% of the people of the Kazakh Soviet Republic expressed themselves in favour of remaining citizens of the Soviet Union.For some years Tselinograd continued to be a quiet provincial city, with its 125,000 inhabitants (80% of which have an european origin). At that time they were busy, as all the Kazakh people, fighting with the new problems created by the “independence” from Moscow.As long as in 1997, the president Nursultan Nazarbayev – previously secretary of the local Communist Party and according to many putted forward by Gorba-chev, with whom he is still connected in a friendship – proposed to the Parlia-ment to move the capital from Almaty in the south-east of the country near the Chinese border, to Tselinograd (meanwhile renamed Akmola). The reason behind this proposal were at least three and not necessarily mu-tually exclusive:

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1. Alma-ata (today Almaty, Kazakh name for it) was too close to China. From the time of the Sino-Soviet border conflict China made territorial claims to that area.2. Almaty is located in a seismically-active region. It has been destroyed twice by earthquakes in just one century and the scientist are forecasting a catastro-phic one in the upcoming future.3. Moving the capital in the centre of the country and closer to regions that are mostly inhabited by Russians and Europeans, it can be turned in a better con-trol over these areas. Considering some nationalistic pro-Russian claims over the northern territories on the border with the Russian Federation.Nowadays Astana is a city of 780,000 inhabitants, more than 80% of which are Kazakh. In the analysis of the main monuments of the city we will observe how, over the unavoidable political rhetoric, the theme of harmony remains as one of the fundamental aspects of the identity of the city.

amanzhol chikanayevAstana: the Search for Urban Planning Ideas of the XXI Century The contribution traces the historical patterns of the presence of settlements on the site the city of Astana, from ancient times to the present days. At first, a brief description of the architectural-planning structures of the different types of settlements, which existed in the place where nowadays Astana is rising. The following historical periods are going to be examined: the period of the nomadic cattle breeding of Saka and Turkic tribes (nomadic ghost towns sud-denly appearing at spring and disappearing at summer), the stabilization of the northern branch of the Silk Road (fortress and caravanserai), the early stage of the Russian colonization of the Kazakh steppes (military outpost of the Akmola Prikaz district), the following transformation into a merchant city (Akmola, 1863), the Soviet period (Akmolinsk, Tselinograd) and, finally, the period of Kazakhstan independence (Akmola, Astana).Special attention it is given to the moment of the relocation of the capital of Kazakhstan to the city of Tselinograd and to the analysis of urban planning issues and ideas, which determined the formation of Astana, as the new ca-pital of an independent state and the formation of its planning structure and architectural appearance.

philipp meuser The Eurasian City Model: Ideas, Parameters, Typologies. The Astana Case Amid the endless plains of Kazakhstan, an extraordinary architectural expe-riment has arisen: Astana. Formerly an outpost of the Tsarist Empire in the barren steppe, the location had developed into a typical Soviet provincial town. However, both internationally renowned and local architects are now

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designing spectacular and unique buildings in this dynamic city. Furthermore, Astana will host the Expo 2017 which will take place only twenty years after the city was built in the steppe alongside the old centre.

Philipp Meuser’s lecture discusses buildings and projects in the Kazakh metro-polis, which was masterplanned by Kisho Kurokawa, and examines the con-tradictory nature at play within oriental traditions, western models and Soviet influences. Moreover, Meuser presents a critical analysis of architecture and capital city planning in the centre of Eurasia. Astana is far more than a new city development in the endles steppes of Central Asia. Astana might be seen a the case study for a new typology of the Eurasian city model.

takashi tsubokurakurokawa’s Master Plan for Astana: What Went Wrong? A local design competition for the master plan of Astana was conducted in 1996; five years after Kazakhstan had gained independence. A design company, Ak Orda, who won the first prize, completely overthrew the existing linear zo-ning established in the Soviet period and proposed to develop the city transver-sely toward the south across the Ishim River. However, in 1998, the government invited an international tender and awarded the first prize to Kisho Kurokawa architect & associates, Japan, whose proposal focused on Kurokawa’s architec-tural concepts; “symbiosis” and “metabolic city”.The word “symbiosis” means “a creative relationship born from tension”, or “a positive relationship between two or more competing elements”. For this pro-posal Kurokawa had an idea of preserving old buildings, bridges, water towers and even big trees in the existing town in order to make a sharp contrast with newly developed city area. A series of riverside residential clusters was also intended as symbiosis of nature and man-made environment.“Metabolic city” is, so to speak, an enlarged reproduction of the linear zoning brought up in the Soviet master plan. The former simple three zones were sub-divided into seven. They comprised a northern windbreak forest; a regenerated industrial zone; an intermediate green zone; existing urban areas; new residen-tial clusters; a new city-center zone and a southern eco-park zone. In the future, all these zones should grow along the Ishim River in parallel with each other.Kurokawa was convinced of the realization of his own proposal; however, a master plan prepared by Saudi Binladin Group was submitted to Municipality of Astana with the strong support of local leading architects. After a series of loud arguments, Kurokawa went for a painful compromise and pushed his aforesaid concepts into Saudi plan’s general layout. In 2001, the Government of the Republic officially approved the Japanese master plan. Ironically enough, Kurokawa was forced to accept symbiosis with the post-Soviet politics in Ka-zakhstan which he never dreamed of.

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Looking back now, I realize Kurokawa’s first master plan is beautiful, but it did not exactly represent the true motive of the new capital. Originally the existing linear structure of the city, which Kurokawa respected, had been established as a part of Soviet industrial network in 1960s. After the collapse of the So-viet Union when Ak Orda proposed to expand the city transversely toward the south, it must have intended to “cut” this linear structure symbolically and to sever the city’s imaginary connection with Russia. The Saudi plan accentuated the independent and centric status of the new capital even more by circling the whole city with a ring road. Local architects and city planners seem to have shared the necessity of these geopolitical gestures on the urban scale.Kurokawa’s approach was intellectual, ecological and rational, but the political correctness underlying the new capital was somehow beyond rationality after all. What this city had wanted from him at that moment was not the succession but the destruction of the long-established Soviet institution.

christian von borriesAstana - A Caesarean Rome Astana is relentlessly marketing itself. It is trying to comply with places like Abu Dhabi, and in 2017 it will host the Expo.Taking Baudrillard’s observation, that all we have and all we can speak of is the image as a representation of reality, further, this talk tries to analyse footage collected in Astana for the film MOCRACY as well as new material for Astana 2017 and Astana 2030.Image politics is one side of the coin, the other is of course the on the ground reality. How can we, as westerners, talk about it?

anuarbek mussinAstana – City of Opportunities (I) One of the youngest capitals in the world, Astana nowadays offers a variety of opportunities for Kazakhstan citizens and expats from all over the world. Its diverse nature makes the city welcoming and open, with a bustling lifestyle and majestic landscapes nearby. Upcoming Expo 2017 in Astana will showca-se developments from around the world in the field of green, renewable and sustainable energy. Over the next five years, Astana will function as a magnet to attract significant investment to construct exposition venues and the city’s expanded infrastructure. Astana will generate new jobs, stimulate domestic tourism, and mobilize Kazakhstan’s economic and social resources.

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mateusz laszczkowski Unexpected Connections: Ethnographic Notes on How Worlds Are Made, with Focus on Astana and Thoughts on the Expo and Certain Other Surpri-singly Related Things The central question driving this paper is, what kinds of connections give sha-pe to places and ‘worlds’? I seek answers to that question by looking, with an ethnographic eye, at the development of Astana. On the one hand, I examine what has been called ‘worlding practices’ undertaken by Kazakhstani leaders, city-planners, and architects: the efforts to benefit from international flows of material resources and capital; the borrowing of technical expertise; the elabo-ration of architectural styles to create a carefully crafted image of Astana and Kazakhstan to be projected to audiences around the world. On the other, I fol-low a very different sort of connections. Through an ethnography of mundane maintenance carried out by a group of residents in a Soviet-built apartment block in Astana, I argue that places and communities are constructed and maintained through the inconspicuous, often very unrewarding, uncoordinated quotidian labour by multiple actors struggling to stabilize contingent confluen-ces of heterogeneous material and symbolic elements. I partially trace some such elements that came into the makeup of that particular neighbourhood that I study, to reveal sometimes surprisingly far-reaching connections: unspec-tacular (almost) ‘global’ networks involved in the making of what seems an utterly ‘local’ material setting and ‘community’. Thus the paper questions the emphasis found in much recent anthropological, geographical, and sociological scholarship about ‘worlding cities’ put on the creative agency of ‘elites’ and the feats of international ‘imagineering’.Additionally, the paper draws on an unexpected connection that has occurred in my own working experience as an anthropologist. After several years spent doing research on Astana, I recently switched to studying a protest movement against a railway project in the Italian Alps. In summer 2015, a media-reported event, which I am planning to retell in my talk, revealed a link between the two – seemingly so different – places. That unforeseen perspective – looking at Astana from Italy and at the same time looking at Italy from Astana, so to speak – suggests seeing both within an emerging framework of a global politi-cal economy of spectacular construction projects. From that viewpoint, I further suggest, the fact that the Expo is held in Italy in 2015 and planned to take place in Astana next time (2017), is not coincidental but rather a logical expression of that emerging logic. Drawing on the ethnographic research conducted during both my projects, however, I inquire – are these the kind of connections on which to base a global model of development? Or indeed, is a global model what communities around the world need?

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saverio pesapaneAral Citytellers The Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is considered one of the biggest environmental disasters in human history. During the cold war the ci-ties, landscape and communities around the Aral was the site of a devastating science-military laboratory.In the fifties the Soviet Union diverted two rivers that fed the Aral Sea to ma-ximize cotton harvest; it used Vozrozhdeniya island as a production base for chemical and bacteriological weapons; and built the world’s biggest cosmo-drome in Baikonur.Today the Aral Sea has declined to 10% of its original size; Vozrozhdeniya island is one of the most contaminated sites in the world; and the cosmodrome is a geopolitical Russian invasion in Kazakh territories. The communities that sur-vive on the desertified Sea borders have become an “archeology of humanity”.

Biographies

curatorsGianni Talamini HIT Shenzhen Graduate SchoolAnna Laura Govoni PhD from Università Iuav di Veneziaassitant to curatorsMaria Medushevskaya Università Iuav di Venezia

Edardo Canetta Ambrosiana Academy, MilanAmanzhol Chikanayev International Academy of Architecture, Architecture Council under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, AstaPhilipp Meuser Architect and Publisher, BerlinTakashi Tsubokura TG Architect, Director of Kazakhstan Branch, Almaty Christian von Borries Orchestra Conductor, Composer and Producer of Site-specific Psycho-geographic Projects, BerlinAnuarbek Mussin Kazakh National Section at Expo Milano 2015 – National Company “Astana Expo 2017”, Joint Stock CompanyMateusz Laszczkowski Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw Saverio Pesapane Director, Architect, Politecnico di Milano

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curators

gianni talamini (MA Architecture and PhD Urbanism, Univeristà Iuav di Venezia) was born in 1979. He joined, as Post-doctoral fellow, the School of Urban Planning and Management at Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School (China) in 2014.His research interests are focused on the spatial rendering of the relationship between the social and economical structure and the ideological superstructure.Since 2003 he is combining the construction of his theoretical framework with the architectural practice. Working on the boundary between art and architecture, he managed the construction of installations designed by worldwide most famous architects and artists such as Tadao Ando, Patrick Bouchain, Arata Isozaki, Morphosis, Williams & Tsien, Lebbeus Woods, Daniel Buren, Carsten Höller, Yoko Ono, Paola Pivi and Kiki Smith. He collaborated on the realization of numerous art and architecture exhibitions. In 2012 he has been in charge of the restoration of the Finnish Pavilion designed by Alvar Aalto at the Biennale of Venice (Italy).He is the author, among others, of Shrinkage. A micro-story of Lake Aral’s drainage area (in Lorenzo Fabian, Paola Viganò eds., Extreme City. Climate Change and the transformation of the waterscape, 2010), Spatial apparatuses in Central Asia. The case of Astana (2011), Lo spazio in rivoluzione (in Angelica Polverini eds., La Terra si rivolta, 2015), Spazio Ideologico (in Leonardo Caffo eds., Il reale e gli spazi per la politica, 2015).

anna laura govoni(BA in Science of Architecture and MA in Planning and Environmental Policies, Università Iuav di Venezia) she defended her PhD in Regional Planning and Public Policy in March 2015 at the Iuav School of Doctorate Studies and she’s now working for Coop at Expo Milano 2015. Her interests lie in everyday practices and relations between public and private with a deep curiosity for cross-cultural contexts. She spent the last few years in China where she went for the first time in sum-mer 2008 for research at the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Centre (CHP). She was intern at the Venice Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 and had experiences as a visiting researcher at the National Taipei University (2010) and at the Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School (2011). She was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Urbanus Research Bureau of Urbanus Architecture & Design in Shenzhen (2012 and 2013). During her studies she assisted and participated in a variety of art, architectural and research projects. Curator of City Portraits: Beijing/北京 (2010) and local curatorial coordinator at the Chinese Pavilion of the 2014 Biennale of Architecture in Venice.

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assistant to curators

maria medushevskayaWas born on December 7, 1995 in Moscow, Russia.From 2009 to 2013 she frequented Italian Russia bilingual High school.From 2013 to 2014 she frequented the Art and Design School, Moscow.From 2014 on, student of Architecture at Università Iuav di Venezia.

speakers

edoardo canettaBorn in Milan, 18 of July 1949, he got his secondary school education at Liceo G. Parini. In 1968 he began his education in theological seminary, concluded in 1973 with his ordination. He has been later in charge of the direction of the Social Educational Centre of Via Caroli in Milan.After two year of training he moved to Kazakhstan and started to teach “Italian language and culture” at the State University of Karaganda in 1994. In 1999 he was transferred to the new capital Astana, primarily to prepare the visit of Gio-vanni Paolo II in 2001. In this occasion, the good cooperation with the Kazakh State institutions leaded to the invitation to teach not only at the National University, also at the Institute of Diplomacy, where he has been employed till 2011, year in which he moved back to Italy. Outcomes of his experience in Kazakhstan are several publications, various ar-ticles published by the Amanat magazine of Almaty, by the National University and, in Italy, by the Oasis, Nuovo Aeropago and Eurasia. In 2005, Marietti edi-tor published “L’inguaribile tristezza del saggio”, book written in cooperation with the Kazakh writer Rollan Seissynbzev. In 2008, he published “Italian tili men medenietinin okhulighi” (Manuale di lingua e cultura italiana), first book about the study of the Italian language written in Kazakh. Due to this publica-tion, he got the Abai Order award, for the transcultural dialogue.In 2011 he moved back to Italy for health reasons. During the same year he has been honoured by the Italian President with the “Ordine della Stella d’Italia al grado di Ufficiale”. Since then, he started to be employed as academic-assistant at the Asian Class of the Ambrosiana Library Academy, in which he opened a new session devoted to Central Asia. In this field he has been invited as a spe-aker in various conferences and he has published several articles.

amanzhol chikanayevChikanayev Amanzhol Shaymerdenovich was born on April 27, 1946 in the village of Molotov, Sverdlovsk Region.

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From 1965 to 1970 he achieved a master degree in architecture at the Tselinograd Agricultural Institute of Agriculture. Later, from 1972 to 1975, he has been assistant and senior research of the Department of Architecture, Tselinograd Institute of Agriculture. In the following two year (1975 to 1978), he has been a graduate student of the Moscow Institute of Architecture. From 1979 to 1995, assistant, associate professor and head of the department “Fundamental principle of Architectural Design” at the Tselinograd Institute of Agriculture. From 1995 to 2003, professor, Head of the Department “Architecture and design” of the L.N Gumilyov Eurasian National University.From 2003 to 2005, he has been deputy of the chief architect of Astana and than (2005-2011) chief of the research department of the Research Design Institute (RDI) “Astanagenplan”. From 2011 to 2014 he has been deputy director of Astana’s branch of the Kazakh Research Institute of Construction and Architecture (KazNIISA). From 2014, he is currently Councilor of the General Director of RSE Center “State town-planning cadastre and territorial Planning”.

philipp meuser Graduate Engineer, PhD. Member of the Berlin Chamber of Architects. Born 1969, Managing director of Meuser Architekten GmbH and owner of ar-chitectural publishing company DOM publishers. From 1991 to 1995, studied architecture at the Berlin Technical University. From 1995 to 1996, editorial work for the supplement of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Part-time postgraduate studies in the History and Theory of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich), graduating in 1997. PhD in Architecture History with a Research on Soviet Mass Housing between 1955 to 1991.From 1996 to 2001, policy advisor to the Senate Department for Urban Development as part of the Stadtforum Berlin. Various projects since 2002 as curator for Goethe Institutes in the former Soviet Union, including the accompaniment of an archi-tecture exhibition as part of the German-Russian Cultural Encounters 2003-2004 along the Trans-Siberian railway. In charge of masterclasses in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since 2002. Lecturer at the Berlin Technical University (2004). International planning and construction projects since 2004 with particular emphasis on Eastern Europe and Asia. Realisation of many foreign buildings in Kazakhstan, including for the German, British, French, Swiss and Canadian embassies in Astana. Since 2008, general contractor for pilot projects with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in federal buildings (including the German Embassy in New Delhi). General contractor and advisor to the Federal Foreign Office in crisis regions (Libya, Mali and Yemen) since 2012.Curator for the city Cologne as part of the Regionale 2010. Commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office to research safety and security of Diplomatic Missions (2013).

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Regularly lectures at home and abroad. Numerous publications with particular emphasis on architectural theory, building typologies and socialist architecture.

takashi tsubokuraTakashi Tsubokura (Kyoto, 1970) earned his master’s degree from Moscow Architectural Institute. He worked at Kisho Kurokawa’s studio between 1999 and 2005, participated in the master plan of Astana, the new capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and also in the construction of Astana international airport. After leaving the studio he worked together with A. Gerasimovich on the design of the Presidential Park in Astana, which is one of the largest landscape projects in the territory of the former USSR.

christian von borriesChristian von Borries produces media from other media. He is an orchestra conductor, composer and producer of site specific psychoge-ographic projects. His work was comissioned by Lucerne Festival, Kunstfest Wei-mar, Volksbuehne Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg and Documenta 12 among others. His cd “Replay Debussy” won an echo award. His first film “The Dubai in me” won a prize at the FID Marseille film festival and was shown at film festivals all over the world as well as the Yekaterinburg Industrial Biennale and the Principio Potosi Exhibition in Madrid and Berlin and online. His second film “Mocracy” won the Klaus-Wildenhahn-Prize at Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg. His third film “I’m M” premired in Mexico City and was shown at Bergen Assembly Biennale 2013. He just finished his forth film “Iphonechina”. He is an anti copyright activist and lives in a green house in Berlin. In 2011 he was guest professor for architecture at the Art Academy in Nurem-berg, in 2012 he was teaching at the film school HFF in Potsdam. In 2013, he took part in the Central Asian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, the Bergen As-sembly in Bergen/Norway and Werkleitz Biennale in Halle/Germany. www.masseundmacht.comsoundcloud.com/masseundmacht/trackswww.the-dubai-in-me.commocracy.info/www.youtube.com/user/masseundmacht/videos www.hegemonietempel.net

anuarbek mussinGraduate of Financial Management, China University of Petroleum (Beijing, PRC)In 2010 earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Webster Univer-sity, Geneva, Switzerland).Mr. Mussin started his labor activity as a manager in representational office of

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Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Kazakhstan in PRC.Between December 2009 and October 2013: Sales Director of “Ramazan” LLC.Between October 2013 and March 2014: Sales Manager of “Krrk” LLCBetween March 2014 and November 2014: Director of Department of Transport and Logistics of “National Company “Astana Expo-2017” Joint-Stock Company.From November 2014: Managing Director of “National Company “Astana Expo-2017” Joint-Stock Company.

saverio pesapaneSaverio Pesapane graduated in 2006 with a Master’s degree in architecture and urbanism. His thesis work was Lost Highway, a documentary about the highways between Napoli and Caserta, in southern Italy, and the territories around them.In 2008 he wrote A Water Tale, a short movie included in “Stories on Human Rights”, a collective project commissioned by the UN for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the same year he wrote Aral Citytellers, a documentary film shot on the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. In 2009 he wrote Dubai Citytellers, a documentary about new slavery in Dubai, produced by Unicredit & Art. In these documentary films he’s also assistant director.In 2011 he wrote and directed It’s countryside, a documentary realized in the Nile Valley, Egypt, produced by Rotterdam Architecture Biennal, where it had its world premiere in 2012.In December 2013 he won the “Premio Solinas”, the most important Italian award for stories and screenplays, with “Una Buona Ragione”, a story for a feature film. In 2015 he completed Devotional, a documentary about the revolution in Egypt, that he wrote and directed over a 4 years period, following different characters involved in the revolutionary movements.In 2015 he wrote a feature film “Ngujuar”, that was selected by Mostra del Cinema di Venezia in the Biennale College program.He teaches Urban Studies at Politecnico, Milan, and has teached Photography and Filmmaking at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti of Milan.

CITY PORTRAITS: ASTANA

Università Iuav di VeneziaScuola di DottoratoPalazzo BadoerSan Polo 246830125 Veneziainfodottorato@iuav.itwww.iuav.ir/scuoladottorato