Today, on May 18th, the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies revealed the design of the upcoming TUMO Kapan building, as part of a series of events organized for Europe Day 2023.
The Kapan Railway Station, a historic building dating from 1932, will be transformed into a TUMO Center for teens in Kapan and surrounding communities.
A temporary cluster of TUMO boxes has been deployed next to the railway station to provide the local community with access to tech and design education until the completion of the new TUMO Kapan building. Once the construction of TUMO Kapan is finalized, each of the TUMO boxes will be relocated to various villages and cities in Syunik.
The concept behind the revitalization of the Kapan Railway Station was designed by the Paris-based Normal Studio, while the building’s architectural development and documentation has been implemented in collaboration with TUMO’s own in-house architecture studio. The building is set to include a self-learning area, workshop rooms, robotics room, cafeteria, recording studio, cinema hall, and bleachers.
The TUMO Kapan project is supported by the European Union’s Resilient Syunik Team Europe initiative (which contributes to the sustainable socioeconomic and institutional development of the Syunik region in line with local development priorities) via a grant provided to the Municipality of Kapan as well as donors Judith Saryan and Victor Zarougian.
“We’re thrilled to provide our support to TUMO’s initiative in Kapan. We place special emphasis on the importance of restoring a building with such a rich cultural background. This project will make a valuable contribution to the advancement of education and the overall development of the community,” said the EU Ambassador to Armenia Andrea Wiktorin.
To solidify TUMO’s presence in Syunik, the TUMO Armenia campaign will establish hubs in Kapan and Sisian, along with six TUMO boxes in Goris, Kajaran, Meghri, Shaki, Shinuhayr, and Tegh. The Kajaran and Meghri boxes will be connected to TUMO Kapan, while the boxes in Goris, Shaki, Shinuhayr, and Tegh will be connected to TUMO Sisian.
“We can’t wait for TUMO’s program to be accessible to all teens in Armenia, and Syunik is a strategic destination in this context. That’s why we decided to open the Kapan Box as soon as we had the chance. That’s why we initiated the revival of the city’s railway station as a TUMO center thanks to our cooperation with the Kapan Municipality, the EU’s Resilient Syunik Team Europe initiative, and our donors Judith Saryan and Victor Zarougian. Finally, that’s why we have decided to bring a cluster of boxes to Kapan even before the building’s construction is finished. We hope the teens in the city have a transformative journey,” said TUMO CEO Marie Lou Papazian.
TUMO plans to build a network of 110 boxes and 16 centers to reach every corner of Armenia and Artsakh through the TUMO Armenia campaign. Each TUMO box provides tech and design education to approximately 320 students weekly. Students alternate between self-learning exercises in their box and workshops and project labs in the Kapan or Sisian centers. The two TUMO centers and six boxes will soon form an educational network in the Syunik region, giving all Armenian teens access to quality education in fields that are crucial in the global market. Once all of the centers and boxes in the Syunik region are deployed, over 4,000 students weekly will gain access to state-of-the-art workstations equipped with the TUMO education program.
