For us the Desert are Buzzling Cities

David Leupold, ZMO

For us the Desert are Buzzling Cities - Early Soviet Yerevan between Armenian Futurism and Post-Persian Retrotopia

Few architects of the 20th century have left as indelible a mark as the neoclassical architect Alexander Tamanyan did in Yerevan. From the late Soviet Cascade to the post-Soviet megaproject Northern Avenue, his legacy has continued to serve as a point of reference.

Roaming through scattered experimental buildings, blueprints hidden in private archives, and surrealist fiction suppressed by Soviet censors, the talk seeks to reconstruct from the debris of history an alternative pathway to imagining the Soviet city. Contesting Tamanyan's Eurocentric vision of the city, the talk recounts the story of those who were torn between anticipation for a communist future and a longing for the city's Persian heritage – which was being razed before their eyes.

Suggested Pre-Read: ‘Building the Internationalist City from Below’: The Role of the Czechoslovak Industrial Cooperative “Interhelpo” in Forging Urbanity in early-Soviet Bishkek published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2020

This is the first of a three part lecture series with UC Berkley’s Armenian Studies Program and The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA. See their pages for details.

The event will be held hybrid. Join via Zoom

The talk will start at 4 pm Michigan Time.