Zhemchug Residential Building

History

Zhemchug ('Pearl') is a 16-storey cast-concrete apartment block on Buyuk Turon Street, built in 1974–1985 to a design by Ofelia Aydinova — the only 'gallery house' of its kind in Uzbekistan, with open communal courtyards linking flats across several floors. It drew on the ideas of the Japanese Metabolist Kiyonori Kikutake and Hans Scharoun's Romeo and Juliet flats in Stuttgart. Tashkent's chief architect rejected the scheme in 1974 and Moscow at first refused too, yet building began that same year. The nickname comes from the Zhemchug jewellery shop on the ground floor, which eclipsed the official address.

Architecture

Two semicircular wings meet at a central core with the lifts, a layout that naturally ventilates the open courtyards. Every three floors a shared courtyard about 10 metres high serves a block of 24 flats — the idea of the mahalla neighbourhood turned vertical. Shops occupied the lower floors, and the roof once held a recreation area and a children's pool.

On 26 July 2026 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the serial property 'Tashkent Modernist Architecture: Modernity and Tradition in Central Asia'.