Central Avenue is a residential complex of 13 buildings being built in Almaty, Kazakhstan. One of the advantages of the new residential complex is in the location: it is located in the upper Almaty, within the nearest proximity to the most popular areas of the city. The Botanical Garden, Square of the Republic, retail malls Esentai & Dostyk are within 10 minutes of drive or 20 minutes of walk. Moreover, the financial heart of the city is just 2 minutes away, making it an attractive quality housing option for the local workers and their families.

Central Avenue’s buildings create an asymmetrical composition, opening new aspects of the building as the person passes-by. The buildings facades also reflect the internal needs of the users, rather than adjusting the spaces to the predefined envelope. Finally, the building continues to the landscape and relates to the wider city.

Historical context: Almaty is a city with rich Soviet history and architecture. Nowadays, architects in Almaty face the critical issue of keeping the city’s unique historical image, which has been developed for the past century by careful consideration of the composition, balance, color, and shape. The Central Avenue residential complex addresses this by reflecting and rethinking the constructivism movement. As a result, the building could keep the city’s authentic look, as well as creating the modern feel. The visual noise is also a big issue in modern cities. Therefore, the residential complex aims to provide simple, clutter-free and harmonical forms to make the Central Avenue feel similar to a calm harbor after a stressful day.

Symbolism: Bright colors were chosen for the facades to reflect the color of the nearby Ili-Alatau mountain peaks. Animal statues were also used to represent the mountain fauna symbolically. Especially, the snow leopard - the symbol of the city.