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Matenadaran Garden


location . Yerevan, Armenia
client . The Armenia Tree Project

type . masterplan, public space design

timing . 2025 - 2027

program . climate adaptation, reforestation, ecological design, public park



Along the central axis of Yerevan, the Matenadaran garden site occupies the last remaining slope of the city’s natural amphitheater. This unique topography, shaped over centuries, reflects a deep tradition of terraced cultivation and landscape culture in Armenia. For generations, there has been a shared aspiration to transform this slope into a lush public garden. The project continues this long-standing vision, rooted in both the imagination of the first director of the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts and the wishes of local residents. Inspired by medieval Armenian manuscripts, the garden is conceived not as a literal landscape but as a symbolic and ordered world of nature. These illuminated manuscripts, preserved in the Matenadaran, reveal a vision where ecology, spirituality, and knowledge are closely intertwined. The design reinterprets the site as a layered living system, unfolding across terraces, vegetation,and pathways. In this way, the garden becomes a contemporary “living manuscript” that connects ecology, memory, and urban life.



Yerevan is increasingly facing urgent challenges related to urban heat, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Rapid urbanization, extensive surface sealing, and declining green cover have intensified the urban heat island effect, leading to higher temperatures and prolonged heat stress in the city. At the same time, habitat fragmentation and the loss of vegetation are putting additional pressure on urban biodiversity and ecological resilience. The loss of tree cover and green areas also reduces the city’s capacity for carbon absorption and contributes to a more arid urban microclimate. In this context, the project site along the Getar Valley offers a significant opportunity for ecological restoration. It can help create a continuous green corridor that supports biodiversity while also functioning as a cooling axis for the city.