The Golden Quarter of Almaty is a grid of colourfully plastered Stalin-era buildings, alleys and parks which has a distinctly European feel. We were asked to carry out a feasibility study for a whole city block within the neighbourhood, exploring how its owners could take full advantage of its central location – and the long-term plans of the city authorities. The site has a number of challenging physical constraints: it sits on a seismic fault line and is home to a ventilation duct from the city metro system. Our study included a commercial analysis and tested various approaches to its development to establish the optimum massing, phasing and mix.