| GSD 1320: TRACES
Location: Yerevan, Armenia Instructors: Allan Sayegh + Martin Bechthold
The idea for the project began with a presentation by Rouben Galiachian of ancient world maps. The maps demonstrated that the borders of Armenia were once blurred; areas of the Caucas Region were named rather than separated by borders. These maps served as a reminder that borders are human constructs and that the borders of Armenia are radically different today than they were historically. Armenia once stretched from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Today, it is landlocked and the borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey are closed or disputed. To the south a small stretch of the border with Iran is open and to the north there is an open road into Georgia. .
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Currently the River Aras, a historic lifeline of the region, divides Armenia from Turkey and places the ancient mountains of Ararat and Aragats on opposite sides of the border. The river feeds a number of tributaries including the River Hrazdan which divides the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial site from the downtown of Yerevan, Armenia's captial. The city of Yerevan is defined by Alexander Tamanian's oval master plan, bounding the downtown with parks - except to the north where the Cascade breaks the ring and extends outward. Because of this configuration the memorial is most often accessed by driving across the river to the west, parking, and descending from the Soviet Era sport complex to the Memorial, turning around and returning on the same ceremonial path.
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I am proposing to extend the path through the site thereby re-centering the Memorial and blurring the boundary of the master plan ring by extending the Fountain Park into the Genocide Memorial park. Therefore, the site for the new Genocide Museum emerges at the resulting intersection on the river front. This location allows the Museum to function as a fragment of the city and as an object within the park - framed both by the memorial and its associated past and the city and its associated future. Additionally, the landscape and building simultaneously act as destinations. Visitors can come to the landscape and monument or to the museum. A palette of Armenian flora and fauna is used to embed this new path in the landscape and to revive and rebuild the steep topography.
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At the points where this landscape and museum path intersect projections flatten the walls of the museum into a single plane blurring the boundary between landscape and building. This condition allows the projections to spill into the landscape and the shadows of passerby to layer with the frame of the window, projection, landscape, and view. By collapsing these layers onto a single sheet of framed glass the windows of the museum serve as points of blurred boundaries: internal and external, past and present, static and dynamic, artificial and real. |
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