"Вестник МГСУ"

The author discusses the problem of consistency between the existing architectural environment and new architectural planning solutions in the south-western part of the Yerevan city centre.The article is based on the analysis and systematization of spatial planning, architectural, design, historical, and literary sources covering Yerevan and its architecture. Business districts of urban centres are also taken into account.The author analyzes the features of formation and development of the centre of Yerevan and interrelation between planning solutions and concepts at different stages of its master plan development. A detailed analysis of spatial planning solutions applicable to the south-western part of the city center as a territory full of cultural and historical landmarks is provided in the article.This area has the size of dozens of square kilometers, and it is composed of the main urban design dominants, such as the historical nucleus with the ensembles of citywide importance and monuments of the so-called Tamanian period, the Republic square, lake Yerevan, and Paskevich hill.Numerous historical settlements, such as the Urartian fortress, Karmir Blur, Shengavit, Yerevan fortress, old Nork and others are situated here. The area has historical gardens (Dalma, Sardur gardens), beautiful panoramic view sites as the best viewpoints for the visual perception of Ararat mountain, and natural landscapes.The importance of consistency of spatial planning policies of the urban development documentation such as the Master plan of Yerevan is emphasized. The analysis and substantiation of the value of the area is considered. Research-backed proposals are provided in terms of the optimization of architectural planning solutions.

The absence of the methods of urban analysis in the process of urban development of Yerevan is the reason of urban planning activities that tend to decrease the urban value of Yerevan territories. Meanwhile the studies in the sphere of urban planning and urban analysis prove the dependence of the life in the city on its structure and distribution of the functions. The mentioned issue highlights the importance of urban analysis. The paper discusses space syntax, which is one of the initial methods of urban analysis. The basic concept of Space syntax is based on the assumption that urban fabric can be presented and studied as a power graph. The method provides the measures that evaluate the land use, traffic and pedestrian movement, land value and even carbon emissions. The paper discusses also recent attempts of integration of space syntax method into GIS environment. GIS databases provide researchers with vast amount of urban data. Analyses presented in the current paper were performed on the basis of the open street map, which was imported from the GIS environment. With the application of space syntax methods analysis of connectivity, integration choice (betweenness) and depth from the city center were performed to evaluate the structural value of Yerevan streets. Municipal regions of Yerevan were classified by the level of their accessibility and by their distances from the city center on the base of the results of depth measures from the city center. Evaluation of the street network aims to define the most integrated and centrally positioned parts of the city. These areas can be locations for the organization of sub centers of Yerevan in the municipal regions.

The article discusses some features of planning solutions of apartments in the architecture of Yerevan, which are typical to different periods, since the turn of 19-20th centuries to the present day. Housing is the chief determinant of human activity. In the process of societal development the house is the foundation of a family, and the family, on its turn, is the key to the stable state. Nevertheless, the time influences the residential architecture. Societal progress periodically affects the living environment. Therefore, housing formation process never reaches the stage of completion: it is always in an endless process of development. The above mentioned primarily concerns the evolution of the planning structure of the apartment. In this context, the dynamics of evolution of housing in Yerevan has accelerated in the second half of the 19th century. The centuries-generated space-planning system of apartment begins to develop in accordance with the rapid changes of social, urban planning and life processes of the time (extension of industry, formation of new socio-economic relations, rapid growth of population, acceleration of construction processes). The impetuous transformation of the dwelling structure is reflected in the complex process of evolution - starting from the traditional houses and ending with the apartments in high-rise buildings. The research of the problems of the traditional dwelling structure, its transformation in the first apartment buildings and diverse improvements of apartment planning solutions contributes to the definition of the main development stages of the dwelling units during the last century, which are observed in the article. Identification of the characteristics of each stage and the multilateral evaluation of different qualities of spatial-planning arrangement of apartments allow working out proper solutions for dwelling units in the future.

Subject: for many centuries the yard was the social centre of residential development. However, the problems of its spatial organization often do not receive appropriate attention in modern cities. The city of Yerevan, in this sense, is also not an exception, where the new socio-economic conditions that emerged in the early 1990s led to radical changes in the residential development organization. Under this impact, a serious transformation has also been made to the yard space, which is the subject of this study. Research objectives: identification of the main stages of the yard space evolution in the residential building development of Yerevan in the 20th century and the revelation of its characteristic features. Materials and methods: the work is carried out on the basis of observations and published sources by the method of theoretical research, analysis and generalization of the material. Results: the work is composed of the following thematic subdivisions: the yard in the structure of traditional housing (in residential buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries); development of the yard space in the new format of perimeter-quarter development (in the system of perimeter development of streets in the 1920-1950s); problems of yard organization in open compositions of building development (in the new forms of free building development by standardized elements in 1960s); attempts of yard restoration in the systematized compositions of building development (in the process of formation of large complexes of building development in 1970-1980s); loss of the yard space in contemporary conditions (in the residential building development formed since 1990s in the new socio-economic conditions). Conclusions: based on the results of the analysis, classification of the main stages of the yard space organization evolution during the last century is presented. This classification must be included in the process of the general study of development of residential architecture of Yerevan in the 20th century.

Subject: The buildings of the residential architecture of Yerevan of the 20th century make up not only a significant part of the city's housing stock but they are also the main components of the city’s image. Consequently, the study of architecture of these structures is important for solving the problems of city-building both in the present and in the future. In this context, a special place is occupied by residential architecture of the first half of the century one of the main features of which - the multifunctional structure - is the subject of this study. Research objectives: The goal of the study is to identify the features of the multifunctionality factor influence on the architecture of Yerevan's residential buildings of the first half of the 20th century. Materials and methods: The work was carried out on the basis of observations and published sources by the method of theoretical study, analysis and generalization of the material. Results: This work is composed of the following thematic units: the multi-use architecture and housing (i.e., the dwelling in the process of historical development of multi-use architecture); multifunctionality in the structure of the first multi-apartment houses of Yerevan (multi-use structure of apartment-houses of Yerevan in the 19th century); formation of the city’s multifunctional structure and the housing’s architecture (appearance of the city’s functionally integrated structure, formation of perimeter style of city-building, spatial organization of public services and their impact on the architecture of residential buildings of the first half of the 20th century); examples of multi-use residential buildings (some specific examples). Conclusions: The features of residential buildings caused by the multifunctionality of their architecture are identified as a result of the analysis and the key points of the results of the generalizing study are presented. These conclusions should be included in the process of general study of development of the residential architecture of Yerevan in the 20th century.