A record-breaking 3-kilometer-long building has been discovered in Lutsk, home to thousands of residents
Lutsk is home to a unique residential complex considered to be the longest building in the world. It stretches for nearly three kilometers and consists of 38 buildings of varying heights.
From space, the structure resembles a hexagon, similar to a honeycomb.
A cascade of five-story and nine-story sections stretches along two avenues in Lutsk—Molodi and Sobornosti.
Each individual part of the complex has its own administrative address, although they all effectively form a single massive structure.
Due to its enormous scale and similar architecture, people sometimes get lost among the numerous courtyards and arches.
Local resident Lyubov Lapchenko, who moved here in 1980 after the building was completed, recounted some curious incidents.
“It’s like a scavenger hunt. I’ll see a man walk past me three times. Then he’ll say, ‘Can you tell me how to get out of here? I can find my way in the woods, but not here. You walk through one archway here, and you come out of another,” she said.
According to her, getting home was difficult at first. The trip from downtown took about 40 minutes. Back then, there were cornfields all around, and planes used to fly nearby. Just a few years later, the neighborhood began to develop rapidly.
Another resident, Valery Gavruk, who has lived here since 1996, recalls that at first the area resembled a village more than an urban district.
“In our glorious District 33, I remember when the combine harvesters were still out there. There was some confusion, but no catastrophic getting lost. Although back then there was no navigation or phones. We found our way purely through conversation,” he noted.
According to Oleksandr Kotys, construction of the complex began in 1969. Architects Vasyl Malovitsa and Rostyslav Metelnytskyi worked on the project.
The local historian explains that determining the world’s longest building depends on the criteria used to classify the structure.
“There are many long buildings in the world, and there are criteria for determining them. For example, this one is built on a continuous foundation, but there are sections that branch off. It’s a folk legend that’s not far from the truth,” Kotys explained.
At the same time, he emphasized that even if the Lutsk building is not technically the longest in the world, it certainly ranks among the record-breaking buildings that impress with their sheer scale.
The building has 156 entrances and over 3,000 apartments, home to nearly 7,000 people.
The idea for such a large-scale residential complex emerged in the late 1960s, during a period of active industrialization. At that time, new factories were being built in the city and large residential districts were being planned. And after the launch of the Lutsk trolleybus system in 1972, architects began to implement the plan for a large residential complex.
Today, residents continue to renovate the building and implement energy-saving technologies.
Emilia Khimochka, chair of the “Smaragd, 13” homeowners’ association, noted that the building in Microdistrict 33 was one of the first large-scale residential complexes to undergo comprehensive thermal modernization.
During the renovation process, residents gradually replaced utility lines, insulated the attic and walls, and replaced the hot water pipes, windows in common areas, and some of the windows in the apartments.
This was reported by Oleksandr Kotys, head of the city council’s cultural heritage department.
As a reminder, Ukrainian veterans plan to set a new Guinness World Record on the Dnipro River by pulling a massive barge through the water using only the strength of swimmers.
