I had to do a double take because I thought this was the Adam Something video about commie blocks, which has a really similar title: https://youtu.be/1eIxUuuJX7Y
Urban Planning YouTube is a real rabbit hole, but it’s all leftists. Taking a look at the hard data regarding efficiency turns people into leftists.
What’s with the downvotes?
Idk, have my upvotes!
Yeah, I was just confused about that one. I wasn’t sure if it was being taken as antagonistic or what… There’s two cool content creators plus a whole niche of stuff to explore. Like Eco Gecko, Well There’s Your Problem, etc.
As someone who has lived in commie blocks as well as in modern buildings, I can only agree.
Commie blocks are usually built with utility in mind, so things such as public transportation are of utmost importance. Not only that, but since they are usually a part of bigger urban projects, you have pretty much everything you need around: kindergartens, schools, grocery stores, communal spaces, greenery, and sometimes even cooler facilities like sports facilities. The interior design of the space, as basic as it might seem, is usually maximized to offer a multitude of utilities. You almost always get a balcony, a long hallway that connects all rooms, the rooms are usually quite well separated (no kitchen in the living room to stink up your couch), etc.
Over the last 30 years we stopped building them (for obvious reasons), and now it’s mostly modern buildings popping up. I lived in some and it has always been a nightmare. The only modern buildings worth moving into are the ones you need to be a millionaire to get. They usually get built in the middle of nowhere, there’s no urban planning, so no kindergarten, school, parks or grocery stores in sight. You almost always have to take the car to go anywhere. Greenery is lacking, since adding greenery is considered pointless (doesn’t bring profits - uses up space that could be sold), so all buildings are surrounded by a sea of asphalt and parking lots. It’s always amazing in the summer when you start sweltering. The interior design of the space is weird and uncomfortable since the companies that build these things almost always try to cram as many units as possible in a building. So you end up with apartments in weird corners and weirdly spaced rooms. Not only that, but many of these buildings are not even built to last, since the builders usually just sell them and get out of there as soon as things start breaking down. Fighting them is always a pain in the ass, since they’re so lawyered up you need a fortune to sue them. Or sometimes the company just disappears so you can’t sue them and they go and make a new one under a different name. And now imagine that this happens on every lot, these buildings sometimes get built right next to each other, you can literally look into your neighbours apartments and everything feels clustered and suffocating.
I get that I’m a minority in this case as well but; to me they’re also legitimately beautiful. They were my introduction to Brutalism and it has since become my favorite architectural style… actually took me a while to realize what made them so aesthetically great to me. It’s that you can see the planning that went into them. It’s not just the one building but a whole ‘landscape’ of practical design.
I wish I had the opportunity to live in one but to the best of my knowledge they were never built in the country I live in.
Having lived in a couple and now living in a multiple flat house built in the early 19th century I have a couple of thoughts.
Ceiling height. I am a large dude and with ceilings I can touch with my arm outstretched I constantly feel slightly claustrophobic (not in a pathological sense) like I’m in a cellar or something. I now have a ceiling that’s going on 4 meters and the rooms feel so much bigger and brighter. I know it’s harder to heat but I keep a cold flat anyway.
Size. Most of these flats are between 40 and 70 square meters. If you want something larger you’re shit out of luck. The largest I’ve seen was like bordering 80 square meters. If you have more than two kids for example that might be a bit too small.
Noise insulation. You hear everything your neighbours do. I could follow TV programs without problems and the neighbours weren’t exactly deaf. I’ve lived in blocks built in the 50s and late 80s, both modernised multiple times.
I am not a fan. There’s middle ground. Multi family houses with two to three flats per story and and four to six stories are a nice compromise between space efficiency and comfort I believe.
My apartment (and the only place I can really afford in my city) is a 24m2 apartment. I would kill for something in the 40-70m2 range.
Exactly! We moved out of commie blocks in early 2000s and recently went back to renovate and sell the apartment, and there were 10 centimeter gaps between the ceiling and the wall, where the block seemed to not properly stick together. It was terrible
Most of our 70s mega-block developments failed miserably because of car centric culture and capitalism.
I’m not saying communist megablocks are the answer, but they definitely may contain the seeds of one.
I mean, I don’t know. I don’t have any positive memories or associations with commie blocks. We used to live in a commie block when I was little, before our family moved to Germany. I remember my parents telling me how everyone had to wait in line for 20 years to get an apartment. How difficult it was if you wanted to move out to a different part of the city, yet alone to a completely different city.
I remember everyone I knew sharing a small apartment for multiple generations - my grandparents used to share a two bedroom apartment with their parents, siblings, and the siblings spouses. My grandparents eventually got their own apartment when my mom was little, and by the time I came into this world 5 people were living in those same two rooms - my grandma, my parents, my brother and I. And everyone I knew was living in similar conditions. Only after moving to the west did I get my own room.
Here, I moved out of my parent’s apartment and I am now living on my own with my boyfriend. Sure, rent is expensive, but we can manage. Back then, there was no ‘moving out’, and as far as I know, there still isn’t. There is only moving to your in-laws apartment, or your spouse moves in with you. Can’t imagine sharing my space with my parents or inlaws, it would drive me crazy.
I remember leaving the house was extremely dangerous, so we mostly stayed inside - I was born in the 90’s. I remember the smell of toxic car gases as soon as we left the house. I don’t know how you can romanticize commie blocks.
Sweden has these. But I can’t speak to how good or bad they are because I’ve never lived in one for more than a week or so at a time. I grew up out in the boonies.
As for the video, I like that it (unlike way too many of these video essays) doesn’t bury the lede; he’s up front about his perspective and then spend the rest of the video elaborating and explaining why. That’s an oasis in the desert of “mysterious, let me hold you in suspense for the lede” style videos we see too many of. I get really distracted by his music, though. I can’t fully listen to what he has to say since I get so into the heartbreakingly depressive synth pads.
My biggest complaints would only be architectural. I was never a fan of brutalism. There’s no reason we couldn’t go with something a little more adorned and have the same utility. But also a nice aesthetic.
