World Trade Centre, Yerevan hosted an awesome event – did you know you can hear world-class engineering talks right here in Yerevan?? 😀

Im here to listen to a lecture about glass and how it went from a fragile architectural material to something engineers can use structurally, the speaker was Tim Macfarlane, the engineer behind some of the worlds most innovative structural glass projects, one of them being Apples iconic flagship stores!

Oh, and the WTC Yerevan was an interesting building! Reminded me of being back in Australia and the IT industry, many work places and my IT partners offices looked exactly like this!

So, WTC is a net-zero mixed-use project, combining business, trade, hospitality and events – They also have massive planned developments with new offices, retail, hotels and event facilities with an investment of around $300m

Lovely Narine, who was the marketing manager, came up and spoke to me in such a passionate way about the World Trade Centre and their work in Yerevan and I learnt a lot from her about the goals and ambitions of the business

Loved this sign on the bottom as I entered… I love stairs so for me stairs was good! Lol

Ended up being on the 4th floor of the building

At least we have motivation with us on each floor! 🤣

A comfy lounge area at the front – they got the modern feel right

The World Trade Centre joined the “World Trade Centers Association” in Sept 2021 which is connected to a network of roughly 100 countries and 300+ cities! amazing for Yerevan 🙂

WTC Yerevan was incorporated in 2024

The view from this location over Yerevan is nice, you can see the local apartments in the foreground and the city at the back

There was half hour before the talk where everyone gathered and connected…

Have you heard of ANGES yet? Coffee beans aged in Armenian brandy barrels! Omg! a new Armenian coffee concept I discovered here at the WTC! Hello… what a great idea!

… check out how cool this looks!! I was happily introduced to a really interesting brandy barrel aged iced coffee!

I felt like I was having a cocktail! It has this really nice slight brandy flavour to it, I sipped it slowly not wanting it to finish, not caring I may not sleep that night

I think they are a new brand as I couldnt find anything about them online, but ill be spreading the word as I really enjoyed this product

Just to confirm, Its coffee beans aged in Armenian brandy barrels… without the presence of alcohol

“BROKEN GLASS – BROKEN RULES” – lecture

On September 15, 17:30, WTC Yerevan will host a Catalyst talk with Timothy Macfarlane, Chartered Engineer (CEng), Member of the Institution of Structural Engineers (MIStructE), Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon FRIBA), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (Hon FRISA).

Tim Macfarlane has been a leader in the innovative use of glass as a structural material for over 30 years, contributing to complex projects ranging from small bespoke glass installations to large-scale frameless glass assemblies, including pioneering the use of structural glass in the original Apple Flagship Stores in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco—an engineering sophistication that set a standard for the further development of Apple stores worldwide. Tim Macfarlanefounded Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners with Laurence Dewhurst in London in1985 a partnership which developed over a period of 27 years into aninternational practice with offices in London, New York and Trinidad.

The presentation will trace the development of structural approaches to glass design from 1990 to the present time.

The engineering properties of glass once jealously protected by manufacturers in the private domain has since 1990 gradually infiltrated the public domain providing a valuable tool for architectural and structural designers.  

The talk will illustrate through key projects the process of bringing this key knowledge to light enabling the rules that govern the structural engineering use of glass to be used by everyone.

Key highlights

  • Manufacturing milestones in glass
  • The freedoms and restrictions of a rules-based approach to design
  • Warranties versus professional responsibility
  • Remaining challenges

So, 6pm came and we went into the presentation room and im sure I was the only one who wasnt in the industry – but i was so curious to learn about this topic and gain some new knowledge

Tim Macfarlane is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Structural Engineers

He worked with glass as a structural material for more than 30 years!

One of the interesting projects he worked on was the use of structural glass in Apples original flagship stores in New York, Chicago and San Fran

Tim spoke with such joy and passion about this topic, and he is a very influential person in this industry, I could tell with some of the others in the room who were actually working as architects in the industry that they know of him and one even mentioned that if it wasnt for Tim and his structural knowledge thats been shared, the glass structural industry wouldnt be what it was

Walking back towards the city centre, it was a nice walk back, around 35-40mins, and as I walked back, I thought what an interesting night it had been, sitting in on that lecture, even asked Tim a question as I was curious about the topic, and im just so grateful that Yerevan has such awesome associations that create events like this for the industries and invite the public to attend, its so refreshing and interesting and keeps me on my toes! 🙂

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