The drive to Lori Province in Armenia was winding and bumpy, but rewarding. Though we faced dirt roads and numerous potholes, we were also greeted with Armenia’s verdant green mountains, rushing rivers, and historical villages with ancient churches and forts.
Hours later, we arrived at our destination: a long, curving, single-story white building known as the COAF Concept Hotel. It looked like a modern oasis in the mountains. Though I expected such a contemporary structure to feel out of place in a natural setting, the design didn’t conflict with the landscape—instead, it seemed to meld into its surroundings, much like a Hobbit hole.
The COAF Concept Hotel was purposefully designed by Lebanese-Armenian architect Paul Kaloustian to exist in harmony with the natural environment. From a distance, you can barely make out its shape, because it rests right beneath the curve of a hill. Then, as you walk closer, you can follow a slope down to its entrance.
Inside the hotel, the design feels minimalist and industrial: cement walls, sleek furniture, handmade Armenian rugs donated from the famous Megerian company. Natural light spills into each guest room through a wall of glass. Doors open right out into the land, leading your eyes back to the garden where fresh produce like green beans and goji berries are collected for meals prepared by the hotel. Sometimes, you can even see grazing animals like cows and sheep passing by. In every way, the hotel makes guests feel close to nature.
Though the COAF Concept Hotel has all the markings of a traditional boutique hotel experience, it’s actually much more than that. The proceeds from guests’ stays in the hotel go to the building next door: the COAF SMART Center, an educational space that hosts and teaches more than 1,200 rural Armenian children every year.
“Many guests come for the luxury, because it looks like a very cool hotel within nature, but then they learn about our mission through their stay here,” said Flora Amirkhanyan, the Concept Hotel Coordinator. “It’s a great way to spread the word.”
The SMART Center and hotel are part of the Children of Armenia Fund, or COAF, a non-profit created by Garo Armen to reduce rural poverty in Armenia. Oftentimes, young people living in the countryside choose to leave their homes to seek opportunities in big cities—but the mission of COAF is to provide resources and education locally, so that villagers can find opportunities to grow within their own communities.
While these initiatives are relatively new, with the SMART Center having launched in May 2018 and the Concept Hotel opening shortly after, COAF as an organization has been working throughout rural Armenia since 2003. It has improved the infrastructure of 44 surrounding villages through the renovation of health clinics and community centers, as well as the creation of creativity labs and safe centers near potentially dangerous areas of the country. Its efforts have been supported by a wide variety of people, with donors including the likes of Jeff Koons, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ed Ruscha, as well as many from the Armenian diaspora, including Alexis Ohanian, Cher, Serj Tankian, and Khloe Kardashian.
So how does the SMART Center work? Starting at age 3, students from all over the region can enroll in its educational after-school program. Materials, education, and transportation are all free of charge for the students. “Our courses are focused on the head, heart, and hands,” says Amirkhanyan.
Older students learn business skills like finance and marketing, technical skills like engineering, and creative skills like dancing, painting, and theater. They also attend health seminars and entrepreneurship training.
Once a certain number of classes are completed, students are awarded with a SMART Citizen certificate, which acknowledges that they’re equipped with the skills they need to thrive in the future. Many students at COAF even learn skills that allow them to begin to support themselves financially, such as graphic design and digital art.
Beyond the core skills in the SMART citizen curriculum, they also have access to educational experiences that would be hard to find even in Yerevan: robotics, vertical farming, VR fitness, performance art, and sound design, to name a few.
Through their classes, students are encouraged to experiment and explore their own curiosities, while holding onto their own identity and individuality. COAF’s belief is that the experiences and backgrounds of children in Armenia’s smaller villages are meaningful.
“It’s important to us to make sure we don’t focus on changing how these students think,” Amirkhanyan explains. “Instead, we support them and provide opportunities through technology, collaboration on ideas, and high-quality teaching.”
Located in Debet, hours away from the capital city of Yerevan, the SMART Center has already made a huge impact. In 1988, the surrounding region of Lori was devastated by an earthquake, leaving many villages still in the process of recovery today. With the creation of the center, members of the community have a space they can feel proud of.
Armenian celebrities and world-renowned teachers travel specifically to the countryside to support the students. Just in the past few months, students have learned from Sebu Simonian of indie pop duo Capital Cities, Olympic gymnast Houry Gebeshian, world-ranked Armenian chess player Levon Aronian, and Artyom Manukyan, the soundtrack cellist from the Oscar-winning film Green Book. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan even toured the center earlier this year. These visits are all important signaling—the students mean enough to these people, and the country, for them to come out to their villages.
Now, the Concept Hotel is COAF’s latest initiative, aimed to bring even more awareness to the importance of the Lori region. Originally created simply as a private space to house all of the donors, teachers, and doctors who volunteered to provide free services to the SMART Center, COAF only recently decided to open its doors to the public as an official hotel.
This decision has not only made it easier for people to go to Lori and support Armenia’s rural communities, but also helps to make a statement that the region is an important destination worth visiting. The Concept Hotel even teaches guesthouse owners in the area hospitality best practices, from accommodation design to revenue management, and also hires locals from Lori for its own staff.
Amirkhanyan herself grew up in Lori. She worked in luxury hotels before, and describes her role at COAF Smart Center as the same in terms of day-to-day tasks, but said it feels completely different to work for a hotel that has a mission. She’s inspired to learn and grow, knowing that she is contributing to her community. “As much as I learn and do, I’m sending to the center,” says Amirkhanyan with pride.
Outside the hotel, there is ongoing construction. There are extensive plans for the future of the area, including a conference center, dormitory, greenhouse, and perhaps even a sports complex. And COAF has plans to create a network of SMART Centers throughout Armenia, not just in the Lori Province. With the Concept Hotel, SMART Center, and other initiatives, Armenia’s rural communities will continue to expand opportunities for the country’s next generation.
