Commie Blocks Are Pretty Good, Actually
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ย. 2021
- Commie blocks are neat, as it turns out!
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The irony of people laughing at 'commie blocks' in a country with anti-homeless architecture is not lost on me.
And it’s crazy considering in my town in America we’re actively building apartments and condos all the time but the issue is …. Expensive rent. Like at this point we just dont wanna solve nor come up with a few solutions for homelessness. In my city, They’re bulldozing section 8 housing and building more “luxurious” section 8 apartment buildings or just moving those people to another town, however they are STILL building new commercial and expensive realty over top of that…. My city wants to be baby nyc without having initiative about why people wanna move there but also why nyc still has a huge homeless problem. Lmao
You know why there were almost no homeless people in the USSR ?
... because people got deported into gulags if they didn't work voluntarily.
And what's "anti-homeless architecture"?
Housing you have to pay for with money ?
@@satanicdude one by the time of the second big housing process post stalin gulags were havily being phased out. also anti homeless achtecture, is things like holes in benches or straight up concrete spikes on overpaths, spikes on heating exhaust for the city etc. Anti homelessness archtecture affects everyone including the non homeless as it takes away space for recreation due to being uncomforatble, it also has started becoming more expensive than actully housing the homeless.
@@Yingyanglord1 Same thing happening here in Brazil. In São Paulo, the governor years ago instaled spikes and put concrete stones under bridges, and other places where homeless people sleep so they wouldn´t do it anymore. They also doused some with strong water jets to get them out of the area. More recently, police have been keeping pastors, who have been doing good deeds and helping poor and homeless people (many affected by drugs) with food and clothes, away from such areas. They basically have to stealth missions to get in and help them. Or in Rio, where for the olympic games they literally just put up loads of walls and grids to block the view of and hide the poor parts of the area, so strangers couldn´t even see them. And also basically the police keeps on arriving in your community (favela) and many times controles the region through brute force and military influence with guns and kills or hurts your loved ones and scare the overall population with their guns... Hatred for the poor is real.
@@DHPanthony
Y'know it's 'amazing' (in a horrifying way) to think the amount of time, energy, resources, and man power they (Brazil's governments, local and federal) will put towards harrassment of the homeless and persecution of the poor could've been spent addressing and solving these problems, truly saddening.
"Commie blocks next to dead trees"
They are not dead, adam. This is called "winter"
Sleepy trees 😀👍🏻
The trees actually lose leaves when it's called winter.
English isn't his first language, relax
@@KaleidoscopicVideos420 Also a lot of native speakers use dead as hyperbole for how depressing the "dormant" season is. At least me and my family does in the American Midwest.
Well it could be winter. But you can't prove they are not just dead trees in winter.
I notice that the aesthetic of "commie blocks" is actually pretty similar to a lot of post-war council housing in Britain.
yeah and council housing fucking sucks having lived in it. idk why adam is saying anything remotely similar is good lol
@@chair6703 Probably because bad housing you can actually live in is infinitely superior to good housing you cannot afford.
@@Bustermachine if its socialized housing, at least make it liveable. instead of "eh just do thr least effort, theyll settle for it"
The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979.
@@jaisbrennan7696 Your point being?
We had similar hosing projects here in Japan after the war. But in typical Japanese style, the quality was very good albeit the exterior designs were very simple for cost saving reasons. Local Japanese also felt they had won the lottery-literally since lotteries are used to this day for some of the more popular structures in convenient locations. We call them “danchi “ complexes and are still standing today offering affordable housing to the working class of Japan. They are getting older and need regular upkeep and improvements, which are dutifully performed. Only drawback is that most do not allow pets at least in central Tokyo and Yokohama. They even offer discounts on the rent for young families, families who want to live closer to their aging parents, and discounts for single moms trying to raise a family by herself. And even though they are public housing, they welcome foreigners with open arms.
Went and googled danchi. Was not disappointed.
Everything about them was good until the last part
That all sounds great! I knew I liked Japan for a reason.
@@constantinethecataphract5949 It's not like Japan is at risk of suffering an immigration crisis, so what's the problem? I'm sure the amount of foreigners is very small.
@@leandrog2785 its a slippery slope
A: "Argh those commie blocks are so grey and depressing"
B: *slaps a coat of paint onto them*
A: "Wait! That's illegal!"
This is actually pretty relatable, because when our house got some paint on it, it looked even better than those new houses that were built nearby
"wow it's so beautiful now!" -anyone who hasn't seen them in real life
@@trunestor It does look way better tho and often includes new insulation
@@trunestor I had that reaction when I first saw painted & insulated commie blocks. It's MUCH more beatiful compared to old commie-blocks.
They are still disgusting
I wasn't expecting Adam to look like mild-mannered Clark Kent lol
I'm disappointed he's so young. I was imagining someone in his 50s & was getting a crush.
@@MaddieMaddocks same
@@MaddieMaddocks He's still just adorable though, isn't he?
He kinda looks like Adam Ragusea’s younger cousin.
@@NerfMaster000 I was thinking Nicholas Hoult, the actor who played Beast in the X-Men reboots.
I grew up in a Polish commie block and to this day, I remember it as one the best living situations I have ever experienced. Unbeatable social aspects, walkability, excellent public transportation and proximity to everything I needed. Today, I live in deep suburbia, where no one walks outside and I need to drive miles just to buy food. It's awful and depressing.
I live in a commie block area in Poland. The apartment itself is a bit "meh", our block looks kinda decrepit, and the one other thing that bothers me is the relative lack of meeting places (coffee shops, bars) in the commercial sectors (a few ice-cream joints, but mostly takeout), but other than that... man, I love it here. The amount of greenery is off the charts, with every service and store imaginable within walking distance. Great tram and bus connections with the rest of the city, 15 minutes by bus to the regional train station, and 30 minutes to the big one, 30 minutes to the airport. It's a heaven for children (we have three) - every grass section between blocks has a playground or two, there's also a huge exercise area adjacent to the local school, a line park, a bunch of beautifully designed, kid-friendly parks. BTW, when I say "grass sections", I don't mean lawns, but cool, natural looking green areas with trees, pretty bushes and stuff.
So, yeah. A fantastic place to live in, and also compared to some of the places you showed, we have less concrete. The whole setup is also a boon for health - I walk about 2800-3000 km a year (often with significant added weight, like a kid on my back, or groceries for 5 people) just living my normal life. Two thumbs up!
I like how "sad and depressing" pictures of commieblocks are always taken in the middle of the winter. As if it's the building's fault that winters in Russia are like that: gray, snowy and without any leaves on the trees. Take the same pictures in the middle of a sunny summer and it's nowhere near as depressing. Can confidently say so because I live in one.
It really is, I have no idea where you're from but they look awful.
@@LaVaZ000 you didn't get the point of my comment, did you.
Pretty sure grey and depressing is less a property of Russian winters and more Russia generally. 🤔
@@klobiforpresident2254 visit us in the summer 😃
@@2D_SVD
I do plan to visit but have to brush up on my Russian first.
"That's to ugly, we prefer to be homeless." Said nobody ever
Plenty of American "veterans" (aka invaders) chose to be homeless.
Nah, I'd rather be shot in the head
"Homeless people should be thankful for whatever we give them"
@@suspiciousbird487 I mean you could if you are black
But what if I tell you to become homeless to own the libs?
When I first played Fallout 4, I got the quest "build beds to your settlers" I said ok I decided to build a communist block building for them. It was extremely difficult to just design those things to make sure not to have unused areas in any floors but I did it. It's harder than you might think. Once I had the plans it took me 3 days and I built it. I was amazed how efficient this thing was. I was suppose to house 12 settlers at that point, but my commie block was capable of housing 36 settlers easily on a 4×6 square area in the game! Not counting the ground floor, which was a pub. It had an elevator in it plus a stairway, each apartments had 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, and 2 balconies! The limit of the settlement is 22 settlers and this thing overkilled it with ease!
How to make a nuclear apocalypse worse? Finally everyone has a bit of privacy becuase the world has ended and you shove 12 people into a commie block. My God. I'd rather side with the raiders. 😉😉😂🤣🤣🤣
@@theMerovingianMan The torture didn't end here XD Later I built a 19 story commie block on Abernathy farm. It had 38 apartments which was enough to house every single NPC in the entire game, plus all the raiders of Nuka World. I only had around 18 settlers there, so I put their beds to the top floors so every day they had to go all the way up to the 19th floor to sleep XD I put junk mortars and those tennis ball shooter things on the top of the building. Every day when the settlers were working on the crops to make food, I bombardiered them with junk just for fun XD Once a settler was complaining about the water situation, but the water supply was good. So I put his bed on the top of the commie block exposed to rain, radstorms, and everything, I put a flower bed next to it with a single piece of tayto. So all he could do is work and sleep XD That settler lived like that for my entire gameplay XD
Jesse
What the fuck are you talking about
I love that game any screen caps of the building?
How long did this take?
The disconnect between eastern Europeans that see commie blocks and Americans can be boiled down to poverty. When an American sees a commie block they tend to think that it was a place to house only poor people, that were than forgotten. Hence, they tend to view commie blocks as being synonymous with America projects, and associate with them the same sort of problems. But one really good thing the commies did was get people from across a wide swath of society to live in these things. Your neighbor could just as easily be a university professor as a janitor.
From Reddit: "You know what's more depressing than commieblocks? Homelessness"
Oftentimes though it's choice. Advanced West European countries already have everything to solve homelessness, but there are still homeless people, because you can provide a room for them to live, but not all will want to settle somewhere. Same as there were homeless and jobless people in USSR too, although militsiya (police) were catching them and forcing them to work, sending to factories (which went badly as they were just drinking vodka, and demotivating other workers). Some people are fine with hunter-gatherer lifestyle, some are so deep in alcoholism/drug abuse that they do not want any help and should we help or correct them against their will? I'm all for better social safety nets and social policies but people are people, sometimes it's not ''capitalism'' that makes them a certain way, it's who people are
but we have commieblocks, and also homelessness
@@lkrnpk Often it's a choice what?? And no, most Western European countries don't care about solving homelessness, very few homeless people are homeless by choice, and it's often a death sentence
And suburban hellscapes. At leas a well kept commie block gives you an outdoor space that is not a lawn you have too keep trimmed to within a mm of it's life to satisfy the local home owners association.
@@Hey1234Hey a commie block is far from a shipping container. People who lived in small houses (which, itself is a massive improvement from a shipping container) described it as a massive leap forward in terms of housing.
Soviet Union: Duplicated apartment blocks
America: Duplicated suburban houses
@UCHKJXxVVDg9MHcRj_PfBe4g suburban houses all look the same, require cars, and are inneficient and fall apart.
Dont forget the duplicated mandatory double-garages too!
There are many innovative projects/utilities globally but the US refuses to adopt anything developed elsewhere. Bundle this with a bought and paid for Congress, it spells problems for the country, stifling progress.
America: Duplicated tent cities
But only for some people as wages drop like dead leaves.
I lived half my life in commie block, half my life in social housing in England. Commie block feel like a luxury in comparison. It felt like a home. The thick walls provided really good sound insulation. While living in social housing in England if I don't have something on, I can hear what my neighbours are watching. I know one of them is fan of Justin Bieber. Its like they made the walls and floors out of corrugated cardboard at best.
Just commie blocks were ment for eastern europe middle class. You should compare them with american suburban houses from 50s
"thick walls"? Inside walls are made of concrete panels 12 or so cm thick, I guess you have lived in some luxury commie block...
What are you talking about? You must have never lived in a normal apartment. Soviet-era houses have so many flaws that I can't even count them. 1. The wiring is made of aluminum, which means that it is not recommended to turn on household appliances at the same time, because the wiring does not withstand the voltage. 2. Small kitchens. Forget about buying any kitchen appliances. If in a 3-room apartment, because then you can put part of the kitchen equipment in the room. I have a refrigerator, a blender and a robot vacuum cleaner in a separate room because there was no room in the kitchen. 3. The ventilation is very bad. Co2. the level is very high in the apartment and the wallpaper gets moldy in humid times. 4. Even an insulated apartment in a residential building has class D heat resistance, while most apartments are currently being built with category A and B. This means that in winter you can count on big financial expenses. 5. The interior design is banal. 6. There is so little space in the bathroom that you have to choose a washing machine according to the measurements. You can forget about a separate dryer. 6. Very little parking space in front of the houses when they were built, the factor that people will buy more cars in the future was not taken into account. 7. The sound comes through the wall from all sides. You can't even play electric drums connected to headphones without the police being called on you. 8. Apartment buildings look very ugly and cheap. It is noticeable that it has been plastered together as cheaply as possible.
@@naydennaydev7071 Still thicker than British walls. I didn't use to hear neighbours having a shower, or using their washing machine, or having sex at 6am before work, with obviously the husband finishing first every time because as soon as all the moaning stops the vibrator goes on for another 5 minutes.
@@rapator9270
1 Wiring: I did forget when I was a kid, we had electrician try to fix one of our lights that stopped working, he came in drunk, and burned down all the wiring (not only our apartment but our whole block, impressive lol), we did get it replaced with copper.
2 I lived in a bigger apartment, our kitchen was bigger then the one we have in England. I know the smaller apartments the kitchen was about the same size as the one I have now, and I don't find it an issue. (though our living room and bedrooms are bigger than the soviet ones, let alone the tiny 3 room ones which didn't really have a living room.
3 I'm not sure as for ventilation, we didn't have issue with mould but also didn't have wallpaper. we had paint. If you want to see mould come to England.
4 After soviet union we had additional insulation installed, My grand parents currently only rely on the pipes that carry the hot water to heat the apartment, they do not open the radiators. in winter. (Soviet central heating system)
5 you mean that all of the apartments are the same, there were only few styles. It's very interesting going to a different city to visit distant relatives and its the same layout, at least I didn't have to ask where is the bathroom.
6 I didn't have to choose the washing machine, so idk how much of an issue that was, but I honestly never in my life seen just dryer machine. Seams like stupid American design not to have a combo unit. They both spin, they both have a heater element, you can just have it wash and dry, no moving clothes from 1 to the other.
6.5 Oh this is the best part though, I can visit my family with out requiring to drive there, I don't require a car. Roads are quiet, most places are walkable, the public transport is actually functional and affordable?!
7 this is where I hear people say that a lot but I never ever had any issue with sound isolation. Maybe we had best soviet blocks in the whole union?
8 they looked bad on the outside, though inside they were nice, and after having insulation put on the outside covering the square structurer and having them painted all nice they even look nice on the outside.
I have lived in 3 areas like this in social democratic Sweden, and loved them all. We call them "miljonprogrammet" (literally the million program) where the goal was to build a million apartments moving a lot of people out of shit housing.
The houses are butt-ugly, but the inside is a lot more functional than anything newer I have lived in, and you walk out of the house directly into areas with lots of grass and trees and almost without cars.
These days most of the areas are not considered nice to live in due to their socio-economic status, but those I have lived in have been a lot more human friendly than the later built million program of the upper middle class.
The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979.
I lived in something similar in Denmark and it was actually quite nice. Very little space but it was well designed to get the most out of such a small place.
I'm currently living in one in the UK and I can't say the same. It's very loud and the noise can be stressful essentially with young neighbours who have friends over frequently. I can hear every footstep and sneeze next door, and the layout seems haphazard and cluttered.
The place I am living now is owned by a company, which I have never seen my landlord in person. When I was accepted I just paid and received the pin codes by email.
There is a significant difference in a well planned building and a property lazily renovated to fit as many people as possible to maximise profits.
I'm hoping to move soon as the sound is ruining my mental health. I have sensory processing disorder and it's starting to make me overstimulated and sleep deprived. There is nowhere nearby I can easily get to that is quiet, like a park or library. There are parks and such but they are still noisy and busy and the library has noise from the shopping centre.
Sorry for going off on a tangent the sleep deprivation is making me agitated 😂
Well to be fair, there's no culture in the world that does a better job at getting smart people to actually do work than Sweden.
I have a similar experience in Sweden.
I don´t know how old you are, but most of the worst "miljonprogramet" was torn down in the 00s and late 90s. All the rest was renovated between 00 and 10. The windows was switched out in all of them, a huge improvement. Kitchen and bathroom was either partly fixed up or totally renovated. Sometimes the floor was refloated.
In reality there was never 1 million flats made, the number was closed to 850k, still that was way to much for a country with 5-6 million population. Leading to a huge surplus apartments.
There was also modular concrete buildings made as early as 1930 in Sweden, as well as in 1950s. People often confuse them for "milionprogramet" because they look kind of similar, but they was built way before the program.
I was in my early 20s around the time those flats was renovated and move around a lot. I lived in plenty of them both before and after being fixed up. And most of the was pretty awful prior to being fixed up. (but its also a huge geographical diffrance, most of the very late flats are also much better quality.).
Its also worth saying that most modules in Sweden was during this period made with a 160mm standard, and during the very latest year increased to 180mm. While the eastern block counter part was built to 120 - 140mm standard. That is a huge diffrance in sound insulation.
When they was built in Sweden they was all built with linked to glass. When they was upgraded in the 90s and 00s they was all replaced with monolithic 3 glass argon, that is the same that is used in new build to this day. Standard today for new-build is 200mm walls having a huge increase of sound insulation relative to the 160mm (its like the cube of the width is the sound dampening)
The reason mostly expensive flats have been built the last years is due to how municipality (komun in Swedish) handling planing making it very expensive to buy a plot to build a new house, forcing the builders to build expensive flats to recoup there cost. Its also the effect of the municipality in most places want to make the city more compact building in what use to be open places. Making the central flats more and more expensive. Back in the 90s there was hardly a price diffrance between a central flat and a flat in the suburbs. Now the diffrance is huge.
Ironically, the reason why modern city is so humen unfrendly, is that planers wanted to make them more walkable, by compacting them more together,.
"Its pretty hard to mess up" as an engineer, you would be surprised
Friend we are engineer not architect. We will find the mistakes and they will ignore them and we get the blame, cheers.
yo nice profile pic
I haven't heard of a single building from the last century that didn't come with at least a bunch of mistakes
People mess up EVERYTHING.
But at least giant piles of concrete are indeed less prone to falling apart within years... it can happen, especially if greedy a-holes skimmed on materials, but the same can happen in everything-housing.
The city i live in in germany had two of those giant concrete eyesores, both run down to the max.
One got renovated pretty good (the apartments all got sold), the other was blown up and replaced by a big electronics/entertainment shop (
I have seen people mess up a 'fold flaps in order of the numbers labeled in big green text on the flaps' box it would not surprise me
concrete is hard to mess up compared to other materials, a bunch of roman legionaries could craft still functioning roads with the archaic form of concrete: 'crete'
Everytime someone shows me how "depressing" everything there is, the picture is taken in winter.
Yeah of course the sky is dark and the trees arent green!
ITS WINTER!
Also, there should be the muddy winter for the photo, if it's Yakutia winter then the commieblocks start looking cool even in winter)
Evergreens!!!
Having lived in the old eastern bloc, I can tell you they're also fucking gross in summer
I love Winter.
eastern europe looks depressing regardless of the season
I always thought of Commie blocks as retro futuristic . In most of the sci fi Hollywood movies , you would find homes like these.
My entire family in Poland on both sides lives in blocks / bloki. My grandpa has been in his unit since the 1960's. Its a fun colored 4 story building in the city of Opole. The entire neighborhood has these same Blocks. 2 big bedrooms, sizable living room with enclosed balcony, decently sized kitchen. Walls still have wood panneling and the furniture and electronics are all from the soviet 60s but the unit itself is very nice. The part that sucks is that there is no elevator and my 89 year old grandpa lives alone on the 4th floor. His unit is nice, but I really hate the high rise blocks. These are extremely depressing and run down. I also have a family member in one of these. No balcony, one delapitated elevator in the whole building that is broken 80% of the time, narrow ugly hallways usually filled with drunks and vomit, or both.
Going off the beginning of the video, we literally still have one of those "pre war" properties in the family. My grandpa's childhood home has no running water at all, with only enough electric wiring to power an ancient mini fridge and tube radio. So I guess coming from that, blocks were an upgrade.
TLDW: Commie blocks aren't just functional housing, they're cohesive neighbourhoods that take into account the needs of the residents and don't treat them like a resource to be mined for the most rent possible
That's... A very good positive!
Yeah, 12 story buildings really help building cohesion between neighbors.
You don't know what you are talking about. The commieblock my wife grew up now has dozens of small shops/barber shops/dentist practices/pharmacies/beauty salons, etc instead of the ground floor appartments. And all of them are full. Commies had no idea what people need.
@@timbehrens9678 I'm not making this argument at all, I'm just summarising my understanding of Adam Something's argument, since that's what the video seems to boil down to.
@@timbehrens9678 I'm honestly confused about your comment; you're talking as if incorporating workplaces into the buildings is a bad thing, or at least I'm getting that.
"Decaying gray blocks under the dark sky"
I don't know about the dark sky, but the decaying gray block can be changed for not a lot of costs, renovation and paint and you'll get functionnable appartments with bright colors :p
The DPRK paints theirs all sorts of colors
@@Zhicano You're right, we should ban colors. That'll teach the commies.
When you comment before you reach 6:09 in the video
Or just not looking at photos taken from from a drone, nearly exclusively in late autumn - early spring period.
And that's exactly what most of the former Soviet bloc did.
Russian here. Lived in four of these, all were pretty good. City planning is superb, i was able to get to my school, hospital, uni and now work in about half an hour on foot. Lots and lots of green spaces that look nice at summer and snowy winter. Flats were descent, a little noise here and there, some walls were curved, but overall it's good. We have a lot of new houses in my town, and they are. ..well, worse. Much,much bigger buildings, to the point it makes it uncomfortable to be next to, apartments are either smaller or way too expensive, noisy, and close to no infrastructure in the area. State was building with a plan, so they could decide where to make a road, a school, where to plant trees for it to be convenient for people. Capitalists are building to make profit with as little losses as possible, so they don't usually care about such things. The only advantage the new houses have is they are painted bright. However it's more of a maintainence problem and some of the older ones that are kept in a good shape also look good, especially at summer
Above all. In the USSR, these houses were built en masse, solving housing problems for tens of millions of people (after industrialization, most of the population of the USSR began to live in cities). And these apartments were given to people from the employer for free. My parents and all the parents of my friends in 1970-80 received apartments with 2 or 3 bedrooms. And utilities cost literally pennies. In each microdistrict there were 2-3 kindergartens and schools (also free, of course). This is one of the advantages of socialism that young Russians do not understand (not to mention people from Western countries).
Totally agree, +1 from romania
As a kid I lived in a commie block and my grandparents still live in one. I love both houses.
I live in a commie block and I love it. It's close to the train station and theres a nearby busstop
@@SizaMeSehi Which country? (Mine's Hungary.)
"You can't mess up a slab of concrete" oh you would be surprised. I've seen walls warped in all kind of ways, and only maybe a half of those could be attributed to installation mistakes.
i can confirm that, I often have to slightly alter new furniture to make it fit the walls that aren't at 90° from the floor, or there is a visible gap.
* China swating nervously *
@@gabotron94 That's exactly what American developers want you to think lol. Paint them with all the worst construction companies they can find in China and call them all the same so that you would think American developers are different in a good way. Fact is, bad companies make bad stuff, and bad companies are everywhere in the world no matter where they are. Just because you're shown construction failures/demolition projects that make their buildings look very vulnerable doesn't mean every single construction company in the same country work the same, because if that's the case then nobody would risk building the Empire State building either because of all the bad construction companies in America.
If someone finds a straight wall in a commie block, lmk. They're all slightly curved.
@@hommhommhomm As a carpenter working in Germany i can say with confidence: i haven't seen a SINGLE house without messy walls and/or floors. You ALWAYS have to adjust furniture and even windows/doors according to the real measurements you find.
The key part being: NOT A SINGLE HOUSE, regardless of it's building style.
No real world house ends up with perfectly straight walls and floors, those only exist on paper.
This gets even crazier in regions with a long history of mining, a history found under a crazy amount of cities in germany.
Coming from Canada, I spent a few months in a renovated "Commie block" apartment in Hungary. It had small rooms, but was quite nice. And the pedestrian accessibility was amazing. Everything we needed was nearby. Plus there were indeed multiple nearby schools, day cares, and doctor's offices. Our balcony had a nice view of green spaces below. It was lovely. 10/10 would take that style of urban planning over either over-dense downtowns with no light at ground level, or under-dense suburbs with terrible walkability.
That is exactly what "commie blocks" were designed to do - you want dense cities but need somewhere for people to live that won't require long commutes? Commie block.
Exactly the content they wanted you to feel with their government
"the pedestrian accessibility was amazing. Everything we needed was nearby." Wtf would you need a disgusting commie block for that? I have that for both of my apartments in Hungary, one in historic rural town's downtown, one in Budapest downtown, and they are both in districts with old classical buildings with no commie blocks in sight. I need to walk less than 50 meters for a major grocery store from both places fe.
@@moonstriker7350 You know, my aunt lives in a castle and it has as much to do with the topic as your classical buildings. The problem is that almost nothing *after* commie blocks has taken urban planning seriously.
@@moonstriker7350 Fair enough, but that was my experience living in one of those blocks. I think the architecture on the classical buildings was definitely more interesting though.
I was born in a Soviet apartment building and lived there for most of my childhood and after that, I've lived mostly in NYC and mostly in NYC apartment buildings. So, I can compare the two experiences. One big win for Soviets were the superblocks. They were the size of about 10-12 NYC blocks and had lots of trees, grass, playgrounds, soccer fields inside of them. Many had either schools or kindergartens, some had medical clinics. All had bakeries, markets, convivence stores, etc. So, it was a lot better, in my view. Kids could walk themselves to school, without crossing busy roads, you can ran out to buy fresh bread of vegetables and it will take only a few minutes. Most apartments looked out at trees and only some looked out at major roads. I think it's better than looking at another set of windows across a narrow street, the way Manhattan is set up. And while everything is also pretty convenient here, it's still longer walks over busy streets which adds to stress, in my view.
Now apartments themselves were small, had only one bathroom, tiny kitchens where you had to pick what you wanted to fit in there - a fridge or a kitchen table (one fits but not both, usually). However, when I compare it Manhattan typical 1960-1980s apartments, it's not much better. Obviously, you get very spacious apartments with 2,3,4 bedrooms and multiple bathrooms and large kitchens but basic 1 bedrooms and 2 bedrooms also have tiny kitchens (almost never sit-in ones). You do get multiple bathrooms, which is a plus. In terms of sound isolation and quality of construction, I think NYC Is actually WORSE. Walls are thinner, ceilings are lower and window frames are worse but only a bit worse. Obviously, luxury buildings and new construction is of much higher quality in NYC.
I grew up in the 90s in a block neighbourhood build in the 80s and it was amazing. My kindergarten was in the basement of my block and my school was 2 minutes away in the middle of the complex. There was SO MUCH space between building, lots of area for children to play and hand around, greenery everywhere, almost car free as access road went around it like ring. It was cool in the summer and hot in the winter, can't complain really.
I'm from 70th commie-block in Moscow. I was lefting my appartments in 20 minutes before start of first lesson in school. This 20 minutes included time to put down winter clothes and change the shoes.
Khrushchev's lego was, I feel, one of the most important developments in housing. it worked, really, really well. Some of the Soviet town planning concepts as well (clustering developments around public spaces and services, pedestrian friendly layouts) were absolutely brilliant. Singapore copied almost all the same basic principles for their HDB new towns, and they're also fantastic.
A lot of the stock in the UR Housing program in Japan also follows similar design patterns. Not to mention more than one private development firm. Apparently the apartments inside are pretty good and relatively cheap for their value to rent/buy, but you can really tell what design of the apartments they're copying from. :/
You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
It really was
@@DyslexicMitochondria your username made me click on your profile. Your channel is a hidden gem bro
@@imShlievenhien Compare home ownership rates in Vietnam/Cuba vs the US
2:47 Adam having a model train collection is somehow both the funniest and most expected thing ever
Yes I love the model trains, a highlight of this video!
I have some too, wish nine was as nice as his
So on brand I didn't bat an eye. Pretty though!
ČESKÉ DRÁHY REPRESENT
I saw that too, pretty cool!
I have some model trains myself, kinda got a little bit of everything (HO, N, and G), though I mainly do LEGO Trains, so have a lot of L-Gauge stuff.
One interesting thing to mention: they didn't just put up the the appartment blocks in lego style, but also schools, at least here in Germany (former GDR territory). It was called "Typenschulbau" (roughly translates to "type-based school building").
And honestly, besides a one or two minor problems (like the entrance had to be fitted with a ramp for better accessibility): they were fine. I know what I'm talking about because I went to primary school (from 2000) in a building of type "Erfurt II", then the school moved to a different building of type "Erfurt II" and finally my first years at high school it was located in building of type "Erfurt II". They were all exactly the same.
Function is all what matters! I think they did the exact same in the Netherlands.
@@hagelslag9312 Aesthetics matters, but it should be decided after function.
I lived in a communist block here in Serbia.
Also the buildings had horrendous sound isolation, I could hear my neighbor upstairs fart
I’m from Poland. We’ve got lots of building like this. They are ugly - too big, too blocky, too grey. But the city planning aspect of them is great! Every part of the city that is dominated by them is planned completely - grass, trees, places for kids, cyclist etc. The newer part of the city look better, but are chaotic and worse in the holistic planning aspect.
Shortly - the are not pretty, but make for a great space to live in.
Can't they just slap some colourful panels onto the concrete walls? There's no rules saying that they can't make it look good other than it technically not being profitable.
if we made a new version that isn't as brutalist we might be able to combine beauty and good city planning
@@DragoonBoom There was an ugly concrete office block in my town, until it was bought up and given a bit of a makeover. It's now referred to as 'The Blue Building' and it looks much better, and is a useful landmark, being right next to the railway station.
@@DragoonBoom In Poland they are beeing plastered and painted. Especially if the building is insulated. Looks much better.
But the problem is that the size of the building itself makes it a bit overwhelming structure. Especially if there is many of them on the block.
Still - the terrain around theme is awesome! Lots of trees, little businesses, kindergartners etc. Much better than on the newer estates.
@@superrinusblick4222 The newer ones are much prettier but still enormous.
Americans: Those commie blocks all look the same
Me: Looks at cookie-cutter suburbs IN America...
(EDIT: Thanks for the 2k+ upvotes on my comment everyone... You all are the best!)
But... but... but muh rugged individualism
That and HOAs run by jobless busybodies demanding everyone keep their property to impossible standards.
I like the suburban house look, but commie blocks are good for high population areas. They can also be designed to look good and not like dry cement blocks.
Same with sandstone coloured Barret houses here in the UK, haha
As someone who grew up in a post-SU country, I find it funny when left-leaning people berate their own medium and dream of one they never actually experienced.
Ask anyone here, they would prefer living in a shitty copypasted American suburb than in an anthill that is a commie block.
Anyone else notice that Adam is living with a malevolent sentient plant?
"Commie blocks are depressing" He commented sitting on an Anti-Homeless bench.
Capitalist countries are already catching on. But now they call them "modular homes", its a brand new capitalist idea guys, so innovative.
The USSR was state capitalist, so I gues capitalists did develop commie blocks afterall
I'm always amused by articles describing the revolutionary advantages of prefabrication as a solution to the housing crisis. Like, yeah, we were doing that in the '60s, what's the big deal?
@@sidexrulz2006 Propaganda. If the plebs think everything is new and innovative, they wont question if the system actually innovates, or just claims to do so.
Pretty sure humans could innovate and solve problems if they had everything they needed to survive as opposed to living life like struggle via employment is somehow required for human sanity, it's not.
@@lzrrrrr3370 Nah, if the right is gonna give us Socialists shit for what the Soviets did, I say we should take credit for the good and smart things that came out of them.
There's nothing new that hasn't been done under the sun.
Worth to mention that "complete planning" in Soviet cities also included green areas for relaxation an aesthetics, which nowadays in free and liberal Eastern Europe are gradually taken away from the local residents(by new commercial or residential buildings), without any planning at all
depends on how ''free and liberal'' a certain country is
Sounds like a whole lot of words to say : the problem is corruption
@@Impossibleshadow yeah that doesn't mean that planned economy has no corruption right? :) It just means that it plans better than free market
@@111splinter111 When a system fails because of corruption it doesn't really say anything about the quality economic system. So if you want to shit on any economic sectors you should isolate the corruption out and then make a comparison. Otherwise you only give an example of "corruption bad"
Did they get any green areas for private relaxation etc (like a garden)?
Commieblocks, from a design and urban planning POV, are actually examples to emulate. It's just also important to maintain them.
I have lived in the Czech Republic in such a building that was quite good. The amenities regarding the time it was built and the design, with its playground and stores within reach for each block as well as necessary space between the buildings.
Not remotely surprised that Adam has a big collection of model trains. That tracks 100%. (Pun intended.)
Yup! When I saw that, I realised his love of trains likely predates his interest in urban planning and good commuting options.
Dude just likes trains!
@@gromm93 wholesome man adam
He and Francis Bourgeois should collab.
Genuinely would love to see the collection in full, having amassed way too much of it myself
I grew up in a commie block area and couldn't agree more. The part where I grow up was called Lesná. Which could be translated as "Foresty". There was green everywhere! Groups of trees between the blocks. Kindergartens planed into the area! I had kindergarten 10 meters away. Playgrounds on NEARLY EVERY STREET. 2 big primary schools. 2 mid sized supermarkets and at least 5 small corner shops. Many pubs. Football field, tennis courts, swimming pool, one big foresty area in the middle of the area where we used to play all the time. Well done side walks. There were large gaps of community space and beautiful foresty areas in the area and around the area. Very well connected with public transportation. All on 2.6 square kilometers of area. Everything was in walking distance. The urban planning was just pristine! When I look at the residential areas being built now, it's always "modern" houses, each the same, no kindergartens, no sporting areas, no playgrounds or shops no community spaces. Just parcels of the same family houses right next to each other, because space is extremely expensive. We call it "concrete jungle". I'd take a smaller commie block apartment over this any day! Also the commie blocks were not grey. Just a little bit of money and every street was painted in some nice colors.
In Kiev there is a neigbourhood with the same name. And while the houses are your typical commieblocks with occasional newer "architectural masterpieces" squeezed in between, everything else is exactly as you described - forests and great air!
... I had the opportunity to live in Beverly Hills as well as Jizni Mesto (considered to be one of the more shitty commie-block areas in Prague). Jizni Mesto wins by a long shot - in Beverly Hills, there was no way to survive without a car, no shops or services what so ever, and no shared recreational areas at all.
I remember when I was a kid growing up in commie Bucharest, Romania, my kindergarden was within 5 minute walking distance, then my school (grades 1-8) was at the end of the street I was living on, so about 1 minute of walking, playground areas were everywhere in the back plus we kids could ride our bikes all around the neighborhood, the general store where my parents bought stuff from was about 10 minutes walking distance, and the furthest away was the farmers market, for which we took a tram for 2 stops.
Lots of things were bad in communism, starting with the lack of civil rights, lack of accountability for government, the thought police they practiced, and basically every manifestation of the totalitarian control of the state, but a few things weren't that bad, among them education and healthcare for all, and urban planning (when the dictator and his wife didn't try to play urban planners themselves, because it did go terribly wrong when they did).
Already now they started rehabilitating the old commieblocks, and they don't even look that bad anymore. The one where my uncle lives in in Drumul Taberei neighborhood is actually quite decent.
I don't know. I grew up in a farm and although i'm not demanding, moving to a commie block was weird as the building quality was absolute horse shit and neighbor's tobacco smoke seeps into my apartment. The neighborhood is fine now that 90s anarchy is over and greenery has grown for 4 decades.
Good for affordable housing, yes. Its insane how in some areas you get a late soviet apartment with a sea view and balcony in a relatively nice neighborhood for 10k eur. But for it to be good you have to strip your apartment down to bones and rebuild everything.
@@TheFatMob it's called "Лісовий масив" or Forest neighborhood and whist I agree that it's a nice enough place I don't think that the 'urban planners' are to be praised here. Because, as the name would suggest, the neighborhood is literally next to a forest and it's one of the furthest removed areas of Kyiv. It would take you a 30-40 min drive nowadays to get to the city centre. Also, the metro station there only opened in 1979, whist the neighborhood began filling up in 1965, meaning that for about a decade your only means of transportation was a bus (because trust me you won't be getting a car any time soon if you have to live there). Maybe the buses were frequent and transportation isn't that big a problem, but compared to the rest of Europe not being able to walk to, let's say the theatre, an opera house, a museum or a church, is a major problem.
Yep, hearing the neighbors is a big downside of modern blocks. Today I live in a block that was build in the 50es, so the problem is not that bad (they build thicker walls back then). But in the 70es-block I used to live the last years, you could hear the people 3 stories below drink and the family directly below argue and the wife above clean the room. And that means, they could hear me watching TV, going to bed (oh, yes- you could hear the neighbor next door turn around in his bed at night), showering etc. Psychologically it is not the feeling you should have, when you are at home.
"Big hunks of concrete it's pretty hard to mess that up."
China: "h.ha.haa. Y..yeah."
It's worth mentioning that these buildings were meant as a temporary solution with a life expectancy of about forty years. That kinda explains the building quality.
THIS! so many people today complain about the quality, and forget this part
Haha, not how it turned out though
Yeah, and they are quite good even after 60 years of usage, especially when given proper care and repairs
@@GreenLarsen And it wasn't so different in western Europe either. Western Europe, West Germany in particular also suffered from a housing shortage and planners came up with similar ideas, albeit mostly excluding the amenities in walking-distance part. That's where the car-centrism comes back in.
Difference is: In Western Europe many of these 50s and 60s constructions were already decomissioned and demolished by the 80s.
@@Exodon2020 I know, some of them are still up. And as you mention, the big difference was the lack of supporting facilities. This in itself made them of far lower quality and I can understand why they needed to go (many places). It sadly show that if something good is only done ½ way then it do not become ½ good, it becomes ½ bad. Hopefully however we learn and do better in future (let me dream haha)
After living in London for last 10 years + I'm dreaming about having a flat like the one I remember form my childhood in post soviet blocks. Seriously, when I was a kid my family didn't like it because "the wall wre thin and we could hear our neighbours flushing their toilet". Which was true. Oh little did we knew. I've lived in places that had walls made out of cardboard I imagine, because I could hear my neighbours walk, no not run or jump, just walk around their flat. I lived in places where mould was irremovable from the wall. I lived in a places that were build without windows in every room. Places where you wouldn't find a 90 degrees corner, all were this weird either too wide or too narrow so lots of space was wasted because you couldn't fit any furniture in. And so on and on.
Really, I'd move into commie block flat this instant if I had an opportunity.
So true! The layout of the flats and the planning around them is pretty smart. And you can keep the good parts while improving on the aesthetics and the sound-proofing (the last one is a must, though, but it's even worse in many Western European countries, I can confirm that).
The soundproofing in those soviet houses is so much better than modern houses. I guess it's because of asbesthos
Sorry but whenever I read or hear "And so on and so on" I have to sniff and tuck my shirt. You triggered me D:
@@trut52 Asbestos was a building material used across the whole world at the time. I lived in houses that still have asbestos in the walls here in London and yet the insulation and sound proof was shite. So nope, use of asbestos or lack of it has nothing to do with poor soundproofing.
@@50733Blabla1337 Zizek looks at you with disappointment.
Adam has such a narorator voice that it feels uncanny when he's on camera
The described “Commie Block”, including the shopping center and school and even concrete church, was also present in West Germany; I grew up in such a community.
i think this is presdent all throughout europe lol. this was first imaginated by the french architect Le Corbusier, and this is why france was the first country to build those, and create the principle of prefabricated concrete buildings, called procédé Camus. he didnt even talk about it in this vid, that's sad.
I was growing up in such a "commie block" neighborhood untill I moved to Germany into a very rural area. And I totally agree with you. The areas between houses were populated with playgrounds where all kids from the blocks met. Since on one block typically roughly 80 families were living and there were four or five blocks in a row, this meant that there was a tons of kids there. Everything was (and still is) in walking distance -- daycare, schools, shops, doctors, etc. I still miss the feeling I have when I am there.
I grew in a place like that too. Also, my "block gathering" (we have a word for that in Polish, neighborhood does not really fit I feel) was at the edge of town, facing a small river. So not only we had all those advantages of schools, stores, doctors in a walking distance, but I could also walk on a river bank and go to actual wild woods nearby. And we had a giant soccer field not only playgrounds. I honestly don't understand why people oppose those neighborhoods, for all the kids it was great. And the concrete at least stops the sounds of neighbors, not like any US apartment I lived in, where you can hear a regular conversation across the wall. My family still leaves in that neighborhood, and I got to tell you the prices of the condos are skyrocketing, everyone is finally realizing that it's not a bad idea at all.
I moved out of Poland to US due to cultural reasons, the places like those block neighborhoods work like any small village, everyone knows everyone, which can be great, but if you're slightly different it gets annoying. But still, the community feeling was there and I miss it here in the rural US.
@@horace6851 O którym słowie mówisz, wyleciało mi z łba jakimś cudem ale świta
@@KoprolitySenior osiedle. Neighborhood to bardziej okolica, nie ma kontekstu administracyjnego. Poza tym osiedle, przynajmniej u nas, mialo bardzo konkretny wydzwiek, moze troche jak slangowy "hood".
@@horace6851 Osiedle w sumie ma dwa znaczenia, jedno jako residential area a drugie właśnie w slangu jako hood
@@KoprolitySenior dlatego neighborhood mi nie pasuje, nie oddaje kontekstu.
Turns out your commie blocks don’t fall apart when you actually pay for their upkeep. Wild stuff, thanks for another banger Adam.
Lol, those conservatives use this shitty arguments all the times
@No One I think it can look nice, but there are still other styles to build in too
You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
@No One But there are easy solutions to this. Have archritecture and vibrant colours on the buildings and more importantly have good public parks or forests near-by.
@No One
Lol did you watch the video? They used concrete blocks because it was cheaper ,rezistent and easy to manufacture, the fact that it resulted in a brutalist look doesn't mean that it was intended that way, what other solution would you have proposed to achieve that performance?
We already had these in the United States and they suffered the same way two examples are the Robert Taylor homes and Cabrini green, they were both built to originally house average families just like the Khrushchevkas and just like the Khrushchevkas they had ended up falling into disrepair and becoming blighted places people don’t want to live in because of little to no maintenance from the governing bodies which created them so they were demolished
At least from the outside, some of these blocks look very much the same than public housing ('Sozialer Wohnbau') built during the same period in Austria (e.g., at 2:00 mins). Including the 'complete planning' concept, which just makes a lot of sense :)
The swedish million homes programme seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from this. While the urban planning aspect of it is usually not great (except for walkability and parks), the apartments themselves were planned down to the millimeter. Big rooms, natural light, built in storage (including built in spice racks!) and ktichens scientifically planned for comforts and efficiency.
Meanwhile, some new apartments require you to climb up a fucking ladder to reach your bed.
It was a Soviet leader named Nikita Khrushchev who invested money to agriculture and housing, in Sweden we had urbanisation due to our industrial revolution in the 60s and borrowed the Soviet design due to it was low cost due it was designed to rebuild Europe after the war. The million homes programme used the pensionsystem for investment which was a good idea because real estate is low risk.
True! Unfortunately some of these 'commie blocks' areas have a tendency to develope into unsafe/risk zones here in Sweden. Basically low social safety in the area.
@@Calleohr2 because they're cheap for now. I'm just waiting for a gentrification wave to hit.
@@mimimurlough In Finland we also have these and quality of area really depends are they mostly public or private. Public being cheapest rents thus most of the people that need to be housed by municipality... Clearly leading issues, while the people with better income don't even get chance to get such apartment...
A good book on British housing at the same time is "Municipal Dreams" , if anyone's interested. There's one account in there of an ex-solider being shown around a public motor home-looking bungalow, and his wife was crying because she couldn't believe they could have such a perfect house given to them with everything included. She apparently said to him (paraphrasing), "measure for the lino, love. We're taking it!". Especially after living in the slums with an outdoor toilet. People did love these homes, even with their faults, despite the propaganda built up over recent decades. I know I'll never own a house, but fuck I'll take a public apartment block if that means I get to have somewhere to live.
You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
@@imShlievenhien You eat bugs every day. Trace amounts are in all food.
@@ha231 You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
@@imShlievenhien this is literally the situation we're already in
Bangladesh vs Dubai, UAE neighbourhood th-cam.com/video/_TEaabHHx7Q/w-d-xo.html you decide.\
You consider leaky roofs and broken elevators minor problems ?
MInor in the sense they can be fixed easily
@@davinchristino i would rather have a place that I would only have to fix problems far appart rather all the time
More minor than no running water for sure 😂
TL;DR: you just described "lack of maintenance" issues
those can be really easily be fixed. You need propane torch, few rolls of bitumen insulation and two guys to do the job for the roof.
Elevators - if broken - can just be replaced. Sometimes it is just control unit that is faulty - most of them were marvels of relay logic. Now a single PLC can do it on the same hardware and you have variety of options to choose from.
"Minor" in the sense that these people had lived in feudal one-room huts before, so anything modern would be an improvement even if a modern disaster.
The Soviet houses should be photographed at a dull weather and after a snowfall. That's how you get depressing pictures. We still live in those
My father lived in a "commie block" throughout his whole childhood and teenage years. At one point, his family moved out the industrial "commie block" city to live in a village but couldn't even live their for a half a year because there was no basic commodities included and it was very cold during the winter. They moved back in the commie block.
Indeed.
I went to a "commie block" in MOLDOVA - electricity worked, water pressure was great, elevator was wide enough for a wheelchair user and 3 others. Senior citizens were happy, children were playing in the corridors (the surrounding area had been encroached by much newer developments) etc. As a foreigner, people were happy to see me and invited me to drink all the time. In the USA the MDUs were of 2 kinds - rich people places or gang-controlled towers where no one was happy in either one. Maybe the gang leaders were, i don't know.
@@rahulmenon4357 moldova? is that a plane model?
@@krio1267 I don't think moldova's a plane model
The big plate blocks are worse than living in village. (My personal comparesen with my grandmas "apartament" and lovely cold Full of snow in winter polish countryside)
P.s sorry for bad English
as a romanian who has lived their entire life in communist apartment buildings, I would like to highlight the joys of having to also listen to the news every time any of your neighbours decides to, as well as be kept up to date with every single argument they have! very exicitng!
@Kotori no shogai indeed all fun and games until you get a shouting match at 3 am on exam night
Housing and entertainment all in one, these commies sure knew about value for money. But seriously I've experienced the same in western capitalist blocks, funnily enough some western social housing blocks had better sound insulation than the private sector ones.
you think regular apartments don't have that huh
@@blacxthornE Not to the same extent, not by a long shot. Some commie blocks are alright, some are even great and those are the ones Adam's talking about. Most of them lack most any kind of insulation and would make even the cheaply built of modern apartments seem pretty alright. You can't compare the best of one thing to the worst of another...just look around for videos of people showing you around Romanian commie blocks if you want to know where this man is coming from.
You also get to know your neighbours' taste in music. I'm going through this right now, the neighbours below me host a damn party or something all day every day😒
This channel makes me better at Cities Skylines. I've implemented lots of commie blocks with plenty of well-connected free public transport and made sure to have good coverage of all public services.
My massive export-only industry is located far from the residential areas, but that works well considering the metric ton of trains and metro subways, with some bus services in there too. My overground train system is getting clogged so I'm probably going to add more buses and connect the various zones by underground metro.
But overall it's going very well, even with traffic despawning turned off. Millions in the bank, 110,000 residents, all-round happiness, and almost no road traffic. The anti-car, free public transport, commie block system works really well.
The apartment was falling apart, unclean, and there were sounds of gunshots throughout the night. I’m talking about America by the way.
My university dorm is basically a renovated concrete block, pretty astonishing how many people can fit in there
Used to live in one until I moved to Germany in 2014. It really wasn't that bad or depressing. On the inside, it's an apartment like any other. There was also a sense of a community between the neighbours, since the commie block wasn't that big. Every evening, the adults would gather outside and just talk, drink, eat together. The kids would play in the meantime. I have so many fond memories, I get a very cozy feeling every time I start thinking about those times.
Yes! Exactly the same for me, it feels like something is missing when nobody cares about one another
Bro, that feels incredible, i live in a block myself in Egypt but its a small 4 floor block and all the people living in it are my family so not as cool, god i wanna go to eastern Europe so much lol
Hijacking your relatively top comment I'd like to give some context to the western viewers. Surely, pics of commieblocks in the middle of the winter are depressing, but Adam also shows the top notch examples of good commieblocks. The actual reality is that yes, there is indeed usually quite a lot of greenery between the buildings, but in the case of old construction it all is covered in overgrown trees, which result in no grass. When it rains, the entire area inbetween the houses turns into mud. Combined with the lack of parking, your entire yard turns into an unsafe parking lot and the mud is carried into the asphalt by cars and water.
Commieblocks don't often have stores and amenities nearby. In some cases you can have a store right in your own building. In other cases you'll have to take a 10-15 minute trip to the nearby supermarket. I lived near one microdistrict which consisted of nothing but 9-story living buildings. It had two schools in the vicinity, 1 or 2 kindergartens, but the entire area was supported by a supermarket nearby and a small market (yay, capitalism) in the middle of it.
Indeed, you need to spend a lot of funds to renovate the buildings, because the walls are thin and oftentimes the outside walls are just cold. This is why many people don't want to rent corner flats. When Adam mentions Ukraine, that particular project was realized by ОСББ, which can be loosely translated into "Homeowner association". The entire purpose of this organization is to unite the dwellers of a particular building to funnel their funds into modernizing their building because the local government sure as hell doesn't have a capability to do it.
The answer is, of course, "make well designed living buildings with the living conditions in mind". In my opinion, the only thing good about the commieblocks is a lot of green space. I'd very well like some modern buildings but with a neatly designed yards and inner spaces.
@@MrDarthImperius a lot of green space? dude, have you ever travel in one of the eastern block countries?
@@McGigi666 I live in Ukraine.
My man, I grew up in one of these in Óbuda, lived 8 years in another one in Újbuda, my grandpa was an architect, he used to work on these, and let me tell you, commie blocks were the "let's build a 100.000 homes for people who lost their houses because we demolished them so we can build those 100.000 homes" kind of idea (Flórián tér?...).
It is a place to sleep, and that's pretty much all. Anyone with any kind of self-respect moved out of them as soon as they could, and not just because the aformentioned broken elevators (once every year for some reason) or the leaky roofs (lived on the first floor so wasn't directly affected, but everyone else all the way down to the 6th was...), but because these houses weren't build to live in them. These were build to sleep in it. The general idea was that the 1+1/2 or the 1+2 1/2 rooms were ideal to get some beds and wardrobes in it, the kitchen was big enough to cook a simple meal, and if you've had the "dining room" type, you could eat your simple meal there instead of the kitchen or one of the rooms, but that's it. The walls are paper-thin, the insulation is non-existent, the corridors and the staircases are dark, the garbage dump can't handle more than one single bag at a time, just to mention a few issues here.
The surrounding infrastructure also contained restaurants, community centres and libraries, so you could've spend your free time somewhere else instead of your own home. It was great to give roof over thousands of heads, but it was absolutely useless as a living space, due to the simple fact that in that time the main reason of your existence was to work as much as you could, and sleep as little as humanly possible.
If you wanted to put a shelf on the wall, you've had two possible outcomes; it was either impossible to drill into the concrete thanks to the pebbles all over in it, or you ripped huge chunks off the wall for the same reason. The water main is unable to support a dishwasher because the diameter is too small, so if only 20 of the 100 flats have one, the foam will come back up in the 2nd floor, the wooden windows, that they said will be perfect for at least 50 years rotted to its core after 10-15 years, the bathroom barely has enough space to turn around, the kitchen has no space for a proper fridge, and if you were lucky enough to get a flat with a balcony, you've had a never-ending war with the fucking pigeons...
So sorry, but nope. Commie blocks are awfu. They always were, and they always will be.
Elevator break down once a year is better than my capitalist sardine can, where it breaks down once every three months or so. In the name of cost and space 'efficiency', they put multiple apartment buildings so close, that all I see out my bedroom window are the exposed sewer pipes of the next building. If one of the buildings tilt over in an earthquake, pretty sure they'll all start tilting like dominoes. Btw, tripping the fuse in one apartment unit cuts the power on the whole floor. But hey, the housing developer made fat stacks so yay capitalism?
@@the80386 sounds lovely too...
I guess every place is for sleeping. Most new suburbs where I live have very small plots of land and people try to build huge houses. But still keeping 1 meter distance from the fence. It looks ridiculous. There is no space for green landscapes, no trees. We call it hotel suburbs. And it takes one or two hours to get to work in the city. and longer by public transport that just to get to you need to walk half an hour.
I feel like a good way to put in to visual representation "commie blocks done better" are the main residential blocks of Brasilia. Been there a number of occasions, i feel the way they planned the individual buildings and blocks simply amazing, highly recommended checking out.
Maybe the block ONLY, because the rest is disgusting. Brasilia is an architectural failure.
As a homeless person, I'd rather live in an "ugly" home than no home at all.
Also, they weren't _as_ ugly back then. Their grey and broken down nature mostly comes from them not being maintaned as it's not profitable.
Good luck this winter, I wish you the best. I hate how close we are to an utopia and at the same time how dystopian everything is.
Dude I hope you are ok do you have any plans of getting out of this situation
Wait, how are you able to type this comment?
@@mcgoldenblade4765 ... are you serious?
I'm Polish and I live in a modernized commie block, and I have ever since I was a child. I have to say that I agree with everything in this video - especially the part about how it's great even externally. I wouldn't have ever needed a car if not for studies/work. Here's a list of locations near my home, just to show you how crazily available everything here is:
- A large grocery shop (almost comparable to a supermarket, in terms of space and goods available,) with fairly cheap prices built INTO the block; all I have to do to get there is put on my shoes, jacket, and go downstairs.
- Another grocery/liquor store, 2-3 minutes (on foot) further away down the block, but this one is open 24/7.
- And if that doesn't cut it, 4-6 minutes (on foot) away is a supermarket, around two blocks away.
- A bar on the other side of the street, almost always open.
- A sort of mini-shopping mall with several clothing stores in the same block, 3-4 minutes away on foot.
- A barber attached to the mini-mall mentioned above.
- Another barber literally next door to the one above, in case the first one is ever fully booked.
- A pawnshop next to the first large grocery store mentioned on this list.
- A home improvement store right next to the pawnshop.
- An ice cream store next to the home improvement store mentioned above.
- Another grocery store, next to the ice cream store, which sells notably different goods than any of the ones mentioned here, is open on most days, and has a barber on the other side of the street from it. All of this is still within 2-3 minutes of walking distance.
- A photographer in the same block, 3-4 minutes away.
- A bank (and ATM) right down the street, 5-6 minutes away.
- Five different pharmacies, plus a medicine store, all within a radius of ten minutes of walking.
- A professional clinic right next to the medicine store, where you can get free healthcare/check-ups if you get sick, sometimes even with appointments on the same day/instantly if they don't have too many patients booked in.
- A pizzeria next to the supermarket.
- And if you're religious (I'm not, but maybe you are,) there's a Catholic church next to the pizzeria, still within a ten minute radius.
- Another bank a bit further away.
- An elementary school within fifteen minutes of walking (I attended here).
- A middle school, within ten minutes of walking (I attended here).
- A high school, within fifteen minutes of walking (I attended here).
- And that's not mentioning the post offices, other minor stores, services, parks, etc.
In summary, I have basically anything I need for daily, weekly, or monthly living (and more), all within ten minutes of my home.
And it's been like this, without change, since I was a little boy. It's really great to live here. I had to move out briefly when I was going to university, and I absolutely hated how far away everything was in the 'modern city.' Being forced to walk for more than ten minutes to buy some basic groceries seemed to me like a sin against my basic human rights at the time, lol.
I lived in a same one in Budapest. It was a very long house, like a snake. Actually there were more houses built next to each other. But there were connection between them. At the 6th floor there was a connection in case of fire. But it meant that you could walk nearly a kilometer inside the house. In the groundfloor there were different shops, like you listed them. When the weather was bad you didnt even need to leave the house, just walk throug at the 6th floor.
jakie miasto masz na mysli?
@@juliakopiczynska9101 Płońsk.
I can't even get to a gas station without walking 30 mins yay suburbs >.>
I have been to every major European capital and as someone who lives in North America, we have all these things. You don't need a "commie" block to have access to supermarkets, transportation or parks.
My father grew up in one in St-Petersburg and a) there was still a massive lack of housing and homelessness in the city b) it's not normal for a family where both parents are doctors to live in a tiny apartment where both the neighbors to each side are raging alcoholics. While these apartment units remain practical for certain situations, let's not make them out to be something people reminisce over.
Funny, I actually lived a few years ago in the silver-red building at 6:09. Very affordable student's apartments, including a laundry room and party room in the basement. Also, a canteen is in one of those buildings within 1min reach. These buildings even have their own Entry in the german Wikipedia (Studentenwohnheime Wundtstraße).
I live in one. The vegetation is amazing around the block. Comfy and quiet, bc I can't hear the traffic.
Also most of them are sealed with styrofoam coat and are painted with bright colors, so actually this neighborhood looks pretty neat.
I live in a commie block in the former GDR and I can literally hear my upstairs neighbours talking, coughing, sneezing. I know when they're showering, I know when they're making love. The noise issue would be my only negative aspect although this aspect should be taken seriously, especially because of TVs and listening to music. It get can get very annoying very very quickly...
This is also an issue in many western apartments, though probably not as bad. It shouldn't be an issue though, we have the technology to create apartments that are practically sound vacuums, why don't we implement it in every apartment? There is no good reason.
We should be building the highest quality housing blocks that will last for a thousand years without complaints from residents.
Yeah but they are free, here in Colombia I used to live in something near to that but really expensive. Probably a bit smaller. Bogotá is one expensive city. I had to sound proof it DIY with used egg cartons foam old papers and some drywall. I don't know if it was psychological or if there are better method but that one work for me.
I heard someone say that they were designed to have thin walls on purpose so that you could hear other people are saying. So if somebody was talking bad about the government you could report them. It was to encourage eavesdropping on your neighbor.
@@ReddoFreddo the reason is *cost*
It's cheaper and faster to *not* make the buildings of sufficient substance, so they don't.
@@SeanKula that sounds like nonsense. Folks weren’t paranoid of each other like that
Me seeing Adam for the first time: I don't know what I was expecting him to look like but it wasn't that
Adam: (brushes dust off one carriage in his wall of model trains)
Me: Oh okay I see it now
I'm living in a commie block right now for the first time in my life after growing up in a suburb and having lived a few years in an older pre-war apartment building, and although there are definitely some inconveniences such as lack of space, overall I'm pleasantly surprised. The noise isn't nearly as bad as I thought, in fact I had much more annoying neighbors in the suburban area I grew up in, they were always up to something, drilling, sawing, lawn mowing, screaming at the top of their lungs, burning shit right after we hung fresh laundry to dry outside, the air smelled of animal shit if the wind blew from the wrong direction etc, typical Central/Eastern European countryside stuff. Here in the commie block the people are surprisingly open and nice, for the most part quiet and generally just mind their own business. The blocks themselves are not the prettiest of course even after renovation but there is greenery all around the area, traffic noise is no worse than elsewhere in the city, everything is within walking distance and I hardly ever check schedules for public transport anymore since something is guaranteed to arrive within 5 minutes and take me to the city center. Oh, and the internet is just lightning fast. So far it's been a surprisingly comfy and convenient experience and it's not even expensive.
I live in a commie block myself. A part of the advantages you’ve mentioned I’ll add a good sound isolation as these buildings are built as bunkers. The downside is that I have to waste three drill bits to hang a picture
I am an american, was born in the 80's. So I was alive and simi-aware of the implications of the sovet union when it fell.
I'm sooorta familiar with section-8 housing in America and... Honestly? I would like to know if the micro-district has been tried here in any real capacity.
Being disabled sucks when you're in a car centric hellscape, and this sort of planning would greatly alleviate that.
Funny how you mention it. In America you would probably add elevators to the 5 storey plans because here any house that is in the 5 storey and below range wouldn't have them. You either had 5 storeys, no elevator, or 9 - 13 storeys and a small elevator.
Yeah we had similar housing blocks in the US. They didnt work out. I'm not knowledgeable enough about to say for certainly why they failed, but I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that they were built exclusively as section 8 housing and not just for the general public like in the soviet union. Today, Americans would be very very against any sort of similar project. Just look up Pruitt Igoe.
Of course, if you just want to take the idea of modular housing to save costs, thats fine. As another person mentioned, thats trendy today as some "innovation". But as we learned from the 60s and 70s, there has to be continued maintenance and it dramatically helps when the housing is mixed income.
The only kind of similar building was done in Section 8 housing - done by the cheapest contractors, every corner possible was cut, and absolutely no maintenance. Oh and ofc green space or being able to walk/take public transit anywhere was considered important enough to bother with. Green space is wasted space, you know. You could build things there! Like parking lots for cars! Everyone should get a car, you know. What kind of person doesn't have a car?
There's a reason Section 8 housing is awful and no one wants to live there if they can avoid it. It's all slumlord-type properties.
@@adamt195 These appartment blocks were in fact not being built because they were cheap (they were quite expensive, in fact), but because they could be built very fast. The idea was that perfection of this technology would allow to rebuid quickly after the possible war.
@@adamt195 They didn't work out because there was no effort put into making the community itself work. Developers just threw together cheap housing blocks and left it at that. Most section 8 housing developments are in unwalkable nightmares, with no amenities or community spaces, and then the resulting crime and continued poverty is used as an excuse to continue not trying.
Holy shit, Adam's face, what a reveal.
@@cicolas_nage Really, I didn't know that.
Oh but the model train reveal! Sweet!
@@cicolas_nage
I’ve watched, I think, all his videos and I don’t remember seeing a face reveal. Lol I’ll have to check again.
@@PittsburghSonido he shown his face in one of the Q&A episodes
He only started showing his face recently.
This was a well balanced view on the situation!
I myself would rather not want to life in a major city and one of those "soul silos", but many people would prefer a well designed and bright flat over more currently build holes.
5:33 Who could've thought, building something for the purpose of that thing actually properly doing what it is supposed to do instead of building something solely for the purpose of making profit yields better results.
The only problems I have with the older ones are:
- bad heat insulation (solve-able through exterior insulation cladding and new windows)
- very bad acoustic insulation between units (not solve-able)
- often very narrow door frames (making getting modern appliances or bigger pieces of furniture a pain in the ass)
Maybe in your part of the world, but in Hungary they had excellent heat and sound insulation. I never heard anything from my neighbor. Now in Spain even in a 240000€ apartment I can hear neighbors even just walking around.
@@trut52 Well, I don‘t have empirical data, but in all blocks I have been in eastern or western Germany, it is or was like that. Thankfully, they have to be retrofitted with insulation by law and most have already. No solution for sound proofing.
For that, you have to physically uncouple walls and floors with layers of rubber or other elastic material. Sound travels inside concrete (and every solid material), so thickness is not a defining quality. That cannot be retrofitted.
For the doors: most doors until 80s were usually 655mm wide. Not enough for wheelchairs. Modern accessibility standards here demand at least 955mm - extremely expensive to retrofit because of the steel reinforcement in the concrete.
@@RicardoCristofRemmertFontes Flex-seal. Problem solved.
@@harrybryan9633 In theory, yes. In practice, you would have to cut a physical gap around the whole floor of about 1cm wide, _including_ the support _inside_ the walls, then fill it (although flex seal can’t carry the whole floor, there are other technical solutions to do so).
You would need hydraulic support jacks carrying each floor, starting at the basement throughout the top floor.
Technically maybe doable. But, yeah, you won’t do that.
Panel houses require to maintain junctions between panels with period ~12-20 years. In Russia (where I live), old buildings are usually unserved.
Meanwhile one should remember, that commiblocks were designed as a temporary measure for 3-5 decades.Just to solve urgent problems.
its honestly one of the most hilarious things that people cite as a downside of the Soviet system. The exact same style of buildings were built basically everywhere in Europe and Asia after WW2, its only the US that went into Suburban stupidity. The builds also ended up facing the exact same issues the "commie blocks" fell into. ie government not putting effort into continual maintainance but its only seen as a slight against the Soviet system? There is a reason why the UK and the like have torn down massive swathes of the blocks/ towers built in this style while Eastern and Central Europe havent.
The reason is that people in UK and others had money to move to better apartments, but in Eastern/Central Europe they do not
You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
@@imShlievenhien One of those guys
@@Terranallias18 You will own nothing and be "happy" - Live in the pod, eat the bugs
@@imShlievenhien You already said that. What does that have to do with anything? By all means these apartments sound decently sized
I grew up in an apartment complex quite similar to the commie block in South Korea. In South Korea, different from other countries, apartment complexes are much more preferred by the middle class than suburban individual housing, so even after 30 to 40 years, it is quite well maintained! And I still love living here
I lived in one in Poland and I liked it. ❤
Same
Conservatives: *cut funding for public housing*
Also conservatives: "wow this looks depressing. only the market can solve housing."
May want to take a listen to the NYT before you start ripping conservatives. Democrats aren't much better
th-cam.com/video/hNDgcjVGHIw/w-d-xo.html
@@oddatsea9398 conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, neoliberals.. same thing as far as i'm concerned when it comes to housing policy
@@oddatsea9398 "Before you start"? Why not just rip both? Nobody on either side of the (alleged) divide wants to do what needs doing in this area.
@@oddatsea9398 Unsurprising. Corporate Democrats are economic conservatives.
Of course the market doesn't give a damn about anyone without money
I live in a block in Slovakia, these are absolutely not depressing, they're all renovated, rapainted, they are colorful(bit too clorful), there are trees and parks between them. These are built in the 80's, but still more affordable than a new appartment or a house, even in small towns like mine
Luník IX disagrees :D
They are NOT affordable AT ALL. A 1 bedroom soviet apartment costs about 80 000€ in an average sized town. The average wage (meaning half of the population earns less) is about 1 000€ after taxes. That means you have to work for almost 7 years to buy one (but you can't eat in the process). It was much much more affordable during socialism.
@@stevedownie1378 that's why you take a loan. So you can pay it off piecemeal over a longer stretch of time so you don't have to compromise on quality of life.
Too colourful? Do they blend in with the mountains or something?
But you live in slovakia that's the thing
The thing is more complex than what you describe. Firstly that design is not of communist origin, it belongs to the original bauhaus movement started by Walter Gropius, in which function was above style. The communists borrowed that concept and implemented it in a cheaper way which resulted in poor thermal isolation, sound dampening and energy efficiency. Another factor was the lack of maintenance of many buildings, from lack of care from both authorities and residents. As seen, the communist regime, over time fostered into the people a type of "they're taking care of me so I don't care" mentality, which made people's interest to taking care of their buildings even less important. In conclusion, a cheaply, cutting-corners implementation and a lack of social counsciousness caused these buildings to be a bad deal in the long term.
In East berlin they prep up commi block. And this is even more astonishing! Because now they are really cool. With two floors and they inserted light wells, so that dark parts got natural lights too
I live in a commie block. Actually, a full-on commie district.
And to my own surprise, I have to agree with this video.
Yes, they are ugly. Yes, they contribute to people not knowing each other, as any high-density residentials do. But everything else about them is pretty awesome, just as the video describes. My daycare center was ...not even a minute's walk, it's right in the yard of the commie block.
Elementary school is in the neighbouring block, 3 minute walk. Supermarket is in another neighbouring block, 3 minute walk.
Any kind of shop for anything i need, except actual furniture or cars and similar stuff, is within 10 minutes walking distance.
People know their neighbors even less in US style suburbs in my experience.
Did COVID ever hit the block?
@@Hissanrach True
I live in Dublin, visit Moscow regularly (here rn) & I used to find the towers & Kruschevka blocks grim & depressing (like some tenements back home). Now, having been inside several apartments & studios that are modern & comfortable, (& very warm in winter) I actually like alot of the Soviet block estates. There are lots of playgrounds, grassed areas & kids would all get to know eachother, as would parents.
Like the video said the external planning is good & it's up to residents & local authorities to look after the housing stock. Cladding & some external lighting really transforms tired looking Soviet blocks.
I don't live in a commie block, but everything is within walking distance. It's pretty good.
I always found arguments based on "communism bad because depressing concrete building" to be exceedingly bizarre, because we literally have those in Western Bloc countries.
guess they never learned the meaning of hypocrisy
I live in the middle east
and I don't know why are Americans building homes out of wood!
@@atafakheri8659 We have these cool things called "trees", crazy i know
@@rulingmoss5599
leaving the ordinary American arrogance and racism aside (these brown villagers haven't seen a tree in their life am I right?).
in these parts of the world, only poor people make wooden houses nowadays.
we make houses out of steel and concrete that last in natural disasters better or don't just get rotten by the bugs.
but I guess Americans are just poor to afford these kinda things and have to resort to deforestation.
a single fire burns down half your city blocks every year
@@rulingmoss5599 Arabia has more trees than the west coast lol
1:58 have never seen elevator in 5-floors buildings built originally. Yes, by now some country invested a lot into adding elevators(saw that in Berlin), but originally there was not. People with disabilities were literally locked in their apartments at 3-, 4-, 5-floor and having a small child means a lot of physical activity just to go outside.
I grew up and still live in a building like this. I've tried moving to capital and lived in a modern apartment there. The modern apartment I rented was terrifying (not in terms of build quality). I've never even seen any of my neighbours face to face. There was ONE convenience store with affordable prices and clean (as if not cluttered with pallets) interior. To get somewhere I had to either go through such a mass of people in the town's center that I had a minor difficulty seeing where I am going or travel via underground which is also pressuring on the mind. There were no trees in the town's center (maybe in some park areas, but vegetation that was planted nearly everywhere in my town was absent). And on the outskirts of the capital (that are freshly built) all of the principles of old style of planning were abandoned. Buildings so high that the sky is barely visible around, only above them. Parking spaces bigger than playgrounds or lawns. I decided to move back in my hometown and I don't think I'll move into anything different from it.
You know what is more depressing than Soviet Grey Buildings?
Ans. Homelessness
i mean, you can paint buildings in lively colors...
@@coobk373 Says North Korea
Commie blocks wont save cali
@@bomba7197 strawman
@@hulahula6182 why wouldn't public housing solve homelessness? People need a house, you give them a house; that allows them to live, work, produce, be happy, etc. I don't get your opinion.
I lived in some Chinese commie blocks during my primary school years. They were 6 story Khrushchyovka copies (but build higher quality). It was a nice enough place, bike garage/storage rooms in the basement, nice central plaza for the community to rest, exercise, and hang out. Our block was pretty well maintained so it was a completely fine place to live in even in the 2000s.
That's where I spent my early years too. It's actually very nice. Much nicer than any of the soulless car-centric Canadian suburbs I now live in.
yeah these commie apartments wre not bad at all the issue is just lack of maintenance and corruption .. the designs of them are just fine..
as Ukraine shows, these buildings hold up well under artillery fire. there might be a hole in the middle, but the rest is still standing.
Thanks for this perspective, i love it
*I LIVE IN A COMMIE APARTMENT BLOCK* I have never lived anywhere as great in my life...!!! I moved to Bulgaria 12 years ago and was a MASSIVE snob about them - I was WRONG...
The walls are 30 cm thick concrete, so it's basically passive heating and cooling. |there is a wind catcher on the top and a vent in the middlemost room so cold fresh air all summer. I never hear my
neighbours cos the walls are so thick. There is an entrance for every 18 apartments with an elevator so the public space is still quite personal and get looked after.
THE CITY PLANNING IS AMAZING - every block has its own p[laground for the kids. It has its own green space. The schools are distributed so its never more than 1000m to the school, the schools are in a line - infants, junior, high school - so the older kids can take the younger ones to school. The playground and benches mean that the old people in the block can look after the kids when they come home from school - NO ONE pays for child care here - old people LOVE looking after kids.
The hospitals are also distributed - there are 24 small hospitals in my city of 250k people, so you can walk to the hospital.
Every 5 or so blocks has its own little high street of shops, and they dont allow Amazon here so the shops are very busy.
OH and all the thousands of trees are fruit trees for FREE FRUIT for 4 months fo the year.
They put a LOT of thought into the blocks and city planning and its a wonderful place to live - they are even starting to paint them so they no longer look like hell..
Howdy, Bulgarian here! Those blocks indeed have more pros than cons. Unfortunately here there are no good blocks built after the fall of communism (a few bad imitations that skrew the idea), and the city planning since got quite "liberal" or to put it simply - the city planning stop working since.
btw from where are you coming?
@@LyubomirIko - YEP - Im in part of Burgas. It is split very clearly into two halves. The absolutely lovely communist-era half with parks and trees and meadows and playgrounds and the modern part that is apartment block 1.5m from the NEXT apartment block.
I have been renting in this block for 3 year waiting for an apartment to come up for sale - NO ONE will sell. It is very close to the sea with amazing views and they just pass them down the family if someone dies - and NO ONE moves out.
I was born and raised in one of those. Very cold during winter and very warm during summer because of poor insulation. Other than that I can't remember any issues. The staircases were actually very clean and well maintained before the comunism went down. Afterwards there was not inerest in maintaining the common areas so they started to decay.
That's interesting, the one I grew up in was very warm and well-insulated. What state was yours in?
Sounds?
Here in Berlin most commie blocks did get extra insolation installed outside, bringing them on par with many modern energy efficient houses, the insolation also usually has individual colour pattern unique to the block, making them look less uniform and boring.
@@jessblues848 russian ones are all very warm. hot even in winter..
In my commie apartment is always hot like communists tried to compensate russias winter everywhere
The idea of these super blocks are still (to an extent) implemented in China today, although like you said, it's since been highly commercialized. In China many of the residential areas are organized into 小区 (Lit. Micro-districts) where one 小区 is an enclosed estate with multiple apartment buildings packed inside. The inside of a 小区 is generally inaccessible to the public (e.g. you need a key card to enter) and depending on the price, some are more tightly packed than others.
This form of residential planning is currently being discouraged in favor of traditional street blocks (街区). There is an ongoing campaign called “窄马路、密路网、开放街区” (roughly "Narrower roads, Denser networks, Open-access blocks") that advocates in newer establishments there should be no more closed off micro districts and generally there should be no more super blocks being planned.
EDIT: To clarify, the concept of 小区 still exists and is still widely used, it's just that newer 小区s are more like small blocks of apartments instead of larger closed off "campuses"
I have mixed feelings about this one. I have lived my whole life in a commie block in Slovakia and while the things mentioned are true, there are some downsides (at least in my area) like noise, heat collection in summer and way too many cars in the area. Also, they are not designed to last that long and in a about 30 years from now I think we're gonna see a big crisis regarding this. I have seen some much nicer and newer apartment blocks, not so cramped as in the video, it all just depends from the developer.
OMG you look a lot younger than you sound!
I grew up in one of the pre commie block brick buildings. But there was a commie block area right across the street and I always admired the big area between them, full of (by then) big trees. A lot of that space has been made into parking lots by now, but some are still in original condition and it is just great how nature like it feels in those green areas.
I certainly prefer 4-6 storey high buildings with lot of green between them to singel family cubes with barely enough green space that everyone needs some machine to cut the grass and so someone in noise reach is always doing it.
I imagined him having a beard and looking disheveled, a lot more hippie-like than the clean cut young lad he turns out to be.
I've lived in a commie block my whole life in Slovenia (used to be a part of the Yugoslav Republic) and I agree with most of your points, but would also like to point out that noise isn't always an issue. At least in Slovenia, all the walls are quite decenctly insulated.
I often see people in the former Yugoslavia say that the walls were thick in the commie blocks. Perhaps they were expecting a war
@@williamthebonquerer9181 Perhaps we were just good at building them
My great uncle liven in a commie block in Zagreb. There are no sound issues. Walls are pretty thick, it is relatively hot in there becouse they have a lot of windows. There are sometimes issues with pipes but that's the same in all old buildings.
@@williamthebonquerer9181 I think the reason is that Yugoslavia used to be quite a rich country back then so maybe they didn't skimp on the materials...
As a Croat from Zagreb, another city with many commie blocks who used to live in them, I concur.
The only real noise I heard was the occasional bumps here and there, but I hear this in the modern apartment building I (very) recently moved in as well.
You're not gonna find a lot of Eastern Europeans agreeing with this. The "lego brick" approach resulted in badly insulated flats which felt like concrete caves in the winter and ovens in the summer; the communal living theory forced complete strangers to share bathrooms and kitchens, leading to a sense of simmering apprehension and disquiet; and the projects themselves created haunting tower towns with ghastly parade avenues, that surrounded the old city centres like prison camps. The communal areas you wax so lyrical about barely progressed beyond planning: there were few cafes and shops to fill the spaces because there was no business in our sense of the word; the playgrounds were dystopian; and the parks were never properly maintained. Moreover, these grand designs of social idyll were mostly reserved for areas of propaganda value; peripheral cities and entire countries like Bulgaria and Romania could go fish for this. Today they mostly stand dilapitated, grimy, and with barely functioning elevators and other amenitites (those problems were never really fixed). It's one thing to criticize places like Dubai, but praising the total opposite just makes you sound silly and uninformed. This entire video is an exercise in naivety.
@@zekeyeager1458 I have no experience in American projects, only European vs Soviet and former socialist ones, and in that context this video is ridiculous.
I think he is speaking in case of Hungary, I think the success of commie blocks varied a lot from country to country
@@c3sargtx97 There is definitely room for variation on the subject. I'm speaking from personal experience and that of friends from former USSR / Warsaw pact countries. A lot of Bulgarians and Albanians would throw this video right out the window. Some Hungarians might agree; I can't comment on that.
I am from Poland and only thing I can agree with is land use planning. That part was good but others were terrible. Quality of those building is really poor, low ceilings, thin walls in flats where you can clearly hear when your neighboard is taking a dump. The rest are awful architecture, smelly stairwells and apocaliptic playgrounds.
Yeah over here in the West, we can’t afford any place to live. I’d rather a concrete box with terrible insulation than no concrete box
Meanwhile, the entire comment section is listing a bazillion crippling flaws he chose to not present :,D