Mega Silk Way shortlisted for 2020 BREEAM Award for sustainability
Mega Silk Way in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, has been shortlisted for a BREEAM Award in the “Rest of the World” (i.e. outside Europe) category for its sustainability features.
BREEAM is the best-known sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings. The annual BREEAM Awards honour the most innovatively sustainable BREEAM-certified buildings of the past 12 months. The awards ceremony will take place on Monday 2 March at the Hilton London Bankside Hotel.
Mega Silk Way is a 60,000m² GLA retail and entertainment project which opened to much acclaim in March 2017. Built within the masterplan for EXPO 2017, the centre includes retail, restaurants, Kazakhstan’s first IMAX cinema, a 400-seat ice rink, children’s entertainment areas and an indoor rollercoaster.
Sustainability features include high energy efficiency (particularly for a development in a region characterised by temperature extremes), steps to optimise water consumption for sanitary and domestic purposes, a rainwater collection system in a 145m3 tank for irrigation of green spaces, extensive glazing for natural light and excellent public transport links. The development targeted BREEAM In-Use certification from the outset.
Mega Silk Way is the major gateway to the EXPO site, which now functions as Kazakhstan’s World Trade Centre, and has acted as a legacy emblem since EXPO’s conclusion. The development is a beautiful public space which is enjoyed by an estimated two million people per month for its variety of attractions, and it has become a landmark symbol of local and national pride.
The shopping centre represents a transformation in retail development thinking – a friendly, enjoyable shopping space, but also a community hub. Retail is important, and thriving, but the scheme centres on providing a local public space and meeting point.
The striking design feels essentially Kazakh – responding to how locals perceive space and what kind of provisions appeal to them, while using works by local creatives to foster a sense of local ownership of the development. The design is sustainable and responsible, befitting a gateway to, and legacy symbol of, EXPO 2017.