Barak is the symbol of the age. Housing issue in the era of socialism

The history of the development of architecture on the territory of modern Russia can be divided into four voluminous milestones. The first stage - wooden and stone architecture, dating from the XV-XVI centuries. The second stage - the traditions of the construction of the XVII-XIX centuries. The third period is the 20th century, the fourth is the present time.

Social housing: communal

In the years of the establishment of Soviet power, the construction of residential and public facilities has undergone a number of changes, which can not be called positive. Architects took the worst moments from the existing way of solving housing problems at that time, adapting it to new, even more stringent realities.

In the early twenties of the twentieth century, the leadership of Soviet Russia did not consider the need to put into operation new residential facilities. The problem with resettlement of citizens was solved by the notorious "densification" of the most ordinary apartments, which subsequently received the status of communal ones.

Barracks

Approximately at the same time in the everyday life of the Soviet man appears such a word as "barrack." This is another attempt of the authorities to use the achievements of their predecessors, who resettled factory and factory workers in the barracks, and build a cheap house. In such precarious structures in the pre-revolutionary era, the families of steelmakers, miners, turners, grinders, etc. huddled.

Barak is a building of elongated rectangular shape, which consists of one floor. Living rooms are located on both sides of the corridor, which stretches along the entire barracks in its central part. At one end of the building is a cooking area, in the other - an economic unit.

Barak is a temporary home. This is how the leaders of enterprises presented it to workers. According to the idea of "optimizers", the barrack-type house was supposed to serve no more than five, a maximum of ten years. In fact, many tenants spent more than three decades in barracks.

Front building

In the fifties of the XX century, mass resettlement took place, which allowed millions of workers to leave the barracks forever. This was a landmark event. For this period in the country there was a release of ferro-concrete designs from which multi-storey residential quarters were erected.

Unlike the chaotic barrack-type construction and compaction based on the principle of communal settlement, the location of new houses was subordinated to a strict architectural plan.

It reflected embankments, squares, transport interchanges, public buildings, educational institutions, health care, sports, culture and leisure.

Khrushchev

The basis for frontal building was a typical five-story apartment building. There were no lifts in it, no hint of comfort. But there were hundreds of cramped apartment-cages with combined sanitary units. The height of the ceilings in them was the lowest possible.

Thanks to the Khrushchevites, the living conditions of the Soviet workers were substantially improved, and they moved to new buildings from the cellars, communal and barracks.

The standard layout of the blocks provided for a residential area of a certain number of five-story houses and a public one. The public zone included general schools, kindergartens, grocery stores and other social infrastructure facilities.