In Armenian modernist architecture circular windows became popular in the late 1970s. Circular window design was borrowed from international architecture: Namely from designs of Louis Kahn who was admired among Soviet architects. Circular windows stood as characteristic element of the new architecture, as it was tectonically relevant to concrete architecture and gave buildings a novel look that maintained the pure geometric aesthetic and structural principles of modernism.

Yet in numerous buildings circular windows were executed in stone cladding, suggesting another reading of this element: The image of a circular window opened into a stone wall recalls Armenian medieval church architecture, namely the famous Zvartnots cathedral. References to elements present in historical architecture became popular in this period giving birth to a whole new direction in modernist architecture known as regional modernism.