Astana eyeing residential house with ski-run on roof

A residential house with a skiing slope on the roof could appear in Astana. This unusual project has been already approved by Nursultan Nazarbayev, Tengrinews.kz reports. The author of the project, architect Shokhan Mataybekov said that construction of the slalom-housewill be less expensive than construction of a common mountain ski-run. “It was suggested to construct a ski-run making use of a roof pitch of a residential apartment block. It is worth noting that this is a very cost efficient option because installing an aerial cableway and its systems is very expensive and it usually constitutes the major part of expenses in the ski-run construction. Besides, the cableway has to be expended along the ski trail and furnished with turn around platforms. This is all complicated and expensive. But here we designed it in a different way: skiers will return to the starting point in elevators that would move along an upward spiral. Elevators are much cheaper than aerial ways. For example one elevator would cost $60 000 at most, whereas construction of cableways would require several million dollars," Mataybekov said. Ski trail length will make up 350 meters. It will be 26 meters wide with a 7-20% slope. This is good for nonprofessionals, the architect said. According to Mataybekov, President Nazarbayev liked the idea and he made a relevant arrangement to look into the possibility of implementation of the construction project. The author of the project believes that this miracle residential house could be located somewhere near the Pyramid (The Palace of Peace and Accord).