The last thirty years have been the most “architectural” in the history of Ashgabat and other cities of Turkmenistan because the pace of architectural development of this period is simply incomparable with all the previous decades. The buildings erected during the years of neutrality have changed the urban landscape beyond recognition. This is primarily due to the investment capacity of the state, which is capable of making huge investments in capital construction. And since capital cities and their architectural appearance always and everywhere serve as a true barometer of the political and economic well-being of countries and the spiritual culture of the nation, Ashgabat is no exception.
Over the past 30 years, this city has increasingly acquired the features of a megalopolis that attracts people’s attention and sets trends. That is why a conversation about the modern architecture of Turkmenistan is, first of all, a reflection on the nature of development of its capital city. Due to dramatic circumstances, Ashgabat has no monuments of the past. There has been preserved only the basic network of old streets, dating back to the end of the 19th century. There is now little to remind us of the terrible earthquake of 1948 that almost devastated the city. In fact, it was built anew, and those who have not been there for a long time will see a different Ashgabat, transformed beyond recognition. Thanks to the unprecedented efforts of the country’s leadership, it was possible to implement bold ideas of total design. This concept envisages designing all adjacent territories and complexes of facilities rather than individual buildings that are linked into unified stylistic ensembles.
The appearance of iconic facilities in the historic center of Ashgabat, such as the Geokdepe Memorial Mosque, the first presidential palace, the Reception Palace and the Oguz Khan Palace Complex marked a new stage in the development of Turkmenistan’s architecture. On the southern side, the complex of buildings of the presidential quarter is adjoined by the Rukhiyet Congress Palace, the buildings of the Ministry of Defense and the Military Institute, the Adalat Palace of Justice, the Museum of Fine Arts and the State Academy of Arts of Turkmenistan. The main facade of the Cabinet of Ministers faces the ceremonial square from the north, and a green esplanade runs to the south along which the buildings of the Mejlis, the Center for Public Associations, the Printing Center, the Ministry of Textile Industry, the Turkmen Carpet Corporation and the National Museum of Turkmen Carpet, the Military Academy, the Foreign Economic Relations Bank, the high-rise buildings of the Central Bank, the Dayhan Bank, the Ministry of Culture, the Oguzkent Hotel, as well as several rows of high-rise residential buildings of high comfort that were built according to individual projects.
On the eastern side of the government district, there is a student campus with new buildings of the Magtymguly Turkmen State University, the Institute of International Relations and the International University of Humanities and Development, forming a single ensemble.
A new impressive district emerged on the southern outskirts of the capital. It is home to the State Museum of Turkmenistan, the Arch of Neutrality, the government tribune, the Sergi Keshgi Exhibition Palace, the Turkmenbashi and Senagat banks, and the state-owned Arkadag hotel. Along the southern side of Archabil Avenue, high-rise buildings of several ministries and state corporations, a commodity exchange, the Archabil hotel, elite residential condominiums and a large medical cluster have sprung up. Not far from this district, there is a large green area with the Independence Monument. On the opposite side, there is an ensemble of buildings of the country’s largest library and the Palace of Music.
A short list of architectural attractions of the southern part of Ashgabat would be incomplete without mentioning the most extravagant structures, such as the 210-meter-high TV tower in the form of an eight-pointed figure called the Oguzkhan star, the Bagt Keshgi wedding palace shaped like a ball enclosed in a lattice of the same stars, and the 24-story Yyldyz Hotel, the tallest in Turkmenistan.
The latest architecture not only in the Turkmen capital but also in the regional centres is guided by the international experience, influenced by global trends, often with the participation of foreign construction companies, but at the same time it has acquired its own unique features. With all the kinship of the most impressive new buildings of Astana, Baku, Dushanbe, Tashkent with Ashgabat buildings, the latter are distinguished not only by stylistic unity but also by bright, memorable images. They are distinguished not only by the absolute dominance of white marble in the cladding of buildings but also by more regular, symmetrical systems of volumetric masses and facades, characteristic of neoclassicism.
The new city of Arkadag, which has grown in the neighbourhood of the capital city, is no less impressive example of the new vision of the urban space setup. It embodies the model of a regular master plan with a clear gradation of volumes and a well-thought-out system of social infrastructure. During its creation, special attention was paid to the implementation of the “smart city” concept, which is based on the integration of advanced information and communication technologies. It helps to create a single network to ensure the management of public utilities that aims to improve the safety and quality of life of the population.
But let us return to the aesthetics of architecture. The past century marked the end of more than two thousand years in the history of the art of building, when the universal order system created by the ancient Greeks was the essence of architecture. Although there were Egyptians and then Persians before them who also invented their own orders to make more expressive and monumental royal palaces and temples, it was the strict, slender look of Greek temples or imperial forums of ancient Rome that turned out to be understandable and in demand centuries later, on all continents, in the most diverse cultures.
Through Parthia, which deeply absorbed the traditions of Hellenism, the Greek order system penetrated into the territory of present-day Turkmenistan in the second century BC.
The stone bases and terracotta caps of the temple buildings of Old Nisa on the outskirts of Ashgabat are evidence of this. Long before them, during the Achaemenid era, a palace with a columned hall was built at the Kalaligyr ancient settlement, 60 kilometers from Dashoguz, where the capitals were decorated with images of griffins. For many centuries, the Turkmen folk architecture preserved the tradition of making the so-called proto-ionic capitals made of wood that crowned wooden columns of verandas-aiwans and small rural mosques.
And at the end of the 19th century, together with Russian architecture, monumental neoclassicism came to the cities of Transcaspia, which got especially lush development in the middle of the last century. This was the time when solemn monumental architecture based on classical tradition was widely spread in a number of countries, but later the situation changed dramatically.
It was the time of modernism. New building materials and constructions gave rise to unprecedented forms of architectural space. We are not talking so much about buildings constructed from monolithic reinforced concrete or steel skyscrapers, but about the so-called residential areas consisting of identical box-shaped houses. They became the most widespread form of housing in industrial countries. And so, in the early seventies, it became clear that modern architecture was repulsive to people, that it dehumanized the city.
Against this backdrop, postmodernism emerged, attempting to turn the imagination of architects to a dialogue with the historical past. City dwellers were fed up with the facelessness of typical large-panel houses – the most negative manifestation of modernism. So, now we see a return to architectural decor everywhere, to new variations of historical ornamentation, full of symbols. Classicism is understood as an eternal and unshakable value, and it is used today in Turkmen architecture as the most important part of the world cultural heritage.
Regular layout and total prevalence of symmetry embody on the one hand the natural human desire for order, balance, clarity, and on the other hand the rejection of chaos, instability, fog and gloom. That is why the love for neoclassicism is much more popular than the appreciation of the beauty of modernism. Neoclassicism always successfully opposes modernist trends in architecture, especially brutalism and deconstructivism, because the rejection of futuristic design and architectural mutants in general is characteristic of the mass consciousness.
Modernity is inevitably present in new works of architecture, even if they are created in the traditions of neoclassicism or turn to the techniques of Orientalism. Thus, Turkmenistan actively uses the images of medieval cult architecture of the region where it is justified by typology. First of all, these are projects of mosques and cultural institutions: museums, libraries, theatres. They are often crowned with domes and abundantly decorated with ornaments with recognizable national character.
The emergence of a new classical style at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries is associated with the idea of returning to the origins of architecture.
Of course, encouraging classical and traditional projects does not exclude the use of most other styles where appropriate. But the spread of neoclassicism can set benchmarks for the further sustainable development of cities and, more broadly, the human habitat, which makes classicism relevant today and allows us to look for the foundations of the architecture of the future in it.
One way or another, but architecture, remaining an indispensable reflection of the image of each country, carries the signs of its time, symbols of the aspirations of civil society. How can one not recall the American skyscrapers, which became a hallmark of the growing industrial power of the United States and reflected the obvious aspiration of the power to dominate the world? The foreign and domestic policy of Turkmenistan, permeated with the theme of neutrality, tolerance, openness and trust, is directly reflected in the appearance of modern Turkmen cities.
White has always been considered a symbol of purity and openness. Incidentally, this is where the established term “white book” comes from, i.e. a book that does not contain any secrets and is accessible to everyone. The white marble image of the new Ashgabat is akin to the pages of such a “white book”. And the active use of open, well-organized spaces is a direct reference to the theme of the breadth of society’s peaceful aspirations. Classical elements of building decor are perceived as a commitment to traditional national values. And their harmonious combination with elements of modernism is seen as evidence of strict adherence to the principles of tolerance.
Aesthetics cannot be free from the norms by which society lives, because it is itself one of these norms. And true harmony begins where aesthetics and politics form a logical combination.