Khan Shatyr ("Royal Marquee") is a giant transparent tent in Nur Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan. Built in a distinctively neo-futurist style, the architectural project was unveiled by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on December 9, 2006.
Following the construction of the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (opened in 2006), a giant glass pyramid, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center was the second national project in Nur Sultan designed by UK architect Norman Foster (of Foster and Partners), (Partners in Charge Filo Russo and Peter Ridley), and UK engineers Buro Happold led by Mike Cook. Construction documentation architects were Linea and Gultekin. The construction of the tent-city was the responsibility of the Turkish company Sembol.
The ‘khan shatyr entertainment center‘, the world’s tallest tensile structure was designed by foster + partners. The tent-like, cable-net structure is located at the northern end of the new city axis and soars 150 meters from an elliptical base to form the highest peak on the Nur Sultan skyline. The building encloses an area in excess of 100,000 square meters within an ETFE dome, with dramatic views over the city and the Steppes beyond. Contained within it is an urban-scaled park, along with a wide variety of entertainment and leisure facilities, including retail, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, and flexible spaces that can accommodate a varied program of events and exhibitions. The different levels form undulating terraces, the uppermost terrace forming a water park.. The new center hosts a wide variety of entertainment and leisure facilities, retail, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, a water park, and a flexible space to accommodate a number of different events and exhibitions.
To deal with Nur Sultan’s drastically polar climate (-35 degrees Celsius in the winter and +35 in the summer) the tent is made up of a tri-layer ETFE envelope that shelters the interiors while allowing daylight to wash in. to avoid the formation of ice on the inside of the envelope during the winter, a system is in place to monitor the interior temperature while warm air currents are directed up the inner surface of the fabric. During the summer, the vents at the top of the tents can be opened to encourage stack-effect ventilation. Low-level jets can also keep the temperature down by directing cool air across the space.
The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center was officially opened in the presence of President Nazarbayev and heads of state in a grand ceremony, with a performance by the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, timed to coincide with the President’s birthday and Nur Sultan Day. The Center represents a major new civic, cultural and social venue for the people of Nur Sultan, bringing together a wide range of activities within a sheltered climatic envelope that provides a comfortable environment all year round.
