Last stop Avtobusniki

In a rural village near Moscow legendary Soviet-era Ikarus 280 buses find a new life as impromptu architectural prostheses.

Located a few dozen kilometres from Moscow, Beryozka-6 (or "Birch-6") is a typical Soviet cottage settlement with an equally typical Soviet name. If you ever have the chance to visit the place, you'll find yourself immersed in a scene worthy of John Carpenter's or Lloyd Kaufman's dystopia. Every plot in the settlement accordingly accommodates a Hungarian-made Ikarus 280 bus converted for housing, equipped with firewood storage, kitchens, bathrooms and saunas. Greenhouses have been built from bus windows, and gardening tools made from spare parts. Some of the buses are topped with gable roofs, and some have running water, while others are covered with plastic siding and camouflaged as garden cottages. This example of "stone-age high tech" makes an explicit nod to a number of associated themes: the functionalist identification of architecture with technology, the standardisation of housing, and informal design or DIY architecture.

Under Stalin, dachas were allocated to representatives of the Communist Party's scientific and cultural elite. They were typically large plots of land in scenic locations, built together with a cottage of standard design. The next stage in the history of dachas came with Khrushchev's rule during the 1950s and '60s, when the plots were issued to employees of various enterprises and factories, and the settlements were kitted out according to profession. The Stalinist format was reduced—standard plots became as much as ten times smaller—while the houses were usually built by the owners themselves according to strictly limited designs.

Fitted with water and
electricity, the Ikarus 280
buses in Avtobusniki were
converted into homes,
kitchens, bathrooms, saunas
or tool sheds. It is easy to
recognise the bus windows
inserted into the greenhouses — Fitted with water and electricity, the Ikarus 280 buses in Avtobusniki were converted into homes, kitchens, bathrooms, saunas or tool sheds. It is easy to recognise the bus windows inserted into the greenhouses

In the 1980s, plots were handed out in large numbers, including considerable portions of former arable land, and their size reached an all-time minimum of 600 square metres. The dacha essentially became a country home for city folk, a second house generally used in the summer, while in the winter many of these settlements were left as empty areas scattered with gloomy, monotonous cottages.

The Beryozka-6 settlement was founded in 1989, at the twilight of the Soviet era. Originally it was known as "Avtobusniki" (which literally translates as "the bus people"), because plots were distributed among employees of the bus fleet in Moscow's Yasenevo district. As the year associated with the planned economy's final defeat, 1989 was one of the toughest in the Soviet Union's history. To help dacha owners, the managers of the bus depot decided to give each worker half a written-off Ikarus 280.

Some of the buses are topped
with gable roofs, and some have running water,
while others are covered with plastic siding and
camouflaged as garden cottages — Some of the buses are topped with gable roofs, and some have running water, while others are covered with plastic siding and camouflaged as garden cottages

These buses were transported to their new destination and became the centrepieces of dacha life, acting as homes during the construction of the main cottages. However, once the dacha cottages had been built, the problem of what to do with the buses remained. Who would take them away? And where would they take them? Ultimately, dacha owners had to put up with the vehicles' presence on their plots.

In a sense, these Ikaruses echo the fate of the renowned Soviet five-storey residential buildings, the first examples of modular housing in Russia

The word dacha derives from
the verb “to give” and means
“something given”, referring
to the plot of land and cottage
assigned to a family. In 1989
a dacha village was founded
with the name Avtobusniki.
While the settlement was
being built its inhabitants lived
in decommissioned buses — The word dacha derives from the verb “to give” and means “something given”, referring to the plot of land and cottage assigned to a family. In 1989 a dacha village was founded with the name Avtobusniki. While the settlement was being built its inhabitants lived in decommissioned buses

In a sense, these Ikaruses echo the fate of the renowned Soviet five-storey residential buildings, the first examples of modular housing in Russia. In the 1950s, it was assumed that these five-storey blocks would be temporary structures, designed to offer a quick fix to the problem of housing shortages. They were only supposed to be Soviet people's homes until the onset of real Communism, i.e. for a period of 20 to 25 years.

Andrei
Strebkov, a priest in the
town of Zainsk, adopted
the idea of recycling
buses by conceiving a new
way of taking religion to
the people. In 2011, a LIAZ
model bus was converted
into a church — Andrei Strebkov, a priest in the town of Zainsk, adopted the idea of recycling buses by conceiving a new way of taking religion to the people. In 2011, a LIAZ model bus was converted into a church

To paraphrase Le Corbusier, they were in essence "time machines for living in". But the years passed and the heralded Communism did not arrive, yet the five-storey blocks are still standing. Nevertheless, in the case of Avtobusniki the situation is slightly different. The dacha owners achieved their original goal in that their cottages were built and the "bright future" arrived. But they are still unable to dispose of the mythological Icaruses, the cocoons from which their future hatched.

Designed for six missionaries, the bus-church can reach the remotest villages in the diocese. Photo courtesy of Andrei Strebkov

The reference to Le Corbusier here is no coincidence. In his famous 1923 manifesto Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier compares the work of architects and engineers, and falls on the side of the latter, making a number of controversial statements. Firstly, he writes: "The aeroplane is a product of high selection... The mechanical carries within it the economic factor that selects. The house is a machine for living in." He went on to state: "If we eliminate from our hearts and minds all dead concepts in regard to the house, and look at the question from a critical and objective point of view, we arrive at the 'House-Machine'."

Every
plot in the settlement accordingly accommodates
a Hungarian-made Ikarus 280 bus converted for
housing, equipped with firewood storage, kitchens,
bathrooms and saunas — Every plot in the settlement accordingly accommodates a Hungarian-made Ikarus 280 bus converted for housing, equipped with firewood storage, kitchens, bathrooms and saunas

Le Corbusier thus attempts to formulate the idea of technical selection as the image of Darwin's natural selection. In this system, the "species" and "subspecies" of living creatures equate to the various standards and types of buildings. If for antiquity the "Parthenon is a product of selection applied to an established standard", in our time, according to Le Corbusier, the crown of evolution is the "House-Machine". The history of the Soviet dachas parodies this evolution almost literally: from the dinosaurs of Stalinist dachas, bypassing standard postwar-era cottages, to the village of Avtobusniki.

Together with their dachas, the inhabitants have also evolved. If the first typical dacha inhabitants were professors or generals, and then employees and factory workers, nowadays the ideal occupant of Avtobusniki could be the robot Bender from Futurama, in the guise of a Soviet pensioner. Sergei Kulikov is an architecture historian and researcher

The Avtobusniki village, a few dozen kilometres from Moscow

Last stop Avtobusniki

In a rural village near Moscow legendary Soviet-era Ikarus 280 buses find a new life as impromptu architectural prostheses.

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