house-commune

noun

A communal housing structure built as part of an architectural and social movement in the Soviet Union in the 1920–1930s.

Meanings

nounhouse-commune (plural house-communes)

plural house-communes

  1. 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 82
    2 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 276

    Communal 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
APA

house-commune. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/house-commune

MLA

“house-commune.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/house-commune. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

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.