CITY IN A HILL PROPOSED FOR YEREVAN
Sandy Smith
HULIQ.com
May 7 2010
SC
In many of the world’s cities, hillsides are among the most desirable
addresses – people love the views that come from living on a hill. In
the not-too-distant future, the citizens of Armenia’s capital, Yerevan,
may have the option of living in a hill.
A team of architects from Alabama have designed an eco-friendly
mixed-use project called "Lace Hill" that would turn a plot of land
part way up one of the seven hills that encircle central Yerevan into
an eighth hill, with hotel and apartment terraces woven into the
"hilltop," giving it the appearance of Armenian lace knitting. The
"hillside" is to be covered with native vegetation; inside the hill,
openings and voids allow natural light to flood the interior. Ponds
in the voids would serve as giant evaporative coolers, furnishing
cool air for the semi-arid city of Yerevan in the summer.
The project is designed to take advantage of nature at every turn.
Exterior and interior plantings will be irrigated by recycled gray
water from the development; geothermal wells and radiant floors will
provide heating and cooling for the interior spaces. The lace-like
openings in the hillsides provide plenty of natural light while shading
the window walls within from the most intense rays from the sun. Living
spaces are arrayed along the hill’s south face, which faces the city;
thus the apartments and hotel rooms will receive lots of direct
sunlight and have spectacular views. Offices, which need neither,
will be located along the hill’s north face.
The design by Forrest Fulton Architecture of Birmingham, Ala., is the
winning entry in a design competition sponsored by the site’s owner,
Avangard Motors LLC of Yerevan. Avangard, the exclusive Armenian
distributor of Mercedes-Benz automobiles, announced that the aim of the
competition was to provide a new signature structure for the mostly
low-slung Armenian capital, which occupies a natural amphitheater at
the edge of the plain leading to Mt. Ararat, a national symbol and
a site that figures prominently in the Bible. A modernistic tower
erected in the 1970s, when Armenia was part of the USSR, occupied
the site before its demolition in the 1990s.
Armenia has become a global leader in developing green energy and
promoting green living over the past few years. It leads the way
in using cleaner car fuel throughout the country. A country whose
citizens routinely experienced blackouts for several hours a day
15 years ago now exports energy, largely by betting on wind, solar
and atomic energy. Now Armenia is betting on green eco-tourism. It
is already a popular tourist destination both for summer and winter
travel. Lace Hill in Yerevan is expected to be another drawing card to
lure eco-tourists to the city. This year, Armenia will also unveil the
ambitious The City of The World project at Shanghai Expo 2010. The
proposal envisions a new city in the heart of Yerevan where each
neighborhood will represent the architecture and culture of each
country in the world.
Also visit online: CityofTheWorld.com. More images of the Lace Hill
project in Armenia can be seen here.