Tag: almaty | ArchDaily

JER café at Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture / NAAW

Miwa Negoro — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +0000

As part of the transformation of Almaty's former Soviet-era Tselinny cinema into the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Art, led by Asif Khan Studio, NAAW was commissioned to develop the interior concept and design for the JER café located within the building.

TAL family restaurant / NAAW

Miwa Negoro — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Located next to a mosque in Almaty, TAL has long been known as a place for family gatherings, memorial meals, and large communal dinners. The renovation sought to rethink the space without severing its connection to the past — preserving its familiar atmosphere while introducing a calmer, more contemporary, and architecturally cohesive identity. From the outset, the project aimed to avoid literal stylization or overtly decorative references to national motifs. Instead, the design is shaped through materials, light, proportions, and spatial rituals. The interior draws from the culture of shared dining and everyday family traditions, translating them into a contemporary architectural language.

Malli Showroom / UP2DATE architects

Miwa Negoro — Fri, 22 May 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Malli, a womenswear brand from Almaty, decided it needed a closed showroom in addition to its existing stores – a place where clients would visit only on selected days and strictly by appointment. The space they chose sits next to the brand's production workshop and was far from perfect: industrial, full of exposed services, and not particularly convenient in terms of layout. Precisely this unpromising shell became the starting point for the project. The brief was to transform it into a calm, architectural interior that feels completely unexpected – a place that looks nothing like what a visitor imagines when they arrive at Malli for the first time.

Messa House / UP2DATE architects

Miwa Negoro — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Messa House is a 350-square-metre retail space in Almaty, Kazakhstan, designed as a place to slow down, offering a quieter alternative to typical fast-paced retail environments. It focuses on how a person actually moves through and senses architecture, letting form, proportion, and material quietly shape the atmosphere instead of competing for attention.

SOM Designs Landmark Mixed-Use Tower Complex for the New City of Alatau in Kazakhstan

Antonia Piñeiro — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 05:30:00 +0000

On March 5, 2026, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) revealed images of a new landmark project in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia. The project consists of two towers, the "Iconic Complex," and a master plan for the area, the "Gateway District." The complex is located in Alatau, a new city along the Almaty–Qonaev highway planned to become an international investment hub. A strategic project for the country, the city's master plan extends through 2050, with the first phase of major infrastructure projects scheduled for completion by 2030. Within this context, SOM's design is expected to serve as the city's economic and administrative nucleus, establishing the central business district of Alatau City and setting a benchmark for future investment projects in the area.

7 Unbuilt Masterplans Reimagining Urban Futures Through Ecology and Collective Space

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Urban masterplans remain an exploratory ground for unbuilt speculation, offering insight into how cities might recalibrate mobility, ecology, and collective life in response to accelerating environmental and social pressures. In this Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected projects bring together a range of large-scale proposals that examine urban centers, waterfront districts, infrastructural corridors, and cultural landscapes as spatial frameworks for reconnection and resilience. Rather than treating the masterplan as a rigid blueprint, these projects approach urbanism as an adaptive system shaped by climate, topography, infrastructure, and public space.

Aqqu Central Café / AT interiors

Miwa Negoro — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Aqqu Central Café is an architectural regeneration project that restores a legendary landmark of Almaty from the 1960s. The name Aqqu translates from Kazakh as White Swan, which historically refers to the pair of live swans that lived in the adjacent ponds, making this site a cultural icon for the city. The design is entirely dedicated to restoring the city's visual memory through a modern interpretation of 1960s modernism. The conceptual starting point for the project was a vibrant swan mosaic created by local artist Anastasia Zharko. Its bright palette of blue, yellow, red, and burgundy served as the foundation for every color selection throughout the interior.

London’s Brutalist Heritage and Australia’s New City: This Week’s Review

Reyyan Dogan — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:30:00 +0000

This week's news brings together developments in professional recognition, cultural programming, and large-scale urban strategy, reflecting the multiple scales at which architecture shapes contemporary discourse. As the field anticipates the next Pritzker Architecture Prize announcement, conversations around authorship, civic responsibility, and long-term impact unfold alongside the American Institute of Architects' 2026 Honorary Fellowship appointments, situating individual achievement within broader institutional frameworks. At the same time, updates from Riyadh to London foreground the role of architecture in both enabling new cultural platforms and safeguarding post-war heritage. Complementing these narratives, the reassignment of the 2029 Asian Winter Games and progress on expansive public landscapes highlight how cities are aligning infrastructure delivery, environmental resilience, and territorial planning with long-term economic and social agendas.

Kazakhstan's Almaty Named Host City of the 2029 Asian Winter Games After NEOM's Trojena Withdrawal

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 06:30:00 +0000

On February 5, 2026, Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest metropolis, was officially declared the host city of the 2029 Asian Winter Games. The Host City Contract was signed between the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan during a ceremony in Milan, Italy, one of the host cities of the ongoing Winter Olympics. Established in 1986 in Sapporo, Japan, the Asian Winter Games will mark their tenth edition in 2029 and are held approximately every four years. The announcement follows an earlier decision to postpone the Games, which were originally scheduled to take place in the Trojena ski resort, masterplanned by LAVA and currently under construction as part of the NEOM mega-project in Saudi Arabia.

Narxoz University Business School / AGP Architects

Miwa Negoro — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 22:00:00 +0000

A former 1978 campus building at Narxoz University in Almaty has been transformed into a contemporary Business School that redefines how executive education is experienced in Central Asia, turning a forgotten architectural feature into the driving force of a new institutional identity.

Six Coffee + Wine cafe / NAAW

Miwa Negoro — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:00:00 +0000

As part of our ongoing exploration of Almaty's identity through urban café interiors — following our previously published project Fika (2023) — this new space continues our investigation into the architecture and spirit of the city as both reference and point of departure. In Six Coffee Wine, familiar materials and techniques are reinterpreted in contemporary form through close collaboration with local artisans and artists, reviving their presence through experimentation and spatial storytelling.

Almaty Museum of Arts by Chapman Taylor Opens in Kazakhstan

Reyyan Dogan — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 06:30:00 +0000

The Almaty Museum of Arts has opened in Kazakhstan, establishing a new cultural institution dedicated to contemporary art in Central Asia and internationally. Designed by Chapman Taylor, the museum is located at the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains and encompasses 10,060 square meters. The design draws inspiration from the contrast between the city of Almaty and its mountainous surroundings, a relationship expressed through two interconnecting limestone and aluminium-clad volumes. These are organized around a central, light-filled atrium referred to as the "Art Street," which serves as the primary circulation and gathering space.

Pasta La Vista Bistro / NAAW

Miwa Negoro — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Pasta la Vista is an Italian bistro and the third venue in a growing chain, recently opened in Almaty. Its concept is inspired by the Memphis style, which emerged in the 1980s in Milan. Known for its bold colors and geometric forms, this aesthetic was reinterpreted through local craftsmanship, a contemporary context, and the brand's visual identity.

Kosh Coffee Shop / UP2DATE architects

Hana Abdel — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 23:00:00 +0000

Kosh Coffee is a small project by enthusiasts who love coffee and want to transform their neighborhood. A tiny 18-square-meter coffee shop in Almaty's residential district opened its doors in May. It immediately became a favorite spot for locals who love coffee and appreciate minimalist aesthetics. It is worth noting that residential districts in post-Soviet countries, including Kazakhstan, are residential areas where residents commute daily to the city's business center or industrial district and return home to spend the night (hence the name). These areas have never had particularly developed infrastructure. The development of these districts is usually standard, with the housing stock mostly consisting of typical multi-story panel buildings. The area provided minimal infrastructure to maintain a proper standard of living, but for work and leisure, residents would go to other areas, mainly central ones.

Fika Café / NAAW

Hana Abdel — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 02:00:00 +0000

Introducing our recent project, FIKA, located within the historic TurkSib Railway Workers' House in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The TurkSib Railway Workers' House stands as a significant remnant of the Soviet era, embodying the region's industrial and architectural heritage. Our goal with FIKA was not only to create a distinctive urban space but also to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the building's rich historical layers.

Auyl Restaurant / NAAW + DUNIE

Hana Abdel — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Auyl is an experimental restaurant project in the Medeu mountain district, the outcome of a creative collaboration between architects, artists, artisans, designers, and creative producers. Working together, we have created an immersive space that exists at the intersection of gastronomy and performance. Auyl gives its guests the experience of participating in the process through lighting, sound, atmosphere, textures, and smells. The Auyl restaurant offers signature riffs on the cuisine of Central Asia. The design project is a result of a collaboration of architectural studio NAAW and design studio DUNIE.

Julius Café / NAAW

Bianca Valentina Roșescu — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 18:00:00 +0000

Julius is a small specialty coffee shop in the center of Almaty. The client for the project is ABR Group, which is well known in Kazakhstan for paying great attention to interior design in their projects. The starting point for the Julius Cafe interior concept was a red La Marzocco coffee machine, which the client had purchased long before the project began. We thought building a coffee shop interior was symbolic of the coffee machine. Thus appeared the red door, which reminded us of the iconic Parisian bar Little Red Door and all the other small red accents, including the logo and the identity.

Brutalism in Central Asia: The Eastern Influences that Shaped Soviet Architecture

Andreea Cutieru — Wed, 19 May 2021 07:30:00 +0000

In the second half of the 20th century, Soviet architecture has spread a common aesthetic across highly diverse environments, being an integral part in promoting the totalitarian ideology that disregarded local cultures, envisioning a unified, homogenous society. Nevertheless, in practice, the architecture proved itself susceptible to adaptations and local influences, perhaps nowhere more than in Central Asia. The article looks at the architectural heritage of a geographical area largely excluded from the Western-centric narratives on Soviet Modernism, encouraging a re-reading of a layered and nuanced urban landscape, with images by Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego.