Apartment Building 63, also called Commune 63 (Romanian ''Comuna 63'') is an

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

located in the Dristor neighbourhood in the south-eastern part of

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

( Sectorul 3) and it is the largest single

residential building A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

with a total of 950 one-room apartments, and holding just over 1,600 residents. The building is nicknamed the ''commune'' because of the large number of apartments that could house an entire village or

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

, and because of the long corridors that stretch from one end of the building to the other and resemble a long country road. The apartment building has four staircases of 10 floors each and is built in the shape of a giant Z with an extension in the southern part of the structure. It is located near the

Dristor metro station Dristor is a major metro station in Bucharest. It is located on the Bd. Camil Ressu – Șoseaua Mihai Bravu – Calea Dudești junction. The part of the station at the end of metro line 1 is called Dristor 2; the other half of the station is Dris ...

, a major node of the

Bucharest Metro The Bucharest Metro ( ro, Metroul din București) is an underground rapid transit system that serves Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It first opened for service on 16 November 1979. The network is run by Metrorex. One of two parts of the large ...

's railway network.

History

Apartment Building 63 was finished and opened in 1963 and was first intended to be inhabited by officers of the

Romanian Armed Forces The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces ( ro, Forțele Armate Române or ''Armata Română''). The current Commander-in-chief is Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu who is managed ...

and of the Ministry of Administration and Interior. In the same year, the selected officers started to move into the apartments from the first two staircases of the building but because of the intensive demolition projects undergone in the area, the original purpose of the building was changed, and the structure's role was to serve as a new home for the people that had to move from their demolished houses. The building was considered by the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

to be a symbol of the centralized state and an outstanding feat of engineering designed for the citizen comrade in the vision of the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

perspective. Another four sister buildings, built in the same year, are scattered across the eastern part of Bucharest; one of them is near Mihai Bravu Avenue, called Block P10 on Oborul Nou Street, and another one is called Block M31, located on Aleea Barajul Bicaz.

References

{{Coord, 44, 25, 17.1, N, 26, 8, 22.2, E, display=title Apartment buildings Buildings and structures in Bucharest Residential buildings in Romania