The many faces of Baku

Discussions of the age-old question as to whether the Caspian Sea is a lake or an inland sea have prompted the humorous retort that it is in fact an oil well. Although the black gold has brought affluence to all the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea, the largest deposits are in Azerbaijan. The resultant wealth is particularly evident in the capital Baku, home to a quarter of the country’s entire population of just over nine million. In the grip of building fever, the city has changed its appearance several times over the past two decades. Following the model of Dubai, Baku is today a kind of open-air construction site with numerous large-scale projects either under way or scheduled to be carried through over the next twenty years. The three «Flame Towers», with profiles inspired by the tongues of fire that in certain areas rise from the ground due to spontaneous combustion of natural gas, were recently completed. The proposed Azerbaijan Tower, a project for a supertall skyscraper commissioned from Avesta Concern, will rise to a height of 1,050 metres with 186 floors. It is to be the centrepiece of the Khazar Islands, a $100 billion development on the Caspian Sea consisting of fifty artificial islands connected by bridges and equipped with facilities meeting the needs of a population of a million residents (including 150 schools, 5 universities and 50 hospitals). And the White City project, consisting of ten new residential districts intended to revive the infamous Black City area used in the past for processing crude oil, is currently in progress. These three projects testify to a booming economy that is attracting plenty of foreign investment and offers excellent market opportunities for Italian manufacturers. Dövlət Bayrağı Meydanı, the symbolic new National Flag Square, was opened in 2010 as part of the enormous Baku Boulevard project, Baku’s seafront promenade which was recently extended from three to six kilometres and when completed will run for 26 km. At the centre of the sixty hectare square stands a monument housing a museum, from the top of which (31,000 square metres) extends the flagpole. The flagpole project took Trident Support two years of study, partly owing to its unique dimensions (height of 162 metres; diameter of 3.2 metres at the base and 1.09 metres at the top) and partly due to the stress that Baku’s strong winds would place on a 2,450 square metre flag weighing 350 kilograms. The square was paved with porcelain tiles from Lea Ceramiche’s Rain Forest collection in the colours Earth and Sand, the colours of Azerbaijan’s largely barren and rocky landscape. The same tiles were laid in the adjacent area accommodating Baku Crystal Hall, a multifunctional structure for 25,000 spectators built in just eight months. To meet such a tight schedule, the complex work was divided into three main elements (a modular stadium, a separate internal roof and an external façade) that were designed in parallel, prefabricated and then assembled on-site.