Astana Train Station - "Nurly Jol"

The spatial development patterns of city regions is shaped by the need for central locations of global cities, whereas industrial production capacities, wholesale supplies, and customer services spread out the peripheries, as well as various residential zones. Not only for easy accessibility but also to satisfy the need for face-to-face interactions, have the communicative transport hubs become the iconic meeting places of our era.

Having previously designed various projects in the city, such as Astana Arena and Astana Media Center, Tabanlioglu Architects are well experienced about the conditions, needs and goals of the city and the citizens.

Astana is in the geographical center of Kazakhstan and having a wide transport and communications network, in interaction with multiple modes of transportation.

The new station is built as part of preparations for EXPO 2017, and will provide services for adjoining areas. The launch of the railway station is timed to June, the opening of the “Expo 2017 Astana”, exhibition under slogan "Future Energy".

Featuring a 45,000ft² mixed-use terminal building, a 70,000m² car park, and an enclosed space of roughly 130,000m², including a metal-covered, 2,550m-long railway platform, and with a capacity of more than 35,000 passengers per day, the new station, completed in July 2017, will significantly relieve the load from the existing station of Astana, which welcomes up to 18,000 passengers per day.

Apart from its functional features, 11 times larger than the existing one, the Astana Train Station is designed specifically for Astana City to be a symbolic building that reflects the modern and contemporary aspects of the new capital of Kazakhstan. Emerging from the vast landscape of Astana, located on the main axis, it connects the city to the other cities of Kazakhstan, and creates a symbolic link between people and country.

The design introduces innovative solutions adopting high technology principles for operational management, interaction with the environment and especially with harsh climatic conditions of the geography.

Articulating the urban space, the structure of the roof is considered as a major element in building the space. The monolithic roof system is an integral part of the structure of the station. The roof formed of three continuous plates, which run from one end to the other, as wavy lines with intervals between them.The main bearing construction of the light-weight roof is steel; the design refined to optimize strength and stiffness, and provides an economical yet durable configuration with good resistance against weather conditions. The openings are glass covered only above the main station building, Cantilevered roof structure create a spectacular effect while granting a long protective, but still open-air waiting zone, extending to both ends.

The curved form peaked over the main the area provides eligible conditions for the travellers while waiting for their train. Visitors enter a high atrium surrounded with 3 terraced floors housing security points, ticket offices, leisure areas, food courts, duty free shops and office units. The building is accessible by car, to the drop off in the very middle, at the platform level and by the pedestrians.

Allowing trains to arrive inside the building, six covered overpasses built into the station. The multi-layered center provides easy access during transfers especially when exchanging from one system to other. The underground passage enables smooth access to the metro station. Above the link, there is an urban park.

The contemporary transit hubs are central passages as they are places for people to spend time besides their travel purposes. Transit investments should be made to shape balanced mixed-use development extending along radial corridors; the new train station promotes a positive change starting from the close vicinity as the synergetic effects of transportation investments are highly upgrading for the regions that become a part of the network. In parallel to spatial considerations, the attractiveness of the transfer point extends to a larger environment. The public realm, because of its anticipated intensive usage, is highly legible, robust and sustainable.

The train station is conceived as the continuity of the railway which makes a distinctive impression; it constitutes an urban landscape and become a new scene in Astana’s nature and contemporary architecture.