#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The drawing with the word ‘Norilsk’ and the date ‘1961’ testified to the beginning of a new era in polar housing construction.
Leningradskaya street became the first one where they began to build houses from reinforced concrete panels. In 1961, the construction of its first houses began: a brick house No. 4 and a panel house No. 3. Assembling a house, as a constructor, from ready-made structures, of course, was much faster than laying them out of bricks or even large brick blocks.
At first, reinforced concrete products were sent to Norilsk from Krasnoyarsk; during the long journey, some of them inevitably fell into disrepair, some were delivered with rejects. In the late 1950s, the construction of a precast concrete plant was completed. In 1961, in the management structure of building materials enterprises, a construction and installation section for large-panel housing construction was organized.
Now, apartment blocks could be assembled in months or even weeks. At first, Norilsk residents believed that panel houses were not for the Arctic, that they were colder than brick ones, but later they got used to them.
The house with the Snowflake has long reminded the Norilsk people of the transition to industrial construction methods. But in 2003, during the next renovation of the facade, the memorial symbol was plastered.
And in 2018, the Snowflake was restored by the Norilsk publisher and photographer Alexander Haritonov for his own money.
In the last issue of the History Spot photo project, we told that Norilsk residents built their own homes.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
