Ugsarmal bair (), or just Ugsarmal, is the

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

n term for

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. Some research ...

high rise A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...

panel buildings. Most of these buildings were built in the 1970s and 1980s with

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

funding and Soviet designs. Most of these buildings offered only small-sized flats to most inhabitants and were made to cheap quality standards while minimising the visual beauty of the buildings, at the same time they supplied a large share of Mongolia's population with flats equipped with modern amenities (tap hot & cold water, in-flat sanitation, central heating) which at the time were still quite rare in the country. Ugsarmals in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

, Erdenet and Darkhan are often high-rises, while those in the aimag centers usually have only four floors. Most public flats in Mongolia, including those in Ugsarmals, were privatized in the early 1990s.

Equivalents in other countries

The term ''Ugsarmal bair'' refers specifically to buildings in Mongolia. However, similar buildings ( Plattenbau) were built in other Communist countries and some Western countries. ;Eastern bloc housing *

Khrushchevka ''Khrushchevkas'' ( rus, хрущёвка, khrushchyovka, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfkə) are a type of low-cost, concrete-Panel building, paneled or brick three- to five-storied apartment buildings (and apartments in these buildings) which were designed ...

(

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) *

Panelák Panelák is a colloquial term in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak for a Large panel system-building, large panel system panel building constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, such as those extant in the former Soc ...

(

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

) * Panelház (

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) * Large panel system building (

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

) *

Systematization (Romania) Systematization () was a program of urban planning in the Socialist Republic of Romania from 1974 to 1989. Systematization was carried out by the Romanian Communist Party under the leadership of Nicolae Ceaușescu, impressed by the Mass mobil ...

;Other countries *

Million Programme The Million Programme () was a large public housing program implemented in Sweden between 1965 and 1974 by the governing Swedish Social Democratic Party to ensure the availability of affordable, high-quality housing to all Swedish citizens. Th ...

(

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) * Tower blocks (

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

)

Equivalents in other countries

See also