Barrel House: Unique Architecture of the Soviet Era

Explore the barrel house - a unique Soviet-era architecture, designed to adapt to the harsh climate of the Far North.

They were not water tanks or storage tanks, but houses with bedrooms, kitchens, hot water systems and doors. The Soviets were proud of them as the most modern and habitable residential structures. Today, we can only see them in museums.

Creative solutions

Barrel houses are extremely effective temporary housing structures in the cold Far North. (Photo: Rbth.com).

In 1974, the Soviet government decided to revive an ambitious bridge and road project that had begun under Stalin: the Baikal-Amur Railway . This was a 1.52m wide-gauge railway connecting Eastern Siberia with the Russian Far East, with a total length of 4,324 km and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Baikal-Amur railway passes through a region of extreme cold with the ground covered in permafrost. The Soviet authorities estimated the cost of its construction at $14 billion, and the then General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982) called it the 'bridge project of the century'.

As soon as the Baikal-Amur railway project was decided, thousands of people, mostly young and healthy Russians, set out for the wild, cold Far North to lay the tracks. The Soviet government built a series of wooden houses for them to live in temporarily, all of which were insulated against the cold.

Unfortunately, the rectangular wooden house could not withstand the climate conditions of the Far North. After just one night of heavy snowfall, it was buried up to the roof. Often, the workers could not go out to work because the doors were blocked by thick snow.

After much thought, Soviet designers created a temporary structure that completely solved the climate problem of the Far North. It was a 100% metal barrel house and named it Tsubik.

As the name suggests, the barrel house is cast entirely of metal . It has a long, horizontal cylinder shape, 3m in diameter, up to 9m long, and has high legs that completely isolate it from the ground. With its round shape, it makes the snow that falls on the top slide down so it cannot be buried. Road workers working on the Baikal - Amur railway line love it very much, praising it as the housing architecture that saved them.

Because of its cylindrical architecture, the barrel house is likened to the jar house of philosopher Diogenes. (Photo: Rbth.com).

'Diogenes of the 20th Century'

If in the BC, Diogenes (412/404 - 323 BC), the famous Greek philosopher and founder of Cynicism, lived in a jar, then in the 1970s - 1980s, the Russians had similar round barrel houses. Because of its horizontal cylindrical design, it is also known as the 'Diogenes of the 20th century'.

Of course, compared to Diogenes' jar, the barrel house is much more modern. Firstly , it is quite spacious, with enough space to separate the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. The kitchen is fully equipped with cooking utensils and an electric stove.

The bedroom can accommodate 4 single beds, serving 4 people . Second, it is equipped with a hot water heating system and has a separate entrance so that when users go in and out, the cold outside does not penetrate the space inside. Third , it is extremely easy to move and install thanks to its very light but at the same time very durable metal structure.

Thanks to the barrel houses, the workers building the Baikal-Amur railway bridge were no longer bothered by the harsh weather of the Far North. In addition to avoiding being locked in their houses by the snow, they also enjoyed a warm living space because the metal barrel houses retain heat many times better than wooden ones.

After its launch, hundreds of barrel houses sprang up along the Baikal – Amur railway line that was being laid. In some places, they were so close together that they formed a whole 'barrel house street '. In each place where several barrel houses were built side by side, a boiler room was installed and heat pipes were connected to all the structures, providing perfect heating.

The interior of the barrel house is on display at the Baikal-Amur Railway History Museum. (Photo: Rbth.com).

Gradually, from the Baikal-Amur railway, barrel houses spread to other regions with harsh cold climates such as Chukotka and Krasnoyarsk Krai. People here loved it so much that they abandoned their solidly built houses to move into barrel houses. In the 1980s, Soviet magazines competed to praise barrel houses. Many people even thought that barrel houses would become permanent residential architecture in the future.

Contrary to the prediction that barrel houses would become a trend, the Soviet government saw them as temporary housing. Right where the barrel houses were located, they planned and implemented a plan to create a permanent living environment for the people. Solid houses built with a variety of construction materials sprang up, including apartments and single-family houses with full infrastructure.

The barrel houses were soon no longer needed. By the 1990s, they were abandoned and eventually turned into scrap. Today, you can only see an authentic barrel house in person at the Baikal-Amur Railway History Museum in Tynda. It was recreated to full size to exhibit and commemorate the daily life of workers building bridges on the Baikal-Amur Railway.