Leading architects, urbanists and researchers from over 20 countries of the world are taking part in the congress.

At the opening of the congress, Vice Minister of Culture and Sports Aktoty Raimkulova addressed the participants.

“Having a great respect for the art of architects of the world, we always expect new projects with joy, always ready to work for our country to become one of the most beautiful. We hope that the congress will become a platform where the architects of the world will be able to gather and discuss topical issues,” Raimkulova said.

Deputy Akim of Astana Malika Bekturova in her speech explained how the smart system in the city should create comfortable conditions for citizens.

“For the first time we have integrated the congress of architects and the part on smart city to show that in the development of Astana, we reached a new level. This is not just housing construction, today we want to develop energy efficient buildings, materials, advanced technologies to make the house smart. Obviously, the city is growing, but it also needs to be effective. There is a number of questions regarding housing and communal services. Inevitably, the first issue is deterioration. Until everything is renovated, smart solutions will remain ineffective,” the deputy akim noted.

In addition, the results of the contest “Urban Environment: Smart Area,” held from 14 to 16 July, 2018, in the format of startup weekend among young architects and university students, were announced.

For three days the participants of the contest have been looking for solutions in three directions — innovations for an urban area, urbanism and the development of public places, introduction of green technologies. As a space for placing the smart area, Zhastar microdistrict in Astana was chosen.

So, the grand prize went to the team Sredalab who proposed to create winter greenhouse complexes for citizens. The originality of the development is that the greenhouses will be built as glass additions on roofs and facades of buildings, can be heated by means of water mains, solar batteries, wind energy. The incomes from the work of greenhouses, as planned by the authors of the idea, the citizens will be able to spend on improvement of common yard area and purchase of items for children.

The team Nurcelona won the first place. They proposed to create the analogy of AirBnB for parking lots in the city.

The team RainTech, who proposed stable rain removal systems, took the second place.

The third place was taken by the team School of IT technologies. Their solution is to create an IT school for people with reduced capabilities.

Special prize of the akim of Astana was awarded to the team King Wins.

Chairman of the Board of Astana Innovations Olzhas Sartayev noted that the winners will be given the opportunity to implement their ideas as part of the Smart Area Project.

“This is in Zhastar microdistrict. Some technologies in this direction have already been applied in this area. The work continues. Regarding the greenhouse complexes. For the implementation, three or four months are needed. We assessed it and will try to build at least one greenhouse in the micro district this year. Concerning the parking lots project. The priority will be to implement it in the Zhastar micro district. But we will move beyond this district,” Sartayev noted.

In April 2018, the project of smart district was presented, which will be located in the Zhastar (Molodezhny) microdistrict, in the streets of A. Barayev, A. Kravtsov, Zh. Tashenov and T. Hussein in the Baikonyr district. The project attracted 60 million tenge of private investment. Investments went to the installation of smart meters, pedestrian crossing, stopping, as well as automatic heat regulation from the Finnish company.

At the same time, on the first day of the International Congress of Architects, four memorandums of cooperation were signed between Ministry of Healthcare, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population and Astana Innovations, as well as between Astana Innovations and JSC National Agency on Technological Development.

Within the framework of cooperation under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, there are services that can be output to the digital environment. This list of services is defined. Moreover, there is a list of services that can be displayed in mobile applications. There are services on healthcare, which can also be put into mobile applications. To date, a call for a doctor to house and and fixing and appointment are already in the mobile application.

Within the framework of the Congress, an international scientific and practical conference on the theme "Urban Environment: Traditions and Future" was held. The conference was held in the format of the plenary session and 2 panel sessions:

1. New Cities. From Scratch;

2. Social Design. From the Yard to the City.

Also in the days of the Congress, a round table on the topic "Synthesis of Values. Local Identity in a Global Context" was held. In addition, during the Congress, master classes, lectures by successful foreign architects, a dialogue on the topic "Who Creates the Environment?" were held.