Guest Column: Architecturally Fashionable Kazakhstan Could Be More So

Sasha Meyer calls for more cutting-edge technology in Kazakhstan's building boom --biomimicry such as that used in an indoor rain forest (right).

Kazakhstan is right to build its urban centers to world standards and seek top architects to design the structures. Astana's use of the latest in materials and technology also makes sense. But its designers should add biomimicry, the building science that copies the environmental adaptations natural to plants and animals.

Last month, Kazakhstan announced plans to invest $20 billion in Aktau, the Caspian port city, to create a second megapolis in the oil-rich country. The Kazakhs employ the world's best architectural designers for such projects, such as Lord Norman Foster and Kisho Kurokawa, a justified expense given the plans involved.

Astana also uses advanced materials and technologies. The Khan Shatyry Entertainment Center for instance uses ETFE, an exceedingly strong and temperature-resistant polymer that DuPont invented for the aerospace industry. Astana Build, an annual construction technology exposition, attracts cutting-edge innovations.

But biomimicry has not been used in these otherwise fancy, expensive buildings, and should be.

The Economist reviews some of the new approaches. The latest innovations mimic biological systems to cool buildings, generate energy and desalinate water. These technologies help reduce costs and environmental impact.

They are not as uncommon as they might sound. A Paris office building controls indoor temperature by regulating the entry of light from outside; the operative technology mimics the iris of the eye. The ventilation system in a Zimbabwe shopping center relies on the same principles as a termite mound.

Two more advanced concepts are being proposed by Grimshaw, an international architectural firm. One is to make seawater drinkable by mimicking camels and a type of beetle. This approach is part of their design of the Las Palmas Water Theater and Botanical Garden in the Canary Islands. The system can provide enough water for a 70,000-square-meter office complex, while decreasing energy use almost ten-fold. Another building there is entirely self-sufficient in its energy needs, supplied through an indoor tropical rainforest that uses solar power and biomass-produced heat.