To the South of Yerevan’s well-laid out “Garden City”-style downtown area, filled with chic boutiques and European eateries, lies the city’s industrial heart. Or should we say post-industrial. Many of these massive “concerns” (soviet-era factory complexes which employed tens of thousands to produce heavy industrial goods sold across the former Communist bloc) lie abandoned and in ruin. Massive industrial cranes lie eerily idle since the day the USSR collapsed. Huge hats from iron smelters rust as their inner areas remain exposed to the elements.
The area also serves as a good example of soviet-era urban planning which placed industrial areas along a metro line running directly from “working-class” residential neighbourhoods to make mass transit easier for workers.
While some of the warehouses and factory floors have been reclaimed by smaller businesses, the rest of the district, is easily accessible via the “Qordzaranayin” (fittingly: “Factory”) Metro Station, and is a perfect playground for “ruin porn” photographers or enthusiasts of soviet industrial architecture.
