Commie Blocks Are Pretty Good, Actually 

The irony of people laughing at 'commie blocks' in a country with anti-homeless architecture is not lost on me.

Soviet Union: Duplicated apartment blocks America: Duplicated suburban houses

I notice that the aesthetic of "commie blocks" is actually pretty similar to a lot of post-war council housing in Britain.

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.

"Commie blocks next to dead trees" They are not dead, adam. This is called "winter"

From Reddit: "You know what's more depressing than commieblocks? Homelessness"

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!

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!

A: "Argh those commie blocks are so grey and depressing" B: *slaps a coat of paint onto them* A: "Wait! That's illegal!"

I wasn't expecting Adam to look like mild-mannered Clark Kent lol

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.

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.

"That's to ugly, we prefer to be homeless." Said nobody ever

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.

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.

I always thought of Commie blocks as retro futuristic . In most of the sci fi Hollywood movies , you would find homes like these.

"Its pretty hard to mess up" as an engineer, you would be surprised

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!

As a kid I lived in a commie block and my grandparents still live in one. I love both houses.

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.

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.

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.

I lived in a communist block here in Serbia. Also the buildings had horrendous sound isolation, I could hear my neighbor upstairs fart

"Commie blocks are depressing" He commented sitting on an Anti-Homeless bench.

"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.

Turns out your commie blocks don’t fall apart when you actually pay for their upkeep. Wild stuff, thanks for another banger Adam.

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

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’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.

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

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.

Anyone else notice that Adam is living with a malevolent sentient plant?

2:47 Adam having a model train collection is somehow both the funniest and most expected thing ever

"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

Commieblocks, from a design and urban planning POV, are actually examples to emulate. It's just also important to maintain them.

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.

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.

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

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.

anyone who says that living in commie/eastern block is good has never lived in a commie/eastern block

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!

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...

Adam has such a narorator voice that it feels uncanny when he's on camera

The apartment was falling apart, unclean, and there were sounds of gunshots throughout the night. I’m talking about America by the way.

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.

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.

"Big hunks of concrete it's pretty hard to mess that up." China: "h.ha.haa. Y..yeah."

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.

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.

You know what is more depressing than Soviet Grey Buildings? Ans. Homelessness

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.

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

Not remotely surprised that Adam has a big collection of model trains. That tracks 100%. (Pun intended.)

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.

Crime against humanity, banned by the Geneva convention, aesthetically and psychologically perturbing. Cuban here by the way

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.

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.

As a homeless person, I'd rather live in an "ugly" home than no home at all.

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 :)

Commie blocks are ideal for cheaply storing a large population of livestock. But for human beings, the ideal habitat is being close to nature, surrounded by trees, and never seeing a face you don't recognize anywhere near your home.

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'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.

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

You consider leaky roofs and broken elevators minor problems ?

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!)

Holy shit, Adam's face, what a reveal.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

I can debunk this argument in on sentence: Commie blocks are ugly whereas, apartment buildings last longer and look better (not a cuboid of concrete).

Capitalist countries are already catching on. But now they call them "modular homes", its a brand new capitalist idea guys, so innovative.

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

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.

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

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.

My university dorm is basically a renovated concrete block, pretty astonishing how many people can fit in there

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

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).

Conservatives: *cut funding for public housing* Also conservatives: "wow this looks depressing. only the market can solve housing."

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)

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.

Meanwhile, the entire comment section is listing a bazillion crippling flaws he chose to not present :,D

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

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.

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.

“Live in the pod, eat the bugs”

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.

I believe that you missed a very important thing - that the apartments in such blocks were given to people entirely for free without having to pay anything. You just had to wait a few years for your house to be built. My entire family got their apartments from plants they were working at.

Short answer to the video: no, they aren't good

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.

Honestly, it is both hilarious and depressing learning of all the successful city/urban planning and housing solutions that we could replicate but even better nowadays, yet they get shit on as “old useless trash, shitty designed, terrible, etc” while people are literally homeless or if not quite, struggling to rent rotting shitty rooms and barely able to keep up with life…

"It's hard to mess up big hunks of concrete" *looks at the UK's concrete towers that have 10th floor walls fall out

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.

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.

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.

As someone living in one of the commie blockhouses (albeit slightly renovated) in Eastern Europe, I can only say that while at the time they were a great solution to the problem they are notoriously outdated and barely stand to any type of modern-day architectural, engineering or safety standards. Because many of them were built by prisoners or soldiers with zero experience there are a lot of foundational flaws that require an almost complete redesign. It's very common to find very major discrepancies when comparing with architectural plans, such as walls being built unevenly and with several centimeters offset to their correct location, cement blocks not being properly connected, floors being installed aslope, and so on. Most of them wouldn't pass a basic construction inspection and be deemed as "unsafe" and "inappropriate for living", yet because many people still live in them there is not much municipal government is ready to do. Additionally, cement blocks were good, but the rest of the materials used in construction (especially interior materials like plaster or drywall) were of poor quality and quickly deteriorated. Utilities are a whole another tragedy. They used poor quality aluminum wires that have completely deteriorated so it's pretty much necessary to re-wire the electricity for the whole apartment, water, and sewage mains were usually inadequate, terrible, would clog up, and posed health hazards. Air ventilation and quality are non-existent and pose fire hazards. Proper insulation is also non-existent so a lot of heating energy is wasted in wintertime, albeit one of the most common upgrades for such houses is to add it. Sound isolation is practically non-existent so pretty often you could hear your neighbor's voices through the walls or floors. In summary - they are pretty terrible and need to be quickly replaced. But as you mention in the video for the time it was truly a great solution. It's just sad that most of them cannot stand up to modern standards and are actually a money sink maintenance wise for people trying to stay.

I agree, commie blocks can be great. In mine, between the buldings, there is a huge space full of trees, bushes, playgrounds. It is very green like living in a park.

this is honestly brilliant. The US could solve its housing crisis like this, most likely