Video: House-glass in St. Petersburg: why were communal buildings similar to corn built in the city on the Neva
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
One of the experiments of Soviet modernism in the second half of the last century was glass houses. Several such skyscrapers were built in St. Petersburg (and then still in Leningrad). The most famous one is located in Kupchin at the address: Budapeshtskaya street, 103. This cylindrical building is also called the "house-corn". And its tenants, like corn seeds, huddled in cramped cells-rooms. What to do - initially everything here was arranged according to the principle of a house-commune.
A team of specialists from the 5th workshop of LenNIIproekt under the leadership of David Goldgor developed an unusual project in 1975.
Officially, this tower has 14 residential floors (the first is non-residential), and there is also one more, the uppermost one, set aside for public space and representing a glazed room (for a long time there was a hairdresser's). By the way, such upper superstructures are also found in other glass houses built in the 1970s and 1980s.
Interestingly, by its construction, the house is similar to a nesting doll and looks like cylinders inserted into each arc. In the center of the building there is a pipe-like elevator shaft (inner "cylinder"), it is "ringed by a corridor", and around it, in turn, there are apartments.
Kitchens were not provided in the apartments of this house, since it was designed as a dormitory. All residential floors had common kitchens, but in general it was assumed that on the first (non-residential) floor of the house there would be a public dining room, in which the inhabitants of the house - young proletarians - would eat. Also on the ground floor, a playroom, a first-aid post, a commandant's room and other similar premises were supposed.
The residents of the Soviet commune house did not have personal telephones - in order to call somewhere, they were asked to use a public machine installed on the ground floor. But the bathrooms, fortunately, were in the apartments.
Of course, the lack of a kitchen did not please the inhabitants of the house - they gradually began to change the original layout, equipping kitchens in their apartments - for example, combining them with rooms. After the collapse of the USSR, the "glass" began to change even more radically - over time, it ceased to have the status of a hotel-type hostel and it was officially recognized as an ordinary multi-apartment skyscraper. A management company appeared at the building.
Living in a glass house, on the one hand, is interesting and romantic (only panoramic windows are worth it!), And on the other hand, it is not very convenient. As in the house-bagels in Moscow, the unevenness of the walls in the apartments turns into inconveniences for the owners when repairing and arranging furniture.
But the guests of this house do not have to walk around the floor in search of the right apartment for a long time - since the corridor is looped, wherever you go, sooner or later you will come to the right point.
By the way, the owners say that the house itself was not made with a very high quality, and over time it became completely dilapidated, so that the "glass" has long been in need of serious repairs.
Read also about how round houses appeared in Moscow and is it easy for Muscovites to live in "bagels".
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