ARMENIAN INSTITUTE
ILLUSTRATED LECTURE
ARCHITECTURE OF SOVIET YEREVAN
By Dr Mark Grigorian
Wednesday, 8 September 2010 at 7:30
Armenian House, 25 Cheniston Gardens, W8 6TG
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
Admission: £3; Free for Friends of Armenian Institute
Tonight's illustrated lecture, by the grandson of one of Armenia's great architects, will cover the twentieth century creation of modern Yerevan during the Soviet period. Beginning with Tamanian's vision of a "proper capital" for Armenia and a population of some 15,000 living mainly in clay houses, an ambitious plan was envisioned for a city of 150,000. By 1940, however, Yerevan was already around 300,000 and Tamanian himself did not live to see his own most ambitious projects finalised, such as the general urban plan of the city, the modern Opera House and Khachaturian Concert Hall. The next generation of architects worked mainly under Stalin's regime: Mark Grigorian, Rafael Israelian, Samvel Safarian, Hovannes Markarian created buildings that are the pride of modern Yerevan, including the Matenadaran, Parliament, the Academy of Sciences and others. The post-Stalin generation wished to restore Tamanian’s ideas and create the Yerevan he wanted to see. In fact, they ended up building uniform blocks of flats for the quickly growing population which by 1977 was over one million. This generation created a modern vision of a big Soviet capital. Cascade and the Sports and Concert complex on Tsitsernakaberd, as well as the Genocide monument were created in the seventies and eighties. The next generation is creating the post-Soviet capital for the independent Republic of Armenia.
Wine and snacks to follow the lecture.
Dr. Mark Grigoryan arrived to London in April 2003 after surviving an assassination attempt back in Yerevan. He works for the BBC World Service and broadcasts in Russian to the countries of the former USSR. Before arriving to London he was one of the founders of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute, worked for several publications, including AIM – Armenian International Magazine and Is the author and/or editor of 16 journalism-related books. Grigorian has a PhD in Linguistics.
The Armenian Institute is a London-based registered charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a living experience, through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, exhibits and performances. Its work is supported by friends, patrons and voluntary donations. For more information about the Armenian Institute or to find out about supporting the important work of the Institute, please visit our website at www.armenianinstitute.org.uk, contact us at info@armenianinstitute.org.ukinfo@armenianinstitute.org.uk. or call 020 7978 9104. If you would like your email address to be removed from the list, please send an email with "remove" in the subject heading to
No comments:
Post a Comment