Prefabricated panel constructions quickly and efficiently provided new homes for expanding city populations after World War II. In the late 1950s, ‘One flat per family’ became, by decree, a priority for Nikita Khrushchev.

The ‘sleeping districts’ are homes to the vast majority of Muscovites and the monumental cityscapes they form are beyond striking.

Like other Soviet-era monotowns (or Моногород), Norilsk was designed around a single industry in a remote part of the Soviet Union.