location: 40.56278407154211, 45.01201423618953

architect: Gevorg Kochar 

date: 1963–1968

The oval lounge of the Writers’ House stands on a basalt slope beside its Residence Hall, with the 9th century Sevanavank monastery behind. Until Soviet engineers drew off water for hydropower and irrigation, this knoll was an island. A drop of roughly twenty meters in lake level during the 1930s–50s exposed a land bridge and created the present peninsula, where medieval stone and twentieth-century concrete share one panorama.

Lake Sevan is both Armenia’s principal lake and one of Eurasia’s largest high-altitude freshwater lakes, at about 1,900 meters above sea level. It offers a temperate summer climate and an exceptional setting for a resort. In the USSR, leisure architecture held a distinct place in planning. Alongside mass sanatoria for workers – such as Tskaltubo or Yalta’s Druzhba – the state built elite Creativity Houses or Resorts for state-run professional unions of artists. Peredelkino near Moscow (1934) is the best-known example, intended for both work and rest of the writers. In the Caucasus, comparable facilities included the Borjomi Composers’ House (1982) and the Dilijan Cinematographers’ House (1976–83). Sevan, granted to the newly formed Writers’ Union of Soviet Armenia in 1935, primarily served republican members but often hosted guests from other republics. Within Armenia, only one other writers’ resort opened later, at Tsaghkadzor (1976).

The ensemble consists of two main buildings: the Residence Hall (1932–35) and the Lounge (1963–68). The Residence belongs to the late Soviet avant-garde. It was a stepped four-level block: in the lower part of the slope, a semi-basement service zone beneath a common floor with kitchen and billiards room, plus a projecting dining loggia set 1.5 meters lower than the interior. The two upper storeys were identical, with four guest rooms per level along a corridor with a shared bath at the end. A projecting loggia-terrace formed wide outdoor space for the first-floor rooms. At the east end, a stair-tower linked all levels and led to a rooftop observation deck.

The architects of the Residence were Gevorg Kochar (1901–1973) and Mikayel Mazmanyan (1899–1971). Both graduated from VKHUTEIN (the Higher Art-and-Technical Institute in Moscow, successor to VKhUTEMAS) and co-founded OPRA (the Association of Proletarian Architects of Armenia). OPRA argued for architecture “proletarian in substance, national in palette,” combining modern methods with local ways of building and living. So was the building of the Residence Hall. Its overall minimalist architectural language accorded with constructivist ideals: flat roofs, ribbon-like windows, and stripped façades. At the same time, the stepped plan, terrace life, and deep verandas translated Armenian mountain-house traditions into reinforced concrete—a trait often associated with Mikayel Mazmanyan’s sensitivity to vernacular construction.

However, both men were arrested on fabricated “Trotskyist–nationalist” charges during the Great Terror, in 1937. While exiled in North Siberia they continued to work as planners and designers for Norilsk and Dudinka. After rehabilitation in 1954, Mazmanyan returned to Yerevan to lead urban-planning work on the capital’s master plan and new residential districts. Kochar, who spent an additional five years as chief city architect in Krasnoyarsk, returned to Armenia in 1960 and joined the YerevanProject institute. In 1963 he was commissioned to modernize the Sevan resort and design a new restaurant building.

Kochar’s reconstruction of the Residence, though restrained, clarified the original avant-garde logic. He added a lower annex beneath the former ground level (its roof becoming a broad terrace) and re-stacked functions so the former ground became the sanitary/common floor while guest rooms were reorganized across three storeys (2nd–4th). He rationalized services and circulation, formalized communal terraces (first and third floors plus the roof), and fine-tuned the façade/section to preserve the 1932 rhythm. A short-lived balcony-passage from the main terrace was introduced during this phase but was removed in the 1980s–90s. And the former club pavilion on the plateau was cleared to make way for the new restaurant.

The Lounge, completed in 1968, is a compact feat of engineering. A 27.5 × 14m oval platform projects eleven meters over the lake, supported by a single hollow concrete pier 2.9m in diameter. The lake-facing half is a floor-to-ceiling panoramic window curving through the dining hall and opening to a semi-circular loggia. The landward half contains the foyer, kitchens, and stores. The intended interior with lacquered timber boarding was simplified during construction with painted chipboard, later over-painted in black, pink, and blue. Some planned features, including a central fireplace and a reflecting basin, were never built. Apart from a later enlargement of the kitchen, the pavilion stands essentially as designed; original parquet and under-floor heating grilles survive.

The choice of the oval, lake-facing curve by Kochar was to give every seat a front-row view and to keep the footprint light on the basalt slope: one central pier, a panoramic window sweeping 180°, and services tucked landward. The form continued his long fascination with circular plans—from student studio studies at VKHUTEIN to the cylindrical party dacha in Dilijan (1936) and the round government retreat on Sevan’s south cape (1969). Here the curve was both functional and symbolic: a collective room with shared horizon view, where structure, view, and social life coincide.

After 1991, many Creativity Houses across the USSR were privatized or fell into disuse. Writers’ Union of Armenia retained Sevan (and its Tsaghkadzor house), opening limited summer lodging to ordinary visitors only in the 1990s. A Getty Foundation Keeping It Modern grant (2015–16) funded a Conservation Management Plan and a structural audit by Armproject, a state design and engineering institute. Tests confirmed the stability of the overhanging platform (cantilever). The plan recommends light seismic bracing, careful repair of cracked plaster, reinstatement of missing column cladding, and reversible upgrades—such as discreet visitor amenities and services—so that historic fabric and color layers are preserved. Although the complex is not yet on Armenia’s monument list, it benefits from the protective zoning of Sevan National Park and, importantly, from a clear roadmap for sensitive use.

Today, aside from minor changes made in the late 1980s–early 1990s (such as adding private washrooms to guest rooms), visitors can explore this landmark of Armenian modernism on a day trip or by staying overnight.

Sources and Further Reading

Getty Foundation. Sevan Writers’ Resort: Conservation Management Plan. Yerevan, 2016.

Hatherley, Owen. “Lake Sevan Writers’ Resort: History of an Armenian Modernist Masterpiece” (2019) New East Digital Archive

For practical visiting and overnight-stay details, see the travel blog page by Emily Lush (2023) Wander-Lush