The Armenian capital is one of the oldest cities in the world, located at an intersection of the old Silk Road that led from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The first general plan of the modern city of Yerevan was drawn in the beginning of the soviet rule of Armenia in the early 20th century, by the neoclassical architect Alexander Tamanian. His ideas for a new urban structure combined the typical ideological symbolism of its time (the city will have the form of hammer and sickle) with radical utopian ideas as the garden city movement. On his path to transform the ancient Yerevan into a modern industrial metropolis many historic buildings were demolished, including churches, mosques, markets and the ancient Persian fortress. Big parts of its pre-soviet past was erased, today only few traces of ancient Yerevan are still visible.
In its modern history, the city has undergone numerous physical changes. Many of these transformations have been motivated by political and ideological changes, different rulers and the Armenian quest for independence. This issue of Fabrikzeitung focuses on the relation between urban structures and ideology, and the differences between utopian concepts and the consequences of its realizations.
The first chapter of this issue consists of a series of photographs by the Swiss artist Sebastian Stadler. He shows a new series of pictures he took in Yerevan during the last two years, a fragemental regard on todays landscape. Additionally he collected Internet pictures of Armenia’s most important national symbol: the biblical mountain Ararat, which overlooks Yerevan.