So many people love to shit on these "commie-blocks" for no real reason.
So many people love to shit on these "commie-blocks" for no real reason.
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Well, this picture is just poor city development. Living in appartement buildings 3-5-7-9 floors high is all very fine, IF
- The neighbourhood is (pedestrian) permeable enough. The space around it must be pedestrian/cycle friendly and green. The blocks in this picture are way to wide, forming too big barriers for local slow traffic
- there is a bit of variation in colour, size, shape. A neighbourhood with such blocks can surely have 4 identical buildings, but not 30... It feels uneasy to humans this way. We need a taller or oddly shaped or nicely coloured one once in a while, as a reference point, as things that give the neighbourhood a bit of an identity
- The buildings themselves are high enough quality (well insulated, every appartement has 1 or 2 real balconies, ...)
- there are plenty of playgrounds and sports facilities and cars are in general carparks in garages at the edge of the neighbourhood, not on the streets
- neighbourhood is well connected to the rest of the city
- there are plenty of jobs in the area. Probably the hardest part.
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It's not rocket science. Vienna did this once. Also you don't need car parks if a city is well designed. Public Transport and Carsharing is enough
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And most of Japan/Korea as well. Most people here prefer living in housing blocks
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The original commieblocks were fairly walkable, with parks, schools, grocery stores, and so on nearby. I'm personally a fan of making all the buildings concrete blocks and then getting a bunch of local mural artists to paint them for visual distinction.
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May I introduce you to the concept of microdistrict. That's how the original soviet developments were planned out - every house is guaranteed to have necessities like stores, a polyclinic, a school, a kindergarden, or a fire department within reasonable distance. Usually, walking distance. Everything is pedestrian permeable, there's public transport connecting the "sleeping districts" where there were mostly apartments to the industrial areas where the jobs were. And yeah, playgrounds in or near every building.
Jobs in the same area as apartments isn't really happening though, office buildings and industry tends to be away.
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Good on paper, terrible when commuting to work 2 hours one way in a packed train.
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I would add to this list, buildings and units that encourage resident diversity. As in, a diversity of ages, household size, economic class (and ideally also race/ethnicity/country of origin). Organically this means a mix of "luxury" and "budget" housing, unit sizes (studio through three bedroom at minimum), building ages and designs, target demographics for shops (e.g. upscale shopping alongside budget grocers), and community amenities (e.g. schools and senior centers). In a pinch subsidized housing can help with integration, but it's a limited and costly solution.
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Don't forget access to businesses - I don't know the stats for 3 floor developments but 5 is already plenty to support nearly all your needs within at most a 15 minute walk.
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"I have never lived in, occupied, or been near anywhere that employs this type of housing. But, here's a list of stipulations I have decided are absolutely necessary based on nothing other than what I feel former soviet satellite states are like."
-This Dude
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I live in appartement building that is 5 floors high, 4 appartements wide, and almost all of the points I mentioned are satisfied in this location.
It's a common mistake to confuse "commieblocks suck" (they do, I agree) with "living in appartementbuildings sucks" (it doesn't, can confirm.)
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No, they don't actually they are HUGE. A lot quite ornate. They're great places to live, I know. I have.
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100 comments