Recovering Spatial Syntax
master planning concept, Armenia
Year 2024 | a winning entry for the Concept competitionINFO
Preserving a historic neighborhood requires uncovering and restoring its spatial structure, not merely repairing its outward appearance. In Kond, that structure has broken down: disjointed urban patterns and fractured public spaces distort the district's symbolic order and disrupt daily movement. At the same time, failing infrastructure and economic isolation leave Kond vulnerable to gentrification, threatening the social form and cultural diversity that define it.
Two inscriptions on the facade of the Church of Saint John the Baptist illustrate how this “spatial syntax” operates. To a modern reader, the first inscription appears illegible because ancient Armenian script lacked spaces between words, requiring the reader to supply the gaps as they read. Unlocking this dedication requires only a grasp of historical orthography. The second inscription, however, demands a broader cultural context. Without familiarity with Christian theology, the phrase remains cryptic.
POINT-1
“By the will of God, the church was built by Melik Aghamalyan in memory of his parents, Melik Tsatur and Khanbekun, and his sons, Melik Nazin, Tsatur, Isahak, and Aghavel.”
“Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews, Sign of the Victorious Lord for the Salvation of the Sons of People.”
Literal syntax alone rarely yields complete understanding. Just as shared religious texts diverged into distinct traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—without a unifying framework, an urban environment cannot be decoded by merely reading its surface elements. Syntax must be approached spatially, moving beyond mechanical decoding to conceptual comprehension.
Viewed through this lens, Kond forms an urban sentence inscribed across Yerevan’s historical landscape. Its architectural "words"—spanning Christian heritage, Islamic traces, and outbursts of modern capital—occupy overlapping historical strata. To read this environment as a coherent text, spatial syntax must reveal the underlying structural logic that binds these disparate fragments together.
Today, this urban sentence exists in a state of severe disjunction, severed into two spatial islands: the historic enclave of Saint John the Baptist Church and the residential sector along Paronyan, Leo, and Saryan streets. Intersected by a service corridor for the Dvin Hotel complex, commercial high-rises physically conceal the church, subordinating a core monument of Armenian identity to market logic. Compounding this external fracture is an aggressive internal territorialization: over two decades, private property logic operated like a viral force, erecting high boundary walls that turn individual properties into disconnected "letters" and reduce inhabitants to tourists in their own district. Historical cartography reveals a radically different morphology—Banov’s 1808 and Stotsky’s 1856 maps depict a porous urban fabric where low stone walls defined an undefined commons, akin to Giambattista Nolli's fluid plan of Rome.
Analyzed through spatial syntax, Kond’s structural meaning has been rendered inarticulate by this double condition of external isolation and internal enclosure. Resolving this crisis requires adapting classical object-restoration taxonomy—distinguishing between strict preservation, functional remediation, and radical reconfiguration. While irreplaceable monuments act as fixed semantic anchors requiring strict conservation, an entire historic district can neither be frozen as a museum artifact nor razed for tabula rasa redevelopment. Rebuilding Kond’s spatial syntax instead demands a hybrid methodology that combines conceptual reasoning with vernacular urbanism. By revising property line materiality and opening boundary protocols, this intervention restores structural porosity, allowing spontaneous communal spaces to re-emerge while treating the district's layered morphology as a living, legible text.
POINT-2
1. Structural Red Lines: Roman Servitude, (an-archic) Equality, and Haptic Urbanism
The intervention establishes two foundational red lines. The first defines the precise outline of Kond’s historical streets and pedestrian interior. Rejecting picturesque surface charm, the project values this morphology as an anthropological form—an emergent Deleuzian an-archic structure rooted in the self-regulation of the undefined commons. Akin to and unlike Roman servitude laws governing property alignment and sightlines, this form regulates the boundary between private property and public thoroughfares through historical process, making this structural logic the primary mandate for preservation. The second red line privileges haptic perception over visual representation in narrow alleys. Inspired by Sarlat-la-Canéda’s pre-modernist streetscapes, pavements and roofs are restored with local stone to preserve layered historical transformations without historicist simulation.
The intervention establishes two foundational red lines. The first defines the precise outline of Kond’s historical streets and pedestrian interior. Rejecting picturesque surface charm, the project values this morphology as an anthropological form—an emergent Deleuzian an-archic structure rooted in the self-regulation of the undefined commons. Akin to and unlike Roman servitude laws governing property alignment and sightlines, this form regulates the boundary between private property and public thoroughfares through historical process, making this structural logic the primary mandate for preservation. The second red line privileges haptic perception over visual representation in narrow alleys. Inspired by Sarlat-la-Canéda’s pre-modernist streetscapes, pavements and roofs are restored with local stone to preserve layered historical transformations without historicist simulation.
2. Syntactic Anchors: Spatial Legibility, Programmatic Theatricality, and Historical Traces
Saint John the Baptist Church is re-established as the central semantic anchor of the urban sentence, providing navigational clarity and spatial legibility across the district. Clearing two dilapidated structures directly in front of the church opens visual axes from Byuzand, Saryan, and Mashtots streets, while their outlines are preserved on the park surface as historical traces.
Saint John the Baptist Church is re-established as the central semantic anchor of the urban sentence, providing navigational clarity and spatial legibility across the district. Clearing two dilapidated structures directly in front of the church opens visual axes from Byuzand, Saryan, and Mashtots streets, while their outlines are preserved on the park surface as historical traces.
To bridge the fault line between Kond’s two isolated islands, a pedestrian overpass (maintaining a 4.75–5m clearance for transit standards) and park mall connect the Arshil Gorky Craft District to an Armenian Farmers' Market. Temporary pavilions along this mall establish interrelated, bordering programmatic conditions.
Both zones leverage spatial "theatricality"—the public performance of market vendors shouting wares and stone carvers working in open pavilions—to invite isolated social strata into shared civic life.
3. Typeform Architectural Syntax: Transparency Gradients
New physical interventions reject rigid prototypes in favor of flexible urban typeforms. While prototypes immutably bind form to function and impose existing scales—causing rapid obsolescence across technological, architectural, and urban scales—typeforms adapt across scales and encourage looser functional connections. At the architectural scale, spatial syntax is applied using thin, curved partitions that slice through reconfigured vernacular structures. These partitions introduce new pedestrian footpaths, generate internal courtyards, and link disconnected buildings into unified cultural complexes (such as exhibition halls inspired by the Mirzoyan Library). The partitions follow a material transparency gradient, ranging from fully transparent glass walkways in front of historical monuments to opaque composite surfaces elsewhere.
New physical interventions reject rigid prototypes in favor of flexible urban typeforms. While prototypes immutably bind form to function and impose existing scales—causing rapid obsolescence across technological, architectural, and urban scales—typeforms adapt across scales and encourage looser functional connections. At the architectural scale, spatial syntax is applied using thin, curved partitions that slice through reconfigured vernacular structures. These partitions introduce new pedestrian footpaths, generate internal courtyards, and link disconnected buildings into unified cultural complexes (such as exhibition halls inspired by the Mirzoyan Library). The partitions follow a material transparency gradient, ranging from fully transparent glass walkways in front of historical monuments to opaque composite surfaces elsewhere.
4. Algorithmic Cascade: Topological Optimization, Typeform Geometry, and Transit Porosity
Connecting Kond to Yerevan’s central core at Saryan and Leo streets, a new cascade complex forms a visually expansive entrance square featuring stepped platforms and an artificial waterfall. Its pedestrian trajectory was calculated using the Galapagos genetic optimization algorithm, evaluating over 1,000 iterations against the site’s geometric surface topology using the equation:
path_variant = slope_max × (1 × slope_ave) × (100 × path_len)
Connecting Kond to Yerevan’s central core at Saryan and Leo streets, a new cascade complex forms a visually expansive entrance square featuring stepped platforms and an artificial waterfall. Its pedestrian trajectory was calculated using the Galapagos genetic optimization algorithm, evaluating over 1,000 iterations against the site’s geometric surface topology using the equation:
path_variant = slope_max × (1 × slope_ave) × (100 × path_len)
This produces an ergonomic path matching the slope of Yerevan’s historic Cascade, but punctuated by 27-meter stair flights and 4 intermediate platforms. Adjacent multi-functional complexes mirror Kond’s topologic typeform, following the terrain in rhythmic angles to form an entry portal leading toward the partially preserved mosque junction and Simeon Yerevantsi Street. Minimal infrastructure extensions—including a 200-meter transit loop with a 13.3-meter turning radius and a subterranean parking hub—enhance porosity while leaving historical street geometries intact.
5. Conservation Hierarchy: Remediation and the Open Urban Sentence
Existing historical facades and street surfaces undergo "remediation," using local cobblestone techniques that increase rainwater porosity while preserving the material traces of time. Modern high-rise boundary walls along Rustaveli Street are removed to dismantle hyper-territorial enclosures. The project establishes a clear hierarchy of conservation values: it prioritizes the spatial structure of the entire urban "sentence" (the internal commons) over isolated, repetitive vernacular "letters." Minimal, targeted removals eliminate ruined, non-historical structures under equitable compensation frameworks, placing Kond on a path of self-sustaining economic regeneration. Crucially, the design deliberately refrains from fully completing Kond, preserving the district as an open, living text for ongoing professional reading, analysis, and imagination.
Existing historical facades and street surfaces undergo "remediation," using local cobblestone techniques that increase rainwater porosity while preserving the material traces of time. Modern high-rise boundary walls along Rustaveli Street are removed to dismantle hyper-territorial enclosures. The project establishes a clear hierarchy of conservation values: it prioritizes the spatial structure of the entire urban "sentence" (the internal commons) over isolated, repetitive vernacular "letters." Minimal, targeted removals eliminate ruined, non-historical structures under equitable compensation frameworks, placing Kond on a path of self-sustaining economic regeneration. Crucially, the design deliberately refrains from fully completing Kond, preserving the district as an open, living text for ongoing professional reading, analysis, and imagination.
POINT-3
1. Dual Investment Paradigms: Core vs. Opportunity Architecture
The financial structure replaces Yerevan’s conventional speculative point-investment model with a hybrid architecture balancing two paradigms:
Core Investment Paradigm (Zones 1 & 2): Targeted at major private developers, high-density residential and multi-storey parking interventions are offered on the explicit precondition that developers fund adjacent civic infrastructure.
Opportunity Investment Paradigm (Zone 3): Applied to the sensitive enclave surrounding Saint John the Baptist Church, the craft district, and the farmers' market, this model mirrors precedents like New York’s High Line, where infrastructure creation elevates the long-term value of the broader urban environment. Pitching Zone 3 to institutional partners—such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) or developer consortia—diversifies district ownership, prevents hyper-commercialization, and preserves the historical spatial scale of the church.
The financial structure replaces Yerevan’s conventional speculative point-investment model with a hybrid architecture balancing two paradigms:
Core Investment Paradigm (Zones 1 & 2): Targeted at major private developers, high-density residential and multi-storey parking interventions are offered on the explicit precondition that developers fund adjacent civic infrastructure.
Opportunity Investment Paradigm (Zone 3): Applied to the sensitive enclave surrounding Saint John the Baptist Church, the craft district, and the farmers' market, this model mirrors precedents like New York’s High Line, where infrastructure creation elevates the long-term value of the broader urban environment. Pitching Zone 3 to institutional partners—such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) or developer consortia—diversifies district ownership, prevents hyper-commercialization, and preserves the historical spatial scale of the church.
2. Tripartite Governance & Cross-Subsidization Mechanics
To safeguard public interest and prevent speculative displacement, management operates through structured legal frameworks:
Competence-Based Tenders: Developer contracts are awarded based on technical capability and professional capacity rather than lowest-price bidding.
Tripartite Contracts: Legal agreements bind private developers, the Urban Development Committee, and local property owners. Demolished structures are compensated at future apartment sales parity or negotiated market rates.
Mandatory Cross-Subsidization: High-density construction rights legally obligate the developer to fund the facade "remediation" of adjacent vernacular houses and the strict preservation of designated historic monuments.
Municipal Retention: Land within the opportunity zone remains city property (or operates under long-term municipal leases), with the Urban Development Committee acting as contract guarantor and the designer overseeing technical quality control.
To safeguard public interest and prevent speculative displacement, management operates through structured legal frameworks:
Competence-Based Tenders: Developer contracts are awarded based on technical capability and professional capacity rather than lowest-price bidding.
Tripartite Contracts: Legal agreements bind private developers, the Urban Development Committee, and local property owners. Demolished structures are compensated at future apartment sales parity or negotiated market rates.
Mandatory Cross-Subsidization: High-density construction rights legally obligate the developer to fund the facade "remediation" of adjacent vernacular houses and the strict preservation of designated historic monuments.
Municipal Retention: Land within the opportunity zone remains city property (or operates under long-term municipal leases), with the Urban Development Committee acting as contract guarantor and the designer overseeing technical quality control.
3. Parametric Calculations, Financial Yields, and Reinvestment Loops
Financial viability was calculated using a parametric model measuring exact site volumes, surface areas, and demolition/construction indices:
Financial viability was calculated using a parametric model measuring exact site volumes, surface areas, and demolition/construction indices:
Opportunity Investment Reinvestment Fund: Commercial lease spaces under the pedestrian overpass generate 20.6 million AMD per month. Rather than entering private hands, this revenue creates a dedicated municipal fund for ongoing infrastructure maintenance, public park upkeep, and continuous historic restoration.
Core Investment Yields: Factoring in the construction of the cascade complex, retaining walls, prefabricated infrastructure, street repairs, and facade remediation, the core zone generates an estimated investor net profit of 6.2 billion AMD from property sales. Additionally, investors retain a new commercial asset producing 73.5 million AMD per month in lease revenue.
Closing Syntax: Narrative Conservation and the Open Sentence
How can an intervention engage the past without transforming the urban fabric into a static museum? The recovery of Kond’s spatial syntax resolves this dilemma by rejecting two dominant, yet flawed, preservation paradigms: simulation and façadism.
Simulation constructs a synthetic, "authentic" past that reduces living environments to artificial cultural pavilions. Façadism operates through selective erasure—reproducing historical facades while sanitizing socio-spatial complexities to engineer commercial homogeneity and spatial half-truths.
In contrast, this project locates Kond’s value not in picturesque nostalgia or surface charm, but in its autonomous anthropological form—an an-archic spatial structure rooted in the historical self-regulation of the undefined commons. Preservation here operates through narrative conservation: restoring the built environment by embracing its layered, un-sanitized transformations over time. By repairing the underlying spatial syntax rather than filtering its history, the intervention prevents gentrified erasure and safeguards socio-cultural diversity—ensuring Kond’s "urban sentence" remains an active, legible, and living text.
How can an intervention engage the past without transforming the urban fabric into a static museum? The recovery of Kond’s spatial syntax resolves this dilemma by rejecting two dominant, yet flawed, preservation paradigms: simulation and façadism.
Simulation constructs a synthetic, "authentic" past that reduces living environments to artificial cultural pavilions. Façadism operates through selective erasure—reproducing historical facades while sanitizing socio-spatial complexities to engineer commercial homogeneity and spatial half-truths.
In contrast, this project locates Kond’s value not in picturesque nostalgia or surface charm, but in its autonomous anthropological form—an an-archic spatial structure rooted in the historical self-regulation of the undefined commons. Preservation here operates through narrative conservation: restoring the built environment by embracing its layered, un-sanitized transformations over time. By repairing the underlying spatial syntax rather than filtering its history, the intervention prevents gentrified erasure and safeguards socio-cultural diversity—ensuring Kond’s "urban sentence" remains an active, legible, and living text.