Meanings
plural house-communes
- A communal housing structure built as part of an architectural and social movement in the Soviet Union in the 1920–1930s.
The newly constructed house-communes were, in fact, modest in their communal arrangements.
1979, Alena Heitlinger, Women and State Socialism, →ISBN, page 822 more examples
Although its name and conception bears some resemblance to many projects of utopian architecture -- house-communes and communist homes -- it was tecnically born out of Lenin's head.
1993, Public Culture, page 276Communal apartments shared the utopian constructivist ideas with the house-commune in that they also had common areas of use such as the communal kitchens and bathrooms (Utekhin 2003).
2013, Jacqueline Low, Gary Bowden, The Chicago School Diaspora: Epistemology and Substance, →ISBN
Origin
Calque of Russian дом-коммуна (dom-kommuna, “house-commune”)
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
house-commune. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/house-commune
“house-commune.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/house-commune. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “house-commune,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/house-commune.
Source: house-commune on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.