yekaterinburg
chekist town, yekaterinburg, 1929-1936, architect: ivan antonov, veniamin sokolov
„Originally called the NKVD living quarters, the complex was nicknamed Chekist Town by the common folk. The project involved the construction of an extensive network of residential and public purpose buildings, including residential housing, cultural centres and health and educational facilities.
Communal houses for workers were regarded as an important socialist achievement made through a working class initiative. The working class strove to do away with inequality in living space distribution and rejected the former household order. The collectivisation commandments urged Soviet citizens to wash at public bath houses and eat at public factory-kitchens. Therefore lack of personal kitchens and bathrooms became a distinguishing feature of these houses. Nowadays apartments at the revamped Chekist Town, of course, do have bathrooms: they usually occupy former bedrooms and have inherited their large windows.
Built in the shape of a semicircle, Iset Hotel is the Chekist Town’s central architectural landmark. A top-down view reveals that the hotel, a former hotel-type dormitory, resembles a sickle, while the adjacent Sergo Ordzhonikidze House of Culture (currently housing the Urals Local History Museum) looks like a hammer. However, this subtle tribute was never officially recognised.
Residential buildings forming the outer border of the block are aligned towards the surrounding streets by 10 degrees, imparting a certain rhythm and dynamism to the block space.”
yekaterinburg
chekist town, yekaterinburg, 1929-1936, architect: ivan antonov, veniamin sokolov
„Originally called the NKVD living quarters, the complex was nicknamed Chekist Town by the common folk. The project involved the construction of an extensive network of residential and public purpose buildings, including residential housing, cultural centres and health and educational facilities.
Communal houses for workers were regarded as an important socialist achievement made through a working class initiative. The working class strove to do away with inequality in living space distribution and rejected the former household order. The collectivisation commandments urged Soviet citizens to wash at public bath houses and eat at public factory-kitchens. Therefore lack of personal kitchens and bathrooms became a distinguishing feature of these houses. Nowadays apartments at the revamped Chekist Town, of course, do have bathrooms: they usually occupy former bedrooms and have inherited their large windows.
Built in the shape of a semicircle, Iset Hotel is the Chekist Town’s central architectural landmark. A top-down view reveals that the hotel, a former hotel-type dormitory, resembles a sickle, while the adjacent Sergo Ordzhonikidze House of Culture (currently housing the Urals Local History Museum) looks like a hammer. However, this subtle tribute was never officially recognised.
Residential buildings forming the outer border of the block are aligned towards the surrounding streets by 10 degrees, imparting a certain rhythm and dynamism to the block space.”