Few people know, but there are two ring houses in Moscow. The first round house with 913 apartments was built in 1972 on Nezhinskaya Street on the eve of the 1980 Olympics. At that time, the idea seemed new and fresh to the authorities, as a result of which there were even plans to build up all of Moscow with such houses.
The second and last round house was built on Dovzhenko street. He is practically the twin of the house on Nezhinskaya. The ring house was built in 1979. It had 9 floors, 936 apartments and 26 entrances. Old-timers say that finding the right entrance to this house is not an easy task.
Why did this architecture not gain popularity, what are the pros and cons of such originality? Why did the authorities fail to implement the plan for the development of 5 such houses, and why exactly five houses?
Now we will all find out …
By the way, both round houses at once. But now the story …
House on Nezhinskaya 13
In 1972, the first house of an unusual shape was built according to the designs of the architect Yevgeny Stamo and engineer Alexander Markelov. The house is located in the Ochakovo-Matveevskoye area in the west of Moscow, on Nezhinskaya street and has the shape of a circle, in common people - "Bublik". The residential building is designed for 913 apartments.
Promotional video:
Matveevskaya street, 26. In the foreground, houses 20, 18 buildings 1 and 2. In the background there is a round house. Mid 70s.
At one time, the authorities thought to build up all of Moscow with round houses - the architecture of these buildings seemed so new and lively. In the run-up to the 1980 Olympics, city architects were considering building an Olympic Village in the shape of five Olympic rings.
“In some ways they were right,” agrees the vice-president of the Union of Moscow Architects Svyatoslav Mindrul, in whose workshop the first round house of the capital was developed. - Such a complex looks good from a bird's eye view - then both rings and volume are visible. An ordinary pedestrian will not even understand the idea. Another thing is a lonely standing round house. It is beautiful, and most importantly, unusual.
The round residential building looked especially unusual in the early 70s. Then nothing of the kind was built. What happened? Boring boxes of the same type. Construction budgets have also been cut. Architects had to get out and look for a middle ground - to build cheap, but beautiful. Round house on Nezhinskaya street in this regard - the brainchild of the era. Despite its unusual shape, this is an ordinary nine-story panel building. Neither the materials, nor the layout of the apartments, it differs from the dull "pencil cases" of the 70s. - An unusual shape was developed by the architect Evgeny Stamo and engineer Alexander Markelov, - says Mindrul. - They took advantage of the margin of error when joining the panels - 6 degrees. They placed the standard panels at this angle. From this, the house turned out to be so impressive in size. The scale of the building is impressive: a huge courtyard, commensurate only with a football field. In the early 70s, thousands of people on the waiting list moved here. Crowds of screaming children rushed about the yard. The noise and hubbub subsided only during school hours.
Everything was planned in such a house. A huge courtyard, which had almost all the amenities: shops, a pharmacy, a laundry, an atelier and much more. An architectural brute could be called a mini-city in a city.
1980 was approaching, the year of the Olympics, and in Moscow only a year ago the construction of a second house of the same kind was being completed, again nine-storey panel houses, 26 entrances and already 936 apartments. The house was also erected in the west of Moscow, in the Ramenki area along Dovzhenko Street.
“The first time and holidays were celebrated by the whole yard,” says Olga Efimova, a resident of the 3rd entrance. - In general, it was convenient to live. Shops, a post office, a savings bank, a shoe studio, a laundry and a pharmacy - everything was in the house on the ground floor. But over time, the amenities have diminished. In the 90s, all shops were closed, not to mention the laundry. And now everything falls into place again. Downstairs there are shops and social organizations. Only now they are going to demolish us. Rumors about this have been circulating for many years. But no one wants to leave - the house is, after all, legendary. We call him a kolobok, and Moscow - a ring or a round house.
Few people know that the round house was built at the junction of two central streets of the former village of Matveevskaya.
House on Dovzhenko 6
Thousands of people on the waiting list have moved to these houses in the hope of a happy future in a new, unique, in terms of architecture, round house. Outstanding theater and film actors lived here - Honored Artist of Russia Galina Belyaeva, Honored Artist of the RSFSR Savely Kramarov, as well as film director, screenwriter and poet Emil Loteanu.
Films were filmed in these houses: "Courier", "Tragedy in Rock Style", "The Artist from Gribov" and many episodes of "Wicks", as well as the round house can be seen in the final shots of the famous Soviet film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." One of the residents said: “In the fall of 1978, late in the evening, they asked to turn on the lighting in the apartments, whose windows overlook the courtyard. And you all observe these round panoramic shots of luminous windows in the film's final credits."
It is worth noting the way in which the architects managed to achieve the rounding of panel houses. The whole secret is that when building a panel house, an error of six degrees is allowed, which made it possible to reach the ring.
But why didn't the "Bagels" gain popularity and the plans for five rings were ruined? Everything is very simple. One of the most important tasks of Soviet housing construction is practicality and low cost. Round houses are expensive to maintain, bulky and completely uncomfortable.
And the theory about the Olympic village is very vague, because the finished houses are too far from each other to make up an Olympic sign, and the house located on Dovzhenko Street is located among two lakes, a stream, a railway and a major highway. Thus, it is simply not possible to put houses next to the house on Dovzhenko Street.
As I said, the rings are built from typical panel houses, and who lives in such houses, and there are many of them, they know very well what flaws they have: gaps between panels, thin walls between neighbors, disgusting sound insulation. Due to the fact that the house is round, and there are already 26 entrances, it is extremely difficult to find the necessary apartment, especially if a guest who has never been to you has come to you. Later, comfortable large courtyards began to resemble a football field, "heels", on which it is impossible to park or walk. The sound in the courtyard is heard in all apartments as from a well, especially in the evening, if someone's alarm goes off in the courtyard, then 936 families will be very unhappy.
Construction of panel houses in the standard "mode", ie rectangular, they do not really shine with the quality and evenness of the walls, and the walls are displaced by 6 degrees and with all the "quality" of the work goes beyond all the boundaries of evenness, i.e. it is extremely time consuming to glue wallpaper on such walls, without exhausting preparation.
To summarize: round houses are an incomparably grandiose decoration of the city, but unfortunately they do not fit well into the modern life of Moscow. The housing requirements of a modern Muscovite, and not only a Muscovite, are much higher than the quality of construction of panel houses, and even more so the quality of service.
Dovzhenko
House on Nezhinskaya 13
