also known as Hamalir

location: 40.18847408831425, 44.483847455280355

architects: Arthur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Hrachya Poghosyan, Gurgen Musheghyan, Koryun Hakobyan

date: 1985

The Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex stands on Tsitsernakaberd hill, on the western edge of central Yerevan, above the Hrazdan River gorge. Rising prominently over the city, the hill occupies a special place in Yerevan’s urban landscape: visible from many districts and connected to the dramatic topography of the Hrazdan canyon. The hill acquired not only urban prominence but also national significance with the construction of the Armenian Genocide Memorial, opened in 1967. Often regarded as the first official Soviet-era acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide – the mass deportations and killings of Armenians carried out in the Ottoman Empire during and after 1915 – the memorial gave Tsitsernakaberd a powerful symbolic role in the Yerevan landscape. Its elevated, highly visible location above the city reinforced its status as a place of collective memory and annual commemoration.

Although the construction of a large sports and concert complex next to the Armenian Genocide Memorial may seem surprising, and even inappropriate, the choice of location was shaped by broader planning ambitions for Tsitsernakaberd hill, as the site was valued for its exceptional position above the city and the Hrazdan gorge. In the 1960s, the right bank of the Hrazdan was to develop as a large sports district, where, on the top of nearby Tsitsernakaberd hill, a Palace of Sport was to be built – this was before the project of the Genocide Memorial. By the 1970s, however, the sports and concert complex began to be presented as an integral part of Tsitsernakaberd Park, which was simultaneously planned as a large urban forest park. In this framing, the site was not only a place of mourning but more a space for collective gathering and recreation, where landscaped green areas, public promenades, and large-scale events could coexist and contribute to a sense of shared identity and unity among Armenians.

The history of the complex began with a competition held in 1965 for a 10,000-seat Palace of Sport on Tsitsernakaberd hill. The winning proposal was developed by the architects of Hrazdan Stadium, Koryun Hakobyan and Gurgen Musheghyan, and was later joined by Arthur Tarkhanyan and Sashur Kalashyan, who had also won the competition for the Genocide Memorial in the same year. From the outset, the project was defined by a central ambition that was also its main challenge: how to bring together different types of events within a single spatial framework. The early scheme echoed Hrazdan Stadium in its asymmetrical composition, with an oval arena and uneven tribunes. The design proposed a circular form narrowing toward the top, with a transformable arena that could be converted within 30–35 minutes into an ice rink, a concert hall, or a mini-football field. It was initially planned to complete the project by 1980; however, in 1976, by order of Karen Demirchyan, the project was redirected toward a new architectural solution, partly in response to the parallel construction of larger, more technologically advanced sports and concert complexes in Moscow and Leningrad, which followed similar planning principles but on a significantly greater scale.

In 1976, the architects – in the updated team of Arthur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Hrachya Poghosyan, and Gurgen Musheghyan – were sent to Dilijan for an intensive two-month working period to develop a renewed project that would preserve the idea of a multifunctional complex while rethinking its spatial organization. Rather than forcing a single space to accommodate every function, the project emerged as a two-hall complex: a large sports arena and a concert hall arranged along a shared axis and linked by a rotating tribune. Outside, this internal logic is expressed in a sculptural mass with differentiated “wings” structures, whose sweeping, curved forms recall both a bird in flight or open shells. These volumes rise above the sports arena tribunes and over the concert hall’s stage box, enclosing the building on three sides. The fourth side opens toward the main approach, marked by a broad entrance and a monumental high relief frieze. The building is anchored within the surrounding landscape of the hill by a sequence of terraces, fountains, and ascending paths. Together, they create a ceremonial approach that gradually lifts visitors from the city level toward the elevated plateau of the complex.

The core of the complex’s internal organization is the sports arena, which was equipped with an artificial ice installation, allowing hockey and figure skating competitions. The broad side “wings” visible from outside correspond to the vast volumes above the spectator tribunes running along both long sides of the arena, defining the primary spatial order of the hall. From these parallel side structures, the interior space unfolds as a whole, formed by intersecting arched spans that derive directly from the structural logic of the wings and extend across the arena. To accommodate large-scale sporting events and mass spectatorship, the hall was highly technically equipped with sound and lighting systems, television facilities, commentator booths, and communication points.

If the sports arena belonged to large-scale movement and broadcast, the concert hall – located beneath the third, rear “wing” – required concentration and frontal attention. Its spatial organization is oriented toward the stage, with carefully calibrated acoustics. The use of carpeting, armchairs, balconies with wooden balustrades, and gently curved lines reinforced a sense of enclosure and continuity, softening the large volume while guiding both sightlines and acoustics.

Although the Armenian project ultimately divided the complex into separate sports and concert halls, they retained a shared structural element – not for performance, but for spectatorship. This is resolved through a rotating tribune with 1,000 seats arranged in 20 rows, resting on a metal drum about 10 metres in diameter set on 24 moving carriages. By turning from one hall to the other, it can enlarge either the arena or the concert hall as needed, embedding flexibility directly into the architecture.

Another example of the building’s complex and highly functional engineering is found in the foyer directly beneath the sports arena, which could also function as an independent space for events and exhibitions. Special spaces organized a network of vertical and horizontal circulation throughout the building – stairs, escalators, galleries, and open terraces – linking different levels of the complex into one continuous interior.

Outside, the complex rises from the hill as a sequence of terraces, stairways, and open platforms, guiding visitors upward in a gradual procession. Along this ascent, a system of fountains and water basins once played an important role, reinforcing the ceremonial character of arrival. A significant element of the exterior is the monumental high relief integrated into the entrance façade, created by sculptor Ferdinand Arakelyan. The composition unfolds as a dense, horizontally extended narrative (60 m in length) that brings together multiple characters and scenes of Armenian culture – mythology, dance and singing, harvesting – almost everything except sports themes. Near the center is also a group depicting the six authors of the complex itself: architects Arthur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, and Hrachya Poghosyan; structural engineers Igor Tsaturyan and Grigor Azizyan; and finally the sculptor himself.

The early history of the complex was marked by a fire in 1985, when finishing works were still underway in the concert hall. The building was closed and then restored. After Karen Demirchyan’s death in 1999, the complex was named after him, fixing in its official title the connection that had existed from the beginning. Unlike several other outstanding modernist buildings from the Soviet period, it remains today one of Yerevan’s largest functioning public venues.

Sources and Further Reading

Balyan, Karen. Артур Тарханян, Спартак Хачикян, Грачья Погосян [Artur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Hrachya Poghosyan]. Yekaterinburg, 2012.

Bronovitskaya, Anna; Markus, Elena; Palmin, Yuri; Balyan, Karen. Ереван: архитектура советского модернизма, 1955–1991 [Yerevan: Architecture of Soviet Modernism, 1955–1991]. Moscow, 2026.

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text by Elena Lisitsyna