The XV Venice Biennale will open very soon with its declared bright social theme, which has become especially relevant in connection with the current political and economic situation in the world, when the issues of affordable housing, social infrastructure, accommodation of refugees, etc. begin to prevail over "high architecture". At first glance, this provides a unique opportunity for poor, developing countries, facing more acute social problems, to present themselves to the world of modern architecture. In this context, it is interesting to consider the experience of Armenia - a country whose geographical and political location is best characterized by the concept of border, mentioned by the curator of the Venice Biennale Alejandro Aravena.
It is paradoxical that, despite the social tasks facing Armenia, the collapse of the USSR did not contribute to the development of social architecture in the country. In Armenia, as in many countries of the former Soviet Union, the definition of social architecture as such has not yet been formed, and the architectural community as a whole does not have a clear idea of its boundaries. Such architecture is often associated with typical construction of late Soviet times. Therefore, it is not surprising that work on social projects (with the exception of a small number of completed projects) is most often not perceived as a prestigious practice, but, on the contrary, in the minds of many it remains a faceless construction process. This implies an understandable desire of post-Soviet Armenian architecture to overcome the framework of typical construction by enhancing the aspects of individuality, self-identification and, in part, the desire for luxury.
At the same time, the social tasks that remained intact and accumulated over many years were relegated to the background. From the moment the society was left alone with these problems, it independently solved the problems that were previously under the jurisdiction of the state. The role of the latter in solving these social problems is often limited to the creation, maintenance and repair of infrastructure facilities that are banal from an architectural point of view. This is evident in the disaster zone restoration program (cities and settlements destroyed by the Spitak earthquake in 1988), which was the most pressing task facing the country. Its implementation lasted for many years and was divided into several stages. The first stage of restoration fell on the Soviet period, then many projects within the program were implemented with the participation of other Soviet republics. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in addition to state funding, a certain share of the restoration work was carried out at the expense of private donors; the program was carried out until recently.
Naturally, the primary goal of this program was the rapid provision of housing to the population, and in such a situation, issues of architectural style were not at all of primary importance. Therefore, the new districts did not stand out with interesting architectural solutions.
The main thing that distinguishes them from the late Soviet typical houses is the low-rise and rejection of the aesthetics of panel construction in favor of the traditional image, which also had purely psychological reasons. The structural differences of these buildings are associated with higher requirements for seismic resistance. Within the framework of the rehabilitation program, it is also interesting to note several social facilities implemented with the support of foreign countries - such as an Austrian hospital, an Italian clinic, a British school, etc.
However, despite all the natural difficulties in the formation and development of social architecture in Armenia, in recent years, socially significant projects have appeared that break the usual stereotypes and can stand in one row, and, perhaps, in their quality even surpass many notable administrative and residential projects. buildings built in the country in the post-Soviet era.
In 2016, the building of the medical center (Armenak and Anna Tadevossian's medical center) in the village of Kosh (Aragatsotn region, north-west of Yerevan), built back in 2012, was presented in the nomination "Best building of the year" award of the Ministry of Urban Development. The project was carried out by Palimpsest Architects bureau: architects Albert Achemyan and Armen Minassyan.
The building was built on the initiative and at the expense of Razmik Tadevossian, an Armenian businessman from London, who wished to build a modern hospital in Armenia and name it after his parents. The history of this center is interesting in that Tadevosyan did not choose a place for this building. The site for construction was determined by the architects themselves based on the results of their research. The reason for their choice was the lack of good hospitals in the region, so it was important that the new project would provide access to quality medical care to as many of the population as possible. The place for the center was the village of Kosh, which is located near the state highway Yerevan - Gyumri. This village is known primarily for the correctional colony that exists there, and the fact that a modern-level social object has appeared in this unfavorable place is more than remarkable. Before the construction of the new center, only a dilapidated polyclinic existed in Kosha.
Since the project had no territorial restrictions, the architects made their building one-story.
The building has an L-shaped plan.
The entrance lobby is located on the left side. The administrative area is located on the right side of the building, in the shape of a semicircle with its own separate entrance.
Although they did not need to save land, the authors of the project strove for a compact planning structure. In this regard, the cells consisting of a doctor's office, a nurse's room and an examination room were implemented not in the generally accepted module - 7.2 meters, but in a smaller one: 4.8 m and 3.6 m. It is interesting that, in contrast to the small size cells, the corridors of the center are made relatively wide. This decision takes into account the context - local traditions: in rural areas, it is customary to see off the doctor and visit patients in the hospital with the whole family, therefore, for the sake of comfort and hygiene of the many people waiting for the patient, the corridors were expanded.
According to the authors of the project, their main goal was to give any person, regardless of their place of residence and social status, access to full and comfortable medical care.
The rational, restrained style of the building gives priority to the quality and comfort of the functional component. But, at the same time, the architects tried to move away from the well-known dreary image of hospitals and clinics, trying to give their building the most open, positive look, which was reflected primarily in the widespread use of glazing in the entrance part.
This theme continues inside the building. There is a natural lawn in the lobby, and skylights are installed along the entire length of the corridors.
The applied technological and constructive solutions hardly correspond to world standards, but for the Armenian construction market these are not so common methods. In particular, load-bearing walls are made of lightweight panels (polystyrene, on both sides - a metal mesh on which facing tuff is attached with mortar), which undoubtedly work more efficiently in seismic zones, compared to traditional wall structures, where the load-bearing function is assigned to tuff. …
The building has a system for treating 95% of the used water, and separate waste collection is also provided.
Working on social infrastructure, the bureau did not limit itself to the project of a medical center; a year later, they reconstructed a kindergarten in the same village.
* * *
The Koshe Medical Center is not the first time that the struggle for the quality of life in Armenia is being waged outside its borders. Thanks to the consolidation of the forces of the diaspora, social infrastructure facilities of an absolutely new level are being built in the country, different from those of the Soviet era. Cases of the appearance of such buildings in the country are not isolated, in each region they affect the lives of people, but so far they are too few in the whole of Armenia to talk about cardinal shifts in the quality of social infrastructure.
