Cover photo:
Giovanni Emilio Galanello
While some participants chose to focus on showcasing the ordinary objects of Yerevan, team Snkh took a different approach. Ashot and Armine Snkhchyan highlighted the problems in contemporary ordinary architecture. Ashot described their piece as a “dystopian view of Yerevan’s future” and this vision could apply to other big cities in developing countries grappling with rampant high-density construction and capitalism.
The objective was to show that modern residential buildings are only constructed with the motive of making a profit from the maximum square meters of construction. The public spaces are being converted into residential buildings with parking blocks.
Ashot noted that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country had many public spaces with courtyards where children would play. Today, those spaces have been replaced by residential buildings. There has been a loss of green areas, walkways and parks, which are replaced by shopping malls.
Their piece showcased an exaggerated, dystopian view of Yerevan, with the ultra-dense fabric of apartments combined in a maze-like structure, with no streets, no doors, no windows, just an endless grid of apartments.
“So that was our view of ordinary architecture, and that is, of course, a nightmare, which we hope we will not get to..,” he said.
“We have to face the problems, we have to talk about the problems and share them with the rest of the world”, Ashot Snkhchyan said.