Architect and academic Guillaume Othenin-Girard works with local people, archaeologists and students from the University of Hong Kong to update the traditional Armenian house typology, the glkhatun, to meet modern climate challenges in the Vedi River Valley. Curator Nairi Khatchadourian works with contemporary artists within rural settings to revitalise local heritage. Architects Aram Mooradian and Shant Charoian work with international and local architecture students to identify and protect heritage in the face of growing development and mass tourism. Together they represent a sample of the flourishing creative energy developing within Armenia’s burgeoning economy.

This event is organised in parallel with a three-week exhibition in the AA Bar showcasing work carried out by students of The Oshakan Project 2024, the AA Visiting School organised by Mooradian and Charoian. The Oshakan Project works with students and the local community to document heritage in Oshakan, an ancient rural village in the Aragatsotn region, and imagines ways of unlocking heritage sites as potential nodes of social, economic and cultural activity.

This event is organised in collaboration with the Armenian Institute. If you would like to attend, you can sign up here - please be aware that you will be redirected to the Armenian Institute booking system.

Nairi Khatchadourian is a Paris-born art historian, curator, and placemaking advocate. She relocated to Armenia in 2015 and managed institutional projects in museums in Yerevan and Armenia’s regions. By bringing together artists, photographers, architects, designers, and researchers under the roof of AHA collective, a curatorial practice she founded in 2019, Khatchadourian has been engaged in commissioning new works and rethinking exhibition formats to open up the contemporary artistic landscape to different audiences in Armenia.

Shant Charoian is an architect based in Yerevan, Armenia. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a post-professional Master of Architecture, he also holds a BA in Architecture from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he earned the Outstanding Senior Project prize. In 2024, he founded Jardar NGO to foster new architectural thinking in Armenia, launching initiatives like The Oshakan Project and the Line Armenian Architecture Biennial, aimed at addressing community challenges.

Aram Mooradian is the director of Mooradian Studio, a London-based architectural practice specialising in sustainable residential, arts and retail projects. Aram graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) in London, where he subsequently taught between 2019-2023. He is the Director of Studies in Architecture at Downing College, Cambridge, and previously previously worked for Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and 6a architects in London on projects including the Juergen Teller Studio, which was nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2018. In 2022, Aram established Building Ways, an education and research group interested in heritage and the circular economy, which runs programmes in the UK and Armenia.

Guillaume Othenin-Girard is an architect and assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. His teaching and research focus on the cross-disciplinary potential between archaeology and architecture. In 2019, the project received the Dezeen Award for Architecture Project of the Year, and was exhibited at the Design Museum in London as part of the Beazley Designs of the Year show. He is the co-founder of Architecture Land Initiative, a cooperative that works closely with political actors and NGOs at the local and national scale to enact sustainable and equitable transformations of landscapes, public spaces, and architecture.

Image: The Oshakan Project, AAVS Armenia, 2024

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk