The Round Houses in Moscow

The Round Houses are two nine-floor residential buildings built circularly, in Western Moscow in 1970, according to a project by architect Yevgeny Stamo and engineer Aleksandr Markelov.

[6][5][10][11] The two younger architects, Stamo and Markelov wanted to design their own housing project to diversify from the typical Soviet planned architecture.

According to Sergei Tekchenko, former head of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, this version was distributed in the press for no reason: first, round houses seized too much land, and secondly, they turned out to be less cost-effective than standard buildings.

The real idea of the project was to try to restore the "old Soviet residential yard", to add attractiveness to the typical built-up areas and to provide the residents the necessary infrastructures within walking distance.

[14][6][5] After a few years, the disadvantages of this form of building became apparent: strong winds constantly blowing inside the yard, abnormally high sound pollution, a significant portion of the apartments did not meet the required insolation standards.