Reconstruction project for Cond district is again in the process of discussion. For many times this project has been taken out from the archive, pointing at the importance of maintaining tints and historical environment of old Yerevan in Cond. Cond is one of the oldest districts of Yerevan preserved since the 17th century. And the older is the district, the more are the problems, accumulating for decades. Yet there is no comprehensive solution for construction of Cond district on the general plan of Yerevan city. The famous Russian-born Armenian architect Alexander Tamanyan, who prepared the first general plan of Yerevan, did not plan to rebuild Kond at all; he imagined a green zone there, but the hill was left out of the main construction of those years because of its location. In 1984-85 the government seriously considered the construction problem of the district, which is located in the center and at the same time is cut off from the city downtown. Then a tender of architectural design projects for Cond reconstruction had been announced. The winner of the tender was Arshavir Aghekyan’s design project, according to which a residential zone along Saryan, Leo and Paronyan streets was planned with backyard terraces and green roofs. In the middle of Cond hill about 5 ha area was allocated for a public center where the renovated houses would have studios, workshops, craftsmanship workshops, display and sales halls. In northern part of Dvin hotel it was planned to have a tourist center. But the project was not realized because of the Spitak earthquake and following events. Arshavir Aghekyan finds the reconstruction of this district very important, mentioning, “The project aims to create a collective image of folk architecture, based on the medieval spirit of Cond’s spontaneous construction, scale and space planning. This problem is even more urgent in Yerevan, a city with an impressive historical past, but having no real evidence”. Cond has a great potential in the development of tourism by its place and history, providing wide range of interesting ideas. Many famous European cities rebuilt their old historic districts, making them very attractive for tourism development. Cond too must be linked to the city center, making it the active part of capital city's vibrant daily life and taking into account peculiarities of the district and its environment by harmonious reconstruction of the old and the new and the complex solution of residents’ problems. Cond reconstruction negotiations are underway now, and only after that the design phase will start. What will be decided and how it will be implemented is still unknown. Anyway, the problem is urgent, and thousands of Cond inhabitants are waiting for improvement of their living conditions at least during the governance of current authorities. The next article about Cond, we hope, will tell about the implementation phase of the project.

Day after day many residential buildings are being built in Yerevan, which, nevertheless, do not look inhabited, because many people buy new apartments as investment in real estate. Yet, dozens of Armenian families still live in unsafe buildings. Today we will talk about the project implemented by the construction company Nobby Ltd, the representatives of which are trying to solve the abovementioned problem. It is about the construction of residential buildings at 8/1 Arzumanyan street in Ajapnyak administrative district. The residents of the adjacent emergency buildings appealed to Nobby Ltd with a request to provide an apartment in the new building. At what stage are these agreements and under what conditions will these apartments be allocated to them? “With the residents of the emergency building, we came to an agreement about the allocation of apartments in the new residential building. These apartments will be completely renovated and adapted to the needs of residents, the emergency building will be demolished and a park will be built in its place”, told us the representatives of Nobby and added, that the park will be pretty large and convenient. In fact, it is one of the few projects in the area where landscaping is included. The whole project consists of construction of 5 residential buildings (the first one pending and will be finished at the end of 2020). According to the plan, the 12-storey building will have 120 apartments (39 m², 55 m², 58 m² and 76.9 m²), as well as an underground garage and a playground. According to the project, it is planned to build four more buildings: two 16-storey and two 18-storey - a total of 220 apartments and 100 parking spaces.

The design project of craft brewery plant Darget belongs to architectural studio Storaket. That was a very interesting and responsible challenge for the studio to design the first enterprise for the production of craft beer. For these purposes Storaket specialists studied international progressive experience in designing high quality breweries. The customer specified the task: the brewery must have a restaurant and a garden. As a result, the plant was designed and built as a complex of two separate buildings, the plant and the restaurant, which also includes a beer garden. The plant structure is metallic. Steel frames hold wall sandwich panels, the roof, and in some places on the second floor, also the reinforced concrete coating. Both the plant and the restaurant have the second, mezzanine floor. The sizes of the brewery plant are 21х80m (2050 square meters). It is a single-storey building, the height of which does not exceed 9.5 meters. There is a 6-meter mezzanine floor in the plant building, designed for office. The main sizes of the restaurant are 17х32m (760 square meters). It is a single-storey building of the same size as the plant and with mezzanine floor. Darget craft brewery is located on Sevan highway, 9 km away from Yerevan. It occupies 3.500m2 area. Unlike other plants the brewery is not fenced. Anyone who wishes to attend the factory can enter the building. Besides, the facade of the craft beer factory is made of glass, which makes it possible to observe the whole process of beer production. The plant and the resturant are separated from each other by a long and narrow glazed corridor, from where visitors can also watch the process of brewing. The glazed corridor leads to the beer garden and open cafe (685m2). Behind the factory and in front of it there are parking lots.

Recently, the reconstruction works of Hayk square restarted in Vanadzor city, Armenia. The Committee of Territorial Administration approved the reconstruction project of the square at the first stage. Now the project is at the second stage of approval, after which the design works will begin. The author of the project is the chief architect of Vanadzor Suren Abovyan. The square needs a fundamental renovation, since the last time large-scale repairs were carried out here in the late 80s of last century. Besides, with the course of time it became necessary to meet modern standards. Therefore, the aim of the project is to build a square that fits modern standards and to organize the leisure of the people. The area of the square is 1 ha, where it is planned to start the works on placement of small architectural forms and structures, lightening, landscaping and laying the concrete slabs. Since the main square of the third largest city in Armenia is a historical and cultural place, no major architectural changes are foreseen here. The system of the fountains will be completely rebuilt and will meet international standards, in its new style and with more powerful lighting and sound effects. The central part of the square, which is for circular traffic, will be decorated with a stone carpet. It is planned also to replace all the concrete slabs and the stage of the square, plant decorative trees and flowers on Hayk square and Khorenatsi avenue. In the place of the monument to Kirov it is planned to build a clock tower 17m high, which will also be an observation tower. It is important that the construction work in Vanadzor will not be limited to the reconstruction of the Hayk square. A real construction boom is expected here, since in addition to the reconstruction of the square, a series of projects were presented on the improvement and modernization of Artsakh Square, the youth park, the museum of pictorial art and its adjacent park. And that is not the full list of the scheduled works. It is also planned to build and reconstruct sports schools, carry out road recovery works.

"Two new urban blocks will be built in the center of Stepanakert, and the works are at the design stage",- this information we received from the municipality of Stepanakert. The houses will be built in accordance with all modern building requirements. One of the blocks will be located next to Tigran Mets - Alek Manukyan intersection. The author of the project is Russian architect of Armenian origin Maxim Atayants. The area of the urban block will be 3.5 hectares, and according to the project, there will be seven- and nine-storey buildings. The houses will be built using the latest building technologies including anti-seismic rubber bearings for all foundations. It is planned to finish the construction works in 2020. The second urban block with 2.5 hectares area will be located not far from Tumanyan street, near the Officers' district. The design of the block is carried out by the architectural studio "Portal". According to design, there will be five-storey buildings, school and kindergarten. An important advantage of the apartments in these blocks will be relatively affordable prices when using new mortgage lending scheme developed by the Government of Artsakh. The existing housing fund is out-to-date, and yet the demand for new apartments is high. The government is confident that more families will benefit from the new mortgage scheme. The project will be implemented by the Artsakh Investment Fund. For these 2 programs the fund received additional state financial support and in 2019 its budget increased by 1.5 billion AMD (about $3 mln).