Development of an Architectural concept for an
International Business Centre with an Intercontinental hotel in the City of Yerevan
The prominent location and dominating position of competition area represents a
chance for unique rearrangement with its own identity and could become a symbol
and landmark of contemporary architecture in the city of Yerevan. The mixture of programs
and relations inside the program calls for complex organisation – both inside
and outside.

The
shape of the building symbolically represents biblical Mt.Ararat. It takes idea of two terraced
cylindrical towers connected in the ground floor.
Higher
tower is hotel and business centre, lower is occupied with apartments.
Public
program is connecting the towers, here shopping, exhibition and restaurants are
combined with hotel lobby and business entrance.
Parking
is mainly in garage under the ground floor, part of the fast parking and
taxi/bus drop off are outside at the Plato.

Structural
facade skin is covering the terraces of both towers, creating openings and
full-structural elements.
The
facade is a metal mesh that represents landscape element that is rising from
the Plato. It has two faces:
In
summer the mesh is covered by greenery that is planted at the fence of the terraces.
In
winter it is white and partly covered with snow. In the garden cafe is located
with sitting area. With lighted windows glowing from behind it gets festive
look.

Round
shape of towers corresponds circulars and round structures specific for Yerevan urban pattern.

Program
layout

Base –
tower A
Base
of the building that connects the towers has public program. Entrances are from
the north side of the Plato. They are accessible by car as drop-off / pick-up
area.
Under
the hotel/business tower there is reception with hotel lobby. Guests enter by
the reception to the internal water-garden that is completely opened through
all floors of the tower. Offices, rooms and hotel facilities are orientated
towards the water-garden through internal balconies and galleries. Space is
spectacular and communicative and offers many functions. Floor of the area is a
water feature that mirrors the sky, galleries above and green façade. It
creates reflections and shadows through all the volume of the tower. There are two vertical cores connecting rooms
and facilities in the tower – accessible through the bridge over the water. Around
the garden shops are located. More shops are located around external
circumference that are accessible from the external Plato.
Access
to the hotel rooms and offices is controlled by reception – then using access
card that opens area of the elevators. Some elevators connect hotel rooms,
other business areas.
There
is mezzanine area above the shops that offers second floor of shopping or shop
offices and services like hairdresser, cosmetics etc…

Tower A
– lower floors

Business
centre is located in lower 6 floors of the tower. It has 14.500 m2 in summa.
Offices are gathered around facade, meeting spaces and common areas are towards
the void. Space is flexible and offers many organisational plans. There are no
structural walls - only columns. Different sizes of departments can be
organised as well as various types of organisation such as cells or ocean plan.
One enters through the vertical core that offers view to the internal void and
garden. Offices are directly accessible also from the garage.

Tower A
– middle floors
Hotel
rooms are in floors 8 to 18. More expensive units are situated higher and have
better view:
In lower
floors hotel rooms are situated. They are 35-45m2 hotel rooms, 19 rooms per
floor. Each room has balcony and is equipped with bathroom, wardrobe, sitting
area, desk and double bed. Some rooms can be connected as family rooms. In each
floor also common space for meetings is situated.
In higher
floor hotel-apartments are located. These are 1-bedroom apartment of 90m2 and
2bedroom apartment of 120m2, 12 apartments / floor. Each apartment has terrace
and area for sleeping, working, kitchen, dining and living area as well as luxuries
bathroom and wardrobe. Some apartments can be connected. In each floor also
common space for meetings is situated.
Presidential
suits, senior and junior suit as well as 3 bed apartments are located in 18th
floor with best views and large terraces. They will have best equipment and be
in different sizes. Each suit has large terrace with external whirlpool and
area for sleeping, working, kitchen, dining and living area as well as luxurious
bathroom and wardrobe. In each floor also common space for meetings is
situated.

Tower B
– top floors
In top
floor fitness with pool and panoramic restaurant are located. They can be accessed
by hotel guests only or also from the public.
Floor 20
has fitness centre with wardrobes of 400m2 and sport-bar of120m2. There is also
380m2 of external terrace connected to fitness and bar offering external
exercise.
In
floor 21 Spa area with saunas and 2 swimming pools (7 and 14m in diameter) are
located. In summa there is 950m2 of internal space and 380m2 of external
terrace. Glazed facade of the pool can be opened offering feeling of external swimming
in summer. Floor 20 and 21 has also internal communication.
Panoramic
restaurant is in floor 22 which is suggested to be rotating and offering spectacular
views to the City and surrounding. In summa there is 950m2 of internal space
and 380m2 of external terrace.

Base –
tower B
Base
of the building that connects the towers has public program. Entrances are from
the north side of the Plato. They are accessible by car as drop-off / pick-up
area.
Under
the residential tower there is exhibition space of 4430m2 organised in 2
floors. Also core of this tower is void with water-garden on the lowest floor.
Exhibition
visitors enter by the reception/shop into the internal water-garden that is
opened through 2 exhibition floors and has partly glazed roof. Space is spectacular and communicative and
offers many functions. Floor of the area is a water feature that mirrors the
sky, galleries above and green façade and offers space for special art
exhibits. It creates reflections and shadows through the volume of the tower. Stairs
connect both floors together.

There
is one vertical core connecting all floors. Around the water-garden exhibition
rooms are located that can be closed. More are located around external circumference
that is accessible from the other side.

Apartments
are orientated towards the garden through internal balconies and galleries.
Access
to the residences is at the level – 1, where owners and visitors can park the
car. It is controlled by reception – or using access card that opens area of
the elevators.



Tower B
– all floors
Apartments
are in 6 floors above exhibition. In summa there are 6 apartments per floor of
sizes 100m2 to 250m2. Each apartment has large external terrace. Apartments are
accessed via vertical core that have panoramic elevators that look into
exhibition garden. They are accessed from floor -1 directly from the garage.
Above glazed roof of the exhibition there is void surrounded by internal
balconies and apartment entrances. Program of exhibition and apartments is
separated due to security reason but yet has visual dialog that makes
residential units of special character and culture.
Apartments
will be contemporary with large spaces; special care is provided to bathroom
and wardrobes. They have panoramic windows towards its own terrace. Terrace is
protected by external shading towards the sun and winds. In summa there is
5.700m2 of residential programme organised in 36 units that can be also
connected.



Base –
between towers
Part
of the base connecting both towers has public programs that partly belong to
shopping, exhibition, hotel, business and residential. On ground floor there
are two restaurants, in mezzanine services such as hairdresser, spa or cosmetic.
En trance is from the north and external terraces are on the south with nice
views towards the city.



Traffic
connection
Base
has 2 underground floors with garages and mechanical rooms. Both floors have 35.500m2
and offer 1.400 parking spaces. Both floors of the garage are accessed by the
main road climbing to the Plato.
From
this road taxi and bus as well as intervention traffic can access the Plato. On
the northern part short parking is possible for VIP and taxi. Otherwise Plato
is pedestrian.

Pedestrian
access is from the road via serpentine path that is sloping to the Plato. It
offers nice views towards the city with resting/sitting areas along the path.
Path ends on the southern part of the Plato where outside sitting areas of bars
are located. Existing stone wall will be integrated as element into

the landscape
of the raising bath and architecture of the Plato.

Existing
building is kept, business program will be located inside the building. It is
separated from the new volume of the building and connected with existing
walls. With shape of the Plato and walls it is remaining memory of the past
forming strong stone base to the new.

Views
from and towards the city

The
volumes of two towers are positioned and designed on the way that create dominant
and remarkable view from the city. Higher tower occupied mainly by the hotel is
appears as dominant from the Teryan street. With the Mt Ararat behind the new
complex is creating a dialog of an object and a shadow.
All
spaces have spectacular views towards the city and surrounding.

Sustainable:

Facade:
shading, wind flows, wind protector,

Special
care is to achieve optimized environmental conditions with a minimized energy
demands in three steps:

reducing
the energy and
meeting
remaining conditions with high-performance building-integrated systems,
and
sourcing those systems as much as possible with renewable sources.
One of
the core ideas of the sustainability concept is to heat and cool working,
living and hotel room areas and use the exhaust air of these offices/rooms to
condition the atrium, which is used as a big buffer space. The external facades
will feature a high performance with adaptable external shading device to
reduce solar gains in summer. The concrete slab imbedded pipe system provides
cooling without draft problems and in winter comfortable radiant heating. In
summer the cooling of the offices/room spaces will be achieved for major amount
of time just using the slab system. The decentralized ventilation units vent
fresh air into the rooms and serve as peak time cooling in summer. During
winter the fresh air will be heated inside the units and distributed into the
rooms using the displacement ventilation principle. An overflow to the atrium
allows the exhaust air to flow from the offices into the atrium and through
louvers in the roof to the outside.
The
atrium itself is a buffer space, which is naturally ventilated and
heated/cooled by the exhaust air from the rooms and offices. This means the
temperature in the atrium will swing from 15°°C in winter to ambient conditions
at the upper levels in summer (temperature stratification). To minimize the
peak summer conditions, features inside the atrium like the water wall and
floor cooling system will condition this space in addition. The water wall is
used for cooling and dehumidification purposes in summer, whereas in winter the
water will evaporate and humidify the air. Special areas inside the atrium will
get this “own” climate. Especially for a front desk this local climate is
important to guarantee adequate working conditions.
The
energy supply system is based on natural resources like river water heat
exchanger to provide cooling in summer as well as heating - in combination with
a heat pump - in winter. Photovoltaic cells integrated in the atrium roof
generate power.
Another
objective of a sustainable building approach thrives to minimize of energy
intensive materials instead local available, sustainable materials will be
used.

Structural system
The main driver
when choosing a suitable structural system for the building was safety during
earthquakes, since the city of Yerevan is situated in a region prone to strong
earthquakes, and flexibility of space. Therefore the vertical structure, which
resists gravity load and forces resulting from earthquake action, was
rationalised to reinforced concrete cores and composite columns. While two
cores on the inner perimeter of the taller tower are required to ensure
structural stability, one is sufficient in case of the lower one. At the base
the outer walls of the cores are 160cm thick. Three concentric sets of
composite columns (steel tubes filled with concrete) are foreseen. Due to the
terraced shape of the building the columns on the outermost perimeter are
inclined towards the centre of the building. Those on the innermost perimeter
are inclined in 3D space to form a mesh. All columns have a maximum diameter of
130cm. The core wall thickness and column dimensions are reduced with the
height of the building.
Structural facade
skin will be used to support the gravity load of the slabs.
Fire safety of
steel components will be provided by a special coating which guarantees up to
90 minutes of protection.
Interstorey slabs
are post-tensioned using unbonded tendons and have no drops or girders, except in
the region where extremely large spans are foreseen. Their thickness is
estimated to 25cm to 30cm, depending on the span. The maximum length of
cantilevers may be 3m to 4m. Due to landscaping and weight of vehicles used
during interventions the slab above first basement is 40cm thick.
Based on the
available data a 200m deep foundation slab will be sufficient below the cores
of the taller tower. Strip and pad foundations are foreseen below the columns.

Standards used
during design process

Static and dynamic analysis was carried
out according to the Eurocode standards:
§
EN 1990: Basis of design
§
EN 1991: Actions on structures
§
EN 1992: Design of concrete structures
§
EN 1993: Design of steel structures
§
EN 1994: Design of composite steel and
concrete structures
§
EN 1995: Design of timber structures
§
EN 1996: Design of masonry structures
§
EN 1997: Geotechnical design
§
EN 1998: Design of structures for
earthquake resistance
Design peak
ground acceleration during earthquakes was determined based on the data
available in Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program.

Subsequent
investigations

In the subsequent
design phases a geodetic report and a detailed report on soil conditions will
be required, including any restrictions regarding foundation depth.
Additionally, a retaining wall for protection of the excavation will have to be
designed.

Main
project data:

Surface
Area:

Base:

Floor
+0: 7.385m2
Shopping:
3.345m2
Hotel
lobby: 374m2
Exhibition:
2.215m2
Restaurant,
bar: 1.450m2

(Summa
Base: Floor 0 + 1 (mezzanine):Shopping and services: 14.770m2)

Tower
A:

Buisness
(6floors (from +2 to +6): Summa: 12.520m2
Ballroom and
conference rooms (7th floor): Summa: 2.150m2
Hotel
rooms – (12 floors (from +8 To+19)): Summa: 19.125m2
Hotel
facilities SPA, pool, panorama restaurant, fitness: (3 floors (from +20 to
+22): Summa: 2.820m2

Tower
B:

Residential: Summa 5.745m2
Base+Tower
A + Tower B: above +0m: 57.130m2
Garage
(2floors (from -1 to -2)): Summa: 25.000m2

Construction
price:

72 mio
USD for floors above ground
10 mio
USD for floors under ground

Other
data:

No. of
underground parking: 1.000 parking spaces
No of
residential flats: 36 units
No of
hotel rooms: 200

Maximum
height: 96,5m

Tower
A: 96,5m
Tower
B: 36m
Ground
connection:
Foundation
height:

No. Of
floors:

Tower
A: 22
Tower
B: 7
Ground
connection: groundfloor and mezzanine of 6m netto each
Underground:
2 floors of garage

Materials
proposed:

Structure:
combination of reinforced concrete and metal
External
shading/façade: Metal mesh
Window:
double glazing with metal window frames
Internal
finishing: Concrete, natural stone, wood

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