Challenges to Residential Quarter Reconstruction: The Case of the Center of Yerevan City

Abstract

This paper examines the key challenges to the reconstruction of residential development in urban areas. It aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the reconstruction processes of residential quarters in Yerevan and in international practices and to identify certain principles that are appropriate for the further development of the process in Yerevan. The paper presents the features of the reconstruction processes that took place in the sphere of a residential development of the city of Yerevan. The study has been conducted on the reconstruction processes of various nature and content of residential quarters in past decades in a number of cities around the world, focusing on the analysis of topics that remain unexplored in the practice of Yerevan city. A comparative analysis of the findings and conclusions made in the framework of this paper allows us to reveal the strengths and weaknesses in the research and design works for the reconstruction of residential quarters in Yerevan already developed, as well as to develop principles for the choice of study directions, analysis methods, systematization and classification objects, which can be applied to local and international research on the given topic and in the design processes.

Podsumowanie procesów redukcji ryzyka sejsmicznego w standardowych budynkach mieszkalnych w Erywaniu: dlaczego nie mamy realnych wyników?

“…The existing residential development in Yerevan, primarily established in the last century and especially during the Soviet period, is categorized into distinct stages corresponding to various objectives [12,[32][33][34]. The classification of the structure of residential buildings is presented in accordance with the evolution of the construction industry, the establishment of a regulatory framework for earthquake-resistant construction, and the characteristics of state policy in the housing sector.…”

Tasks of Ensuring the Operating Life of Standard Housing Blocks Built in Yerevan: Strategy

“…The low level of architectural and artistic solutions of the buildings was caused by the negation of the elements personalizing the image at the design stage, which was related to economic problems. The external changes made by the residents to improve their living conditions, such as the opening of private entrances to the first-floor apartments, the appropriation of the adjacent areas of the buildings, the transformation of balconies and porches, and other individual processes also had a negative impact [7,8].…”

“…The elaboration of the article was based on the separation of certain problems related to the topic and the study of scientific literature on them. The following subjects have been examined: general issues of Armenian architecture in the Soviet years [1,2], peculiarities of residential development in Yerevan in 1950-1960 [3,4], general issues of the development of mass residential architecture in the Republic in 1960-1990 [5], structural and artistic aspects of the architecture of the new residential areas of Yerevan, built in 1960-1970 [6][7][8][9], statistical information (2005 General plan of Yerevan), problems of participatory architecture in the process of modernization of residential buildings [10][11][12], problems of socio-economic and other factors affecting the preservation of social residential buildings, as well as the reorganization of housing [13][14][15][16][17], issues of preservation, reconstruction, resource management and environmental impacts of existing housing stock in different countries [18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

The importance of modernization in the perspective of the city’s housing stock development: Yerevan specifics

“…Modernization in the historical environment of the quarters of the center of Yerevan should first of all be based on the principle of protecting valuable heritage [12]. Today, the development is being supplemented with many tight, outof-scale, enormous structures with eclectic architecture [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. They, as Hassler says for such a case, take advantage of the proximity of the historical sector, but in the short term, since they do not carry any value, and the historical environment is gradually being destroyed [4].…”

“…They are presented in Hakobyan's research, where the discussions, however, are limited to large-panel residential buildings, and that too within the scope of improvements in architectural, layout and artistic solutions [25]. Certain studies on the reconstruction of residential quarters are available in the works of Azatyan, Ohanyan, Mirzoyan, and Igitkhanyan, where the changes in the residential quarters of the center and yard areas in general are discussed [29][30][31]. There are certain references to the problems arising in the Yerevan city structure and residential development in the works of Harutyunyan, Rashidyan, Grigoryan, and Petrosyan [8,9,12,14].…”