John Orrell AoU: Chartered architect. Founding Director, DLA Design.
This design for a self-sufficient house draws on the Armenian vernacular; carving into cliff faces and using the abundance of stone to create structurally and thermally massive walls in this earthquake prone region.
It was a student project from the early 1990’s and I was grateful for the insights of one of my tutor’s, Bill Dunster, who later went on to found Zedfactory.
The reason it is in Armenia is that the project was set up by swapping your place of origin with fellow students. My colleague had the good fortune to locate his project in Liverpool
