Tacky towers

Here we begin our Astana Architecture Odyssey. This place is like something out of SimCity, with buildings appearing almost instantly one by one. It's not just boring apartment blocks; there are endless shopping malls (see MEGA center! and others to come), and a flotilla of fantastic architecture floating on this former swamp: some of it is actually really good, some is reasonable, and some is fantastically terrible. As a whole it is certainly  spectacular.

Bayterek

Tower

We begin with the Bayterek Tower. This 97m piece of tack is supposedly this height because of the year that it was conceived. Now, either it took them about 1900 years to build this thing, in which case it is particularly underwhelming, or they built it about 1900 metres too short. The Bayterek Tower sits at the epicentre of Astana's remarkable rebirth. It represents Kazakhstan's confidence and ambition, both of which are exhilerating to say the least; but the tower is pretty silly. I'm yet to go inside, so will report back when I've had a closer look.

Northern lights: a new wave of archiecture

Pictured on the right is the Northern Lights complex. These eye-catching, wavy towers are  mostly  residential. Tacky? I'll leave you to decide. People who live there report a tacky interior - most perilously the lifts have caused some serious injuries. Nevertheless, they add to Astana's increasingly impressive skyline.

More on Astana archiecture soon!