Those plattenbau apartments still provide affordable and good housing - often modernised with insulation or solar roofs - for hundreds of millions in postsoviet states for the same demographics that live in cottages, moldy drywall houses or rotting trailer parks in "first world" nations.
lupusreal · 2h ago
Oh god, anything but a country cottage!
Gotta love how in one conversation, Americans will be mocked for living in "cheap McMansions". Then in another, Americans will be mocked for having small houses. Mocked for being rural. Mocked for being suburban. Only urban apartment dwelling bus riders are spared, but even then they are called substandard.
yourusername · 2h ago
It don't think it is fair to characterize plattenbau as "Cheap, low-durability and unsafe". Many of these buildings have lasted for 65 years already and are plenty safe if no bombs are going of nearby. If you're actively being shelled almost no house is safe be it wood framing, brick or a modern glass skyscraper.
kubb · 2h ago
If you believe that building more housing is a solution to the housing crisis, then building large blocks of flats from prefabricates should seem like an attractive option.
You can build cheaply and efficiently because of economy of scale, and with large scale planning, entire settlements can pop up within 10 years complete with public transport, and amenities.
It really doesn’t have to look bad either. With modern materials, a bit of ornamentation, and greenery it can be a great place to live for hundreds of millions of people.
ohnonotagainno · 2h ago
Somehow OT, but @what about those revolutional-technical-evolutions coming with "density":
I grew up in a panel block, now live in a more recent building and my general impression is that while their build quality left much to be desired, I had no complaints about walkability. I could go to school, the clinic, the dentist or post office without crossing a road - only streets with heavily restricted traffic. Almost all parking spots were in a ring around my superblock.
Much of that was due to the fact that communists weren't so bent on squeezing as much value as possible from every square meter of land.
Meanwhile in more modern architecture the (built in 2002) block neighbouring mine is spaced a regulatory-approved 7 metres away - windows facing. My relative lives in an even newer apartment which has windows facing the southwest only. AC becomes a necessity in such circumstances.
I can't recall ever seeing panel blocks where you could peer into your neighbour's apartment like that. In all the instances I can think of both blocks have blank walls there.
Zanfa · 1h ago
> I grew up in a panel block, now live in a more recent building and my general impression is that while their build quality left much to be desired, I had no complaints about walkability. I could go to school, the clinic, the dentist or post office without crossing a road - only streets with heavily restricted traffic. Almost all parking spots were in a ring around my superblock.
Very few people had cars when these houses were built, so parking and car-friendliness wasn’t obviously a priority. With the number of cars these days we have major issues with parking and emergency service accessibility around commie blocks.
noeltock · 3h ago
nice article, would be nice also... some thoughts
- who finances? everything goes to war, even post-victory, focus will be on replenishing and criticial infra.
- shelters? only a handful of people with kids go to them
fluder · 2h ago
No one goes to shelters in Kharkov, the alarm can go on for 12 hours at a time.
The missile flies for 40 seconds, the alarm usually goes off after the explosion.
noeltock · 52m ago
exactly (ps: I live in kharkiv)
yakshaving_jgt · 3h ago
Last time I was in Odesa, the shelter (which was our underground parking garage) had maybe 20-30 people each night. At the time, russia was firing cruise missiles and drones at the city literally every night.
I suspect the future reconstruction effort is going to involve quite a lot more investment in underground shelters. I don't think Ukraine is going to trust russia for at least the next 100 years. Similar situation to Finland.
xenator · 2h ago
In my childhood we had bunkers everywhere. In schools, daily care, around in the neighborhood. I never saw them functioning, but we knew about them. But during growing up them was completely abandoned and destroyed. It took only about 45-50 years after WW2 ended.
We had them because of Germany.
I spent my childhood in Ukraine.
troupo · 3h ago
Sweden only stopped mandatory bunkers in apartment buildings in the 80s IIRC.
They might start again
vidarh · 2h ago
I'm Norwegian. The basement of my primary school was constructed to double as a bomb shelter.
soco · 1h ago
Swiss new housing isn't mandated to have underground bomb shelters as of late, but people are still planned to a shelter nearby - indeed schools or whatever else.
Gotta love how in one conversation, Americans will be mocked for living in "cheap McMansions". Then in another, Americans will be mocked for having small houses. Mocked for being rural. Mocked for being suburban. Only urban apartment dwelling bus riders are spared, but even then they are called substandard.
You can build cheaply and efficiently because of economy of scale, and with large scale planning, entire settlements can pop up within 10 years complete with public transport, and amenities.
It really doesn’t have to look bad either. With modern materials, a bit of ornamentation, and greenery it can be a great place to live for hundreds of millions of people.
https://videos.metro.co.uk/video/met/2024/10/29/645142234187...
...regards
Much of that was due to the fact that communists weren't so bent on squeezing as much value as possible from every square meter of land.
Meanwhile in more modern architecture the (built in 2002) block neighbouring mine is spaced a regulatory-approved 7 metres away - windows facing. My relative lives in an even newer apartment which has windows facing the southwest only. AC becomes a necessity in such circumstances.
I can't recall ever seeing panel blocks where you could peer into your neighbour's apartment like that. In all the instances I can think of both blocks have blank walls there.
Very few people had cars when these houses were built, so parking and car-friendliness wasn’t obviously a priority. With the number of cars these days we have major issues with parking and emergency service accessibility around commie blocks.
- who finances? everything goes to war, even post-victory, focus will be on replenishing and criticial infra.
- shelters? only a handful of people with kids go to them
The missile flies for 40 seconds, the alarm usually goes off after the explosion.
I suspect the future reconstruction effort is going to involve quite a lot more investment in underground shelters. I don't think Ukraine is going to trust russia for at least the next 100 years. Similar situation to Finland.
We had them because of Germany.
I spent my childhood in Ukraine.
They might start again