Yerevan is a city of stone — from its pink, beige and brown shades of tuff to the concrete, brutalist Soviet-era apartment blocks that dot its streets, making it the perfect landscape for Swedish designer Sanna Völker to experiment with.
“What if these stones could talk?” asked Sanna, recounting exploratory walks during her stay in Yerevan. In an atelier with the Barcelona-based product designer, students designed three vases inspired by the undulating curves of Hraparak, the intricate facade adornments on Abovyan Street and the brutalism of the Yeritasardakan metro station. A balancing act between rawness and refinement, harmony and intrigue. After close examination of the formal expression of these prominent architectural standouts, the monuments were translated into contemporary design pieces, thanks to the efforts of local stonemasons.