Noah Etnographic District
Executive summary
The Noah Ethnographic District project is a mix-use development, where
leisure, cultural entertainment, educational services, commercial and
agricultural activities integrate and animate a new residential community.
Directly connected with the Dalma Shopping Centre and visually linked
to the Genocide Memorial and some of the most important tourist spots
in Yerevan, the new district becomes a natural extension of a retail
experience, as well as a new destination for visitors and a place for living.
Tradition, context and landscape are key drivers of the Master Plan vision:
a scheme for a new urban district, which inds its roots in the landscape and
inspirations from the ancient and extraordinary tradition of Armenian art,
architecture and culture.
Tradition and local cultures are relected in the functional program,
expressed in the architectural language and in the planning coniguration.
A radial regular pattern deines the hierarchy of the streets, of public and
semipublic spaces; it directs the views, the pedestrian mobility and the
perspectives towards the focus of Mount Ararat and of the central public
space represented by the Tolerance Square.
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Three sectors of the District are designed to relect the diferent Armenian
regions. Traditional art and crafts workshops and showroom of local
products are distributed along the commercial streets, in a combination
and interaction between retail spaces and production activities. One open
square located right in the center, is imagined to be the space for the
community, a symbolic collector of the unity and spirit of the country.
The planning scheme integrates with the context, achieving the maximum
beneit of the steeping orography and the south facing orientation of the
site. A terraced system of volumes connects the Dalma Shopping mall to
the lower part of the site: the residential buildings are oriented towards the
sun to get the maximum daylight and the most spectacular view to Mount
Ararat.
Landscape has a multiple key role in the project: a park crosses the
entire complex creating a physical connection with the natural context
and ofering an extended public green space for residents and visitors.
As part of the experience, the landscape becomes a living feature where
educational, productive and leisure activities could take place.
Residential function is the backbone of the entire Master Plan: Noah
Ethnographic District has the challenge to express the Armenian culture
ofering the market a new, dynamic and active part of the city, where
people could also ind high quality standards of living. Low rise blocks,
townhouses and detached houses are scattered around the district to
activate all the diferent part of the site. Residential units are inspired by
local traditional building types and artisanal construction with semiprivate
internal green courtyards, wooden projected balconies, a combination of
lat and pitched roofs. The use of local stones and materials for the facades,
cobblestone pavement for the streets ofer the opportunity to recreate a
sense of the place and the quiet atmosphere of the Armenian villages,
where quality of life is a precious value.