Day 3 - Norovank monastary, Vayk and Tatev monastary

Today, we went headed south to the Norovank monastery. It is located 122 km south of Yerevan.  It was first built in the 1300's and houses 3 separate churches.

After visiting Norvank, we continued south to Vayk to see examples of previous work done by Habitat Armenia.  As of 2016 census, Vayk houses about 5,000 residents.  We first stopped at a complex of 5 buildings that had their front doors replaced, new windows for the common areas, and work done to repair the roof.

The main goal of the project was to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020.  Habitat Armenia performed energy audits on the buildings and found that most buildings were heated by central heating, so the change was made to individual heating per flat, which helps immediately save both energy and carbon dioxide production.  With the new insulated front door and double glazed windows in the common areas, the flats are able to keep warmer in the winter by at least 2 degrees Celsius.

We then headed over to the Cultural Center, which houses 2 theaters, a table tennis area and a library.  The initial project called for the replacement of all the windows, which was found to be excessive due to an under utilization of the facility.  

Top windows replaced.

Habitat Armenia reassessed the need and found that the library and reading rooms were the only facilities being used on a consistent basis.  They replaced the windows in those 3 rooms, replaced and insulated the floor, insulated the ceiling and installed new lights.  The building is not heated in the winter, so keeping these 3 most used rooms as warm as possible was a priority.

After this visit, we continued south to the Tatev monastery.  The monastery was built in the 9th century and was demolished multiple times throughout it's history.  The monastery is currently home to the world's longest reversible aerial transport according to the Guinness book of World Records. The cable car route spans 3.5 miles and takes approximately 11-15 minutes to cross, which is great improvement to the 40 minute drive through the Vorotan gorge.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Yerevan to visit the Khor Virap monastery and head back to the Norogi resource center to complete our painting projects.