Vul. Drahana, 12-16 – residential building
The building situated on M. Drahana street 12, 14, 16 is a typical panel residential building of the microdistrict no. 18 in the socialist mass housing district of Sykhiv in Lviv. Formally, it consists of three parts; each of the parts has its own separate number. The building belongs to the second turn of the residential district construction, namely, to its southern part, Sykhiv-II. The construction of this part started in 1986. The building is constructed in accordance with the principles of industrial typology and, stylistically, belongs to the Modernism.
History
Due to Lviv’s rapid industrialization, which started in the second half of the 1940s, and pendulum migration of the new plants and factories workers, which grew largely in a short time, new residential districts were built with increased speed in the 1960s-1980s (Боднар, 2010, 40). In the 1966 general plan a new urban building principle was approved, that of “microdistricting”; besides, the industrial principle was assumed as a basis for the construction (Боднар, 2010, 75). Three stages of the housing fund development can be retraced in Lviv after this transition to the new construction type. The construction of the socialist district of Sykhiv, where the building on Drahana (former Voroshylova) street 12, 14, 16 is located, belongs to the third stage that lasted, tentatively, from the early 1970s till the mid-1980s. In particular, one of its characteristic features is designing buildings with different appartment types and searching for the architectural expression of industrial construction (Трегубова, 1989, 218, 219). To produce construction elements of buildings, an integrated house-building factory (ДБК-1) was built on Zelena street.
The construction of the district of Sykhiv can be divided into two stages; the first started in 1979 and the second in 1986. The building on Drahana street 12, 14, 16 belongs to the second turn of the construction, that is, to Sykhiv-II. Functionally, the district of Sykhiv was divided into three planning zones which were, in their turn, divided into twelve microdistricts (М-11, М-12, М-13 … М-22). The residential building under study belongs to the microdistrict no. 18. It was constructed under the typical project of the series no. 84, which is the prevailing residential prototype at Sykhiv. The series no. 84 was developed by the Moscow Central Research Institute for Experimental Design of Housing for the climatic zone of Lviv and was the most progressive one at the time when the district was being designed. Apart from that, the architects of the local branch of the Dipromisto city planning institute elaborated a Lviv version of the series no. 84 which envisaged various invariants of block sections: end, corner, and row ones with or without through passages (an interview with Petro Krupa, 2012). Besides, in the Lviv version the façades’ plasticity was changed, some planning and constructive characteristics were improved with due regard for local conditions, passages leading to the courtyard were added to the design.
In an attempt to make residential buildings more original, the shape of loggia and balcony railing was changed in the microdistricts M-13 – M-22. It was mentioned in a report entitled “The review of the achievements of the architects and builders of the republic” that the main characteristic feature of the new district was the use of an active colour on the buildings’ façades (Килессо, Строительство и архитектура, 1984, №12, 1). The façades were decorated with polymer-cement sputtering with dye or with ceramic tiles. Apart from an aesthetic function, the colour played also a navigational role: decorative materials of a certain colour (green, terracotta, brown) were only used in the limits of one microdistrict (Килессо, Строительство и архитектура, 1984, №12, 1). However, the use of blue and beige glazed ceramic tiles produced by the Lviv ceramic factory was recognized as a most successful decision. It is with these tiles that the residential buildings in the microdistrict no. M-18 are tiled, including the building on Drahana street 12, 14, 16.
In view of the project’s complexity and scope, the real pace of the construction did not meet the deadlines. However, due to an acute need for housing, builders tried to construct the buildings as quickly as possible, so the results did not always conform to the quality required. Consequently, the apartments were delivered with considerable shortcomings. In particular, the floors in the apartments were uneven, and the joinery quality was poor, soon cracks started to appear in the walls, and the roof started to leak. The residents started to eliminate these shortcomings on their own immediately after moving in (Боднар, 2010, 80). On the other hand, in spite of the buildings’ doubtful quality, the waiting lists of those who wanted to get an apartment of this kind were extremely long. On getting an apartment, new owners treated it in most cases as a temporary home (the main one remaining in the country). Nevertheless, they tried to adapt the living space in many ways. For example, as no storage space was designed in the appartments, they transormed the balconies and loggias into closets. Besides, improvised kitchen gardens and flowerbeds appeared near the buildings (Боднар, 2010, 94). Today, the social constituent of the district has changed; Sykhiv has become more integrated in the city’s general structure.
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Architecture
The building on Drahana street 12, 14, 16 has nine floors. It is L-shaped in plan and is formally divided into three separate buildings. The building consists of seven block sections: two end ones, a corner one and four row ones. Two of the block sections have passages on their ground floor which lead to the courtyard. The project of the building’s linkage to the territory was drawn up by a group of authors consisting of Vasyl Kamenshchyk, V. Kulykovsky, Oleksandr Baziuk, L. Kutna and others. Due to the building’s configuration a large courtyard was formed; there is a children’s playground and a so-called “small architectural form” there while a considerable part of the yard is used for parking. To ease the orientation, five entrances to the buildings are arranged from the side of the courtyard. However, two entrances to the building no. 16, which is located perpendicularly to the others two, are arranged from the side of the street.
The address “Drahana street 16” is assigned to a part of the building which consists of three block sections (entrances): an end one, a row one with a passage leading to the courtyard, and a corner one. The row block section contains 35 apartments (while a similar one without the passage would contain 36). The building area of this block section is 370 sq. m.; its total area is 25,379 sq. m.; its living area is 1,154.2 sq. m. The section has an underground, nine living floors and a service top floor. The ground floor has three apartments, and floors 2-9 have four apartments each. A typical floor’s planning is symmetrical in regard to the cross axis which passes through the stairs and lift junction. Thus, there are two three-room apartments (with living area of 42 sq. m. and total area of 70 sq. m. each) and two two-room apartments (with living area of 28 sq. m. and total area of 50 sq. m. each) on each floor. The three-room apartments have a double orientation. The living floor’s height is 2.8 m.
According to the building's design, the interior surfaces were to be decorated. Thus, the floors in the living rooms, corridors, and halls were parqueted; the floors in bathroom units and in areas outside of the apartments were covered with ceramic tiles. Windows and doors were painted with white oil paint. The walls in living premises and corridors were papered; the bathrooms' walls were covered with ceramic tiles up to the height of 1.8 m. On the surface above glue-based paint was applied. In the areas outside the appartments, walls were chiefly covered with polymer-cement paints.
The façade surface is decorated with blue and beige ceramic tiles. Frieze and decorative stones, details of the balcony and loggia railings, are important and recognizable elements of the building. However, despite the openings configuration, the residents started to glaze them immediately after moving in. Due to insufficient heat-insulating characteristics and, consequently, unreasonably high power inputs, the residents also started to provide the façades with heat insulation on their own. Large areas of heat insulation materials, covered with plaster of different colours, change the building’s general tectonics and become a characteristic feature of this type of housing.
Personalities
V. Kulykovsky – one of the authors
of the project of the building’s linkage to the territory.
Vasyl Kamenshchyk – one of the authors
of the project of the building’s linkage to the territory.
L. Kutna – one of the authors
of the project of the building’s linkage to the territory.
Oleksandr Baziuk – one of the authors
of the project of the building’s linkage to the territory.
Sources
1. Технічний архів
ДП ДІПМ “Містопроект”, Объект №167/6/Серия 84.
Крупнопанельные жилые дома и блок-секции / типовой проект 84-1л/84-044.85 /
9-этажная блок-секция жилого дома рядовая на 35 квартир со сквозным проходом.
Комплект АС.1-2 / Жилой район Сихов-IV в г. Львове (Львов: Госстрой УССР,
1986).
2. Боднар
Г., Львів. Щоденне життя очима переселенців із сіл (50–80-ті роки XX ст.)
(Львів: Видавничий центр ЛНУ ім І. Франка, 2010), 340.
3. Інтерв’ю
з одним із авторів проекту забудови Сихова, Петром Крупою, березень, 2012 р.
4. Килессо
С. К., Смотр достижений архитекторов и строителей республики, “Строительство и
архитектура”, 1984, №12, 1.
5. Съедин
А. В., К новому качеству жилой среды, “Строительство и архитектура”, 1982, №10,
2-6.
6. Трегубова
Т., Львів. Архітектурно-історичний нарис (Київ: Будівельник, 1989), 232.