Brutalism may not be the most aesthetically pleasing architecture style but, damn, did it house a lot of people who would’ve died.
I will stand ten toes down to defend that brutalism, as the philosophy of being honest with your material usage, is the most Beautiful form of architecture.
Most people will agree that mid century architecture is one of America’s most beautiful designs. The school of thought behind all famous mid century architecture is always that of honest material usage.
Now what does honest materials mean? It means when you’re using wood, you emphasize the grain. If you’re using metals, you embrace it’s utility. Stainless steel conveys surgical levels of cleanliness. When using brass or copper, the patina is expected. Stonework, isn’t used as a façade. The inclusion of masonry is obviously structural, and it’s implementation is deliberate and planned out like a painting.
some sort of communism = left wing, propaganda. who built those boxes? why?
“People in America really will spend $5,000 on a sweater. No piece of clothing should cost $5,000. You know what should cost $5,000? A car. And you know who should build that car? The same people that currently build $500,000 cars. The best and most talented among us should do the work that benefits the most amount of people for what good is everything to everyone who can’t afford it”
Kanye West
classic case of a broken clock being right twice a day
Said right before he dropped a $245 pair of goddamned sneakers…
I would rather have a few boring tall buildings and lots of nature than lots of single family homes and way less nature.
Go to the poor neighborhood in any city in America and its just as sad. Go to a poor rural area and it’s worse.
There are far better options for visually pleasant housing than these Soviet Union era blocks.
Like, seeing so many of these in Poland or other post-Soviet countries is just sad. They’re grey, neglected, and the people who are forced to choose them don’t have any other option.
We could have affordable housing that has some proper aesthetics. Just got to take care of the real estate developer mafias around the world first.
It would be relatively cheap and easy to retrofit them with moss/fern panel facades or other types of plants. Improves the visual appeal while also contributing to cleaner air and cooler temperatures, and creating food/habitat for wildlife.
There’s really no reason not to do it.
Don’t ferns take a lot of maintenance effort? Moss too, though perhaps to prevent it from invading other parts of the structure
Depends on the variety. Ideally you would choose a local species that’s adapted to the environment and not aggressive. One that can thrive in the peculiar conditions of a vertical wall with very little if any substrate. And if there’s nothing that suits it perfectly, you can genetically engineer something. Or choose a different type of plant.
There are options, and it’s been done before so it’s not like this is just scifi.
Yes, but then where would we get depressing propaganda pictures to frighten people who are curious about socioeconomic systems other than giving rich people whatever they want.
Easy, just use GenAI (/s)
They also have an accessibility issue because anything 5 stories or less does not have an elevator and smaller cities would often build tons of those 5 story ones, meaning all the cheap-ish apartments are 4th or 5th floor.
I’ve seen a few here in Estonia that went through renovations to become much nicer than new, but you’re still stuck with some things structurally that aren’t all great and despite kredex funding assistance, most of those buildings are stuck with 10-25 year loans after those renovations, making them a bit more expensive to live in.
And they don’t necessarily solve homelessness anyway. For example in the US there are significantly more vacant homes than homeless people.
Homeless people need a lot more help than just a roof over their heads. In places where they don’t allow drunk people in shelters and there are winters, they have homeless people in the summer, but not necessarily in the winter when it’s too cold to be drinking outside. Mental health issues tend to be a large factor in someone becoming permanently homeless vs temporarily due to financial difficulties (the latter often means couchsurfing till you get a new job, etc). And being surrounded by commie blocks can’t be good for your mental health, they definitely make me feel depressed and I’m glad I’ve never had to live in one.
Fuck these old commie blocks, we can do better without significantly worse costs per unit.
I’d posit a lot of homeless issues can start from just not having a hub to safely have things stored, and build a sense of safety. I look at the carts the homeless move around, and it looks like hoarding until I realize it’s less than a tenth of the stuff in my home I wouldn’t want to part with.
Homeless people need a lot more help than just a roof over their heads
Sure, but it’s a lot easier to deal with many of those issues when you don’t have to also worry about having a roof over your head.
That’s in part because they are far past their original designed lifespan, as these were meant to give everyone a house. Despite their other egregious excesses, the Soviets at least said they believed in housing as a human right, and implemented policies to that effect. Not only for building housing at record rates with innovative prefab construction, but also for upkeep of those buildings.
That is in stark contrast to the radical chicago school of economics “reforms” after the collapse of the soviet union, which basically created an oligarchy overnight. Those buildings were sold for pennies at private auctions to private landlords. Whole populations who used to have the security of free public housing, suddenly found themselves having to rent the house they have always lived in. Meanwhile those landlords never have nor will invest anything in upkeep, which likely accelerated the deterioration of these buildings significantly.
I do agree social housing should if possible be beautiful. However, the first concern should always be to build enough of it so everyone who wants housing can get it. Most of the western world is in a deep housing crisis, so IMO any social housing is beautiful.
The rich folk use them for their “hook-ups”. It’s like motels by the hour that the lower-middle class use.
I’m pretty sure a lot of the people mocking socialist architecture became really quiet when a data center was dropped next to their suburb.
Criminalised homelessness that enslaves you in the prison system
So American Homelessness…
A further “bonus” is that once you get a conviction on record it makes it even harder to get out of homelessness by not only making it incredibly difficult to get a job but also any place you might rent that does a background check.
It’s a vicious cycle of worse and worse outcomes.
I was homeless for 8 years (January actually marked 8 years being in my apartment) and I saw that cycle constantly.
Same comrade…so many amazing people I’ve known are either dead or locked up for extended sentences because of that cycle. We were the rarities that actually made it out!
the first fallacy is that this was “left-wing” architecture.
It was just boring architecture from Russia, built rapidly during a time of extreme homelessness. And it addressed that problem more than fatcat hate.
Everything they don’t like is left wing. Their brain doesn’t function beyond that.
“Communism bad because [thing that happens in capitalism]*”, vol. 69
Meanwhile, in God’s Own Chosen Land, all apartment complexes are one of two shitty design options and we get fleeced for the “privilege” of living there. Fuck it all, dammit
Don’t forget that they’re marketed as “Luxury Apartments” because the appliances were made in the last 10 years.
Here I thought it was cause you have the luxury of paying rent on them
It’s the luxury of breathing in mold spores from inside the walls and under the landlord special coat of paint
“These are boutique spores, you won’t find these anywhere else in this city. For the privilege of being able to breathe them in you owe me an extra $200 per month.”
Plus a fee for the luxury of paying him online, the only payment option
“Don’t forget to tip your landlord”
I ordered a replacement part for an electronic device I have that was on the fritz… Online… And there was a tip field at the end. As of there will even be a human involved in any of the order processing up until a person moves out from the van to my doorstep
Alterlaa in Vienna from the 70s
Spoiler
Here a more recent project: Reininghaus in Graz, Austria
It’s not completed yet, but it’s coming along nicely:
And to top it off, here some photos from thr “Wohnausanlage Sandleiten” consisting of around 1500 housing units that was built for the common folk in the 1920 (and has been brought up to modern standards since - all electrical work redone, refitted elevators, all windows and doors replaced, thermally brought up to code):
Thats the fountain in front of the library, a very nice place with lots of shadow on hot summer days (the trees have grown a lot since that photo was taken)
People of that opinion should really read Brian Goldstone’s “There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.” Compared to other G7 countries, US is, indeed, a shithole country.
🇺🇸But it’s the greatest shithole nation! 🇺🇸
Of all the shithole countries it’s certainly exceptional in its shittyness
Gonna check it out thanks for the suggestion!
Those things were created as alternative to substandard housing. My problem is, we dont see them as wellfare housing but the “new normal”. Industry relies too hard on ppl living in those and paying too low wages.
Also, i dont care about visuals here but growing up in one of those, there’s too little free space for human worthy life. Playgrounds covered in trash, srynges, dogpoop. Anything with grass covered in dogpoop. Sketchy people trying to snatch children being a daily occurance.
Its just too many people in one place. Not a left/right problem though.
Also, i dont care about visuals here but growing up in one of those, there’s too little free space for human worthy life. Playgrounds covered in trash, srynges, dogpoop. Anything with grass covered in dogpoop. Sketchy people trying to snatch children being a daily occurance.
This sounds like a maintenance/cops issue. Especially when people are crammed in and there’s so little green space, ya can’t cut corners on things like cops and firemen and ambulances.
Making sure that the area isn’t just a single social group helps, and there are a lot of architectural and design features that can also help - just because it is low income housing doesn’t mean it has to be “bottom of the barrel”-housing. In my area (Sandleitenhof in Vienna, added a few pictures in a reply) there is a near permanent presence - not by cops, but by city workers doing housekeeping, maintenance and they have deescalation teams who act as mediators for neighborly disputes.
I would kill to live in a brezhnevka.
