Soon the new building of the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies will open its doors in Gyumri. The center will be located in a 150-year-old theater building, which is one of the oldest theaters of Eastern Armenia. During its two-year activity in Gyumri, Tumo already has more than 2,000 students. The implementation of this project will increase the number of students almost twice. The author of the reconstruction is the famous Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury. The building will be three-story with a total area of 2500 sq. meters. As well as the main Tumo Center the new one will include the same four main areas of study: animation, video game development, digital media and web development. The center also will have a laboratory for 3D printing. The project provides two entrances. The main entrance from the eastern facade, located at the lower level of the park, is designed for students. All those areas that are not related to students, such as administration, public areas, the main lobby, is available from the upper street along the western facade. The main goal of the project is to turn the old theater into interactive training platforms with the main collective working area designed as a continuous audience, which during the weekends and vacations will be transformed into alternative theater with 200 seats. The main educational areas located on the ground floor. In addition to training areas, the center will also have a recording Studio, a public cinema where screenings will be organized both for Tumo students and the public, an outdoor terrace for events, as well as transforming platform that will also serve as a stage for the theater. The planned terrace, in turn, creates a link between the building and the park, integrating the exterior into the building volume. The project saves only the eastern and western facades of the building, recovering the existing white plaster. The new approved facades and additions to be performed in bright red color, which will create a contrast with old architectural monument. In addition to the reconstruction of the theater, the project also includes the improvement of the neighboring park.

A 100-meter-tall experimental air purifier has been built in Xi’an, the capital of China’s central Shaanxi province, reported The Inhabitat. The tower, which is being tested by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has noticeably cleaner air over an area of 10 square kilometers since being turned on last year, according to the South China Morning Post. The tower sucks in polluted air and funnels it into greenhouses at the base of the structure. The smog is heated in the greenhouse by solar energy, then rises through the tower, passing through several layers of cleaning filters. The expelled air contains 15 percent less particulate matter than it did before being scrubbed. The greenhouses are powered by solar energy and are able to run in winter as well as summer. Cao Junji, head of research, said, “It barely requires any power input throughout daylight hours. The idea has worked very well in the test run.” Cao and his team are now planning a 500-meter-tall and 200-meter-wide tower, with greenhouses covering 30 square kilometers that would be able to purify air for a small city. Air purifiers have been installed in China before, but only in a symbolic way. Last year a 4-meter-high filter called “CityTree” was tried out in Berlin.

There are stormy discussions among architects in the last year. The reason is the possible investment project of a new cable car in Yerevan. According to the media, the project proposal was presented in April last year by IDeA Foundation Director Edgar Manukyan at a meeting with Deputy Mayor Vahe Nikoyan. Since June, the Yerevanproject CJSC started work on this project and already in October a meeting-discussion was held between the director of Doppelmayr Seilbahnen Valery Yashin and the deputy mayor of Yerevan Vahe Nikoyan. The aim of the project is to create an alternative link between downtown and the administrative districts of the city - Kanaker-Zeytun, Nork-Marash, Nor-Nork, Arabkir or Ajapnyak. Note that the project proposal does not include the restoration of the old ropeway from Heratsi Street to Nork-Marash district. While the issues like project start date, possible investors or the ropeway capacity still under discussion, we’ll try to understand what will mean the implementation of this project for Yerevan. Recall that the cable car of Yerevan, built in 1967, stopped working in 2004 due to tragic accident. Maybe at that time the termination of the ropeway work did not significantly affect the capital’s transport communication system, but today, due to the growth of traffic flows, when traffic jams appears everywhere, this project must be a necessity. The implementation of the project will somehow unload the traffic load in the city, in particular in the downtown. In addition, it can become a starting point for development of tourism-connected businesses in peripheral administrative districts of Yerevan and will create greener environment for the leaving in Yerevan.

A Dutch company has developed technology for 3D printing floors in an endless variety of colors and patterns. Company named «Aectual» uses huge robotic 3D printers to create the framework for its sustainable floors. As a result, these floors can be customized to fit spaces of any shape and size, and can be created in all kinds of designs – from traditional patterns to custom motifs. The process involves printing out the desired pattern using a robot with six degrees of freedom – meaning it can move forwards and backwards, up and down, and left and right, as well as freely between these X, Y and Z axes through rotation. The material they use for printing is a bio plastic made from plants, which is fully recyclable. Once the printing is complete, the framework is transported to its final destination. This mould, which measures just a few centimeters high, is then in filled with a terrazzo made from recycled granite or marble chips, and a bio-based binding agent. After the mixture has set, the final step is to polish it. According to Aectual, the resulting floors are high quality and wear-resistant. Also, thanks to the use of recycled and environmentally friendly materials, the floors are intended to create little or no waste.

The three-wing building of COAF SMART Center was built in the picturesque nature between Debet and Dsegh villages of Lori Province, with funding from the Children of Armenia Foundation (COAF). This impressive structure with its transparent architecture penetrated into a nature is unique for Armenia. The architect is the Lebanese Armenian Paul Kalustian. The COAF SMART Center with floor area 2230 square meters is mainly glazed which is especially important for rural children to be all time connected with nature and always feel freedom. The Center’s goal is to offer alternative education to residents of Lori Province without any age limits. The innovative wing of the training center will consist of robotics room, an art center, a medical education room which will have all the necessary equipment for the first medical aid. The digital library will provide an opportunity to use mainly e-books, although there will also be printed options. The center will also have a computer room teaching coding, programming, graphic design and animation technics. There will also be English language programs for both children and adults. Various educational programs in the field of agriculture and entrepreneurship are planned mainly for adults. There will be a dance and art studios with all necessary equipment and furniture and locker rooms for children on the underground floor. The building meets all requirements of people with disabilities. According to the project, the construction works will continue on adjacent territory, because the final goal is to build the COAFSMART village, which will cover an area more than 80,000 square meters. The village will be a dynamically developing and growing project with many additional facilities for sports, housing and camping. An accommodation for invited experts was also built, but the main staff will be recruited from local region organizing various supporting training courses for them. The construction of the center COAF SMART, which started in 2015, has been fully completed. Now the building is in the phase of furnishing. The official opening of the educational center is planned in May, 2018.