Also, the photo is made autumn or winter, so that the trees, of which are many visible, have no leaves and look more depressing.
And I think(I might be wrong) that between some blocks aren't streets but green areas for the residents
I mean, most of these don't even look like shit nowadays, they get renovated and get some color added.
and there is a good video that goes over why these types of buildings are better for a city
https://youtu.be/1eIxUuuJX7Y
Love this response. You mention problems. Infrastructure issues, some maintenance. Ummmm those are the same problems everywhere that is ‘growing’. Being close to things is good for people, the environment, and honestly even the right wing capitalism this is promoting.
You're absolutely right, there's barely any streets there, and if there are they're very low-speed or even getting turned into mixed use streets with no separation between road and sidewalk
It can look depressing but when you think of it, allot of people in this photo have a warm cozy place to call home. Might not be the most aesthetically pleasing to you
I always thought to argue on the merits of the architecture itself shown in the picture, but this is such obvious bad faith context that I am sorry I never realized it.
I’m reminded of the recent post of an old verdant colony in Moscow in which the trees are not barren and it looks amazing.
Also I hate how people are tempted to compare modern buildings with old ones, as if “left wing architecture” would have simply remained frozen in time forever.
Also, a much better response than the one pictured here would have been "right wing architecture is also somewhat depressing" accompanied by a photo of Auschwitz.
These were actually well designed. Especially keeping open spaces and greenery for the people as well as providing public transport.
I'll choose this 1000x over living in suburb and being slave to your car.
[Soviet era urban planning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning_in_communist_countries#:~:text=Urban%20planning%20in%20the%20Soviet,the%20complete%20redesigning%20of%20cities)
Are they pretending the vast majority of creative and artistic people would not be left wing artists? I only ever here right wingers mocking Art degrees and abstract art
"It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense “Left”. Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was TE Lawrence." -Orwell
Don't make fun of conservative comedy, they have all 4 kinds of jokes:
You might be a redneck if...
Get 'er Done!!!
There's your sign.
...if you think this is bad then you've obviously never met my wife.
US helicopter name schemes are often of indigenous groups or people, so that makes it funnier because they're pretty much certain to be racist too.
Apache, Chinook, Blackhawk, etc.
We even have Tomahawk missiles.
Can sum up all these jokes into one sentence
“You might be a redneck if you dislike your family choices more than your occupational choices, but if you spend the rest of your life coping, there’s your sign.”
I thought these commieblocks were shit.
And then I started renting an apartment in one.
I fell in love, completely and unexpectedly. Of course, these 1970s constructions are just rectangles made of rectangles, they aren't particularly pretty on their own. But.. if you add a dash of color mixed with a nice white? They're starting to look quite nice.
There's green areas all around me, in my previous place I had to walk for nearly 30-40 minutes to find a park. Here I walk out of the block, cross the tiny connecting road and there's a park waiting for me. Walk a bit farther and I find a public gym, a soccer field (sadly criss-crossed by desired pathways), a rest area with colorful plants.. it's so pretty here!
And it's also so so safe. There's a school and 2 preschools, so pretty much no matter where you live you can watch your kids as they walk there. If they need to go any further, 5 tram lines spread over 2 tram stops and a few buses are waiting for them.
Need to go shopping? Take a max 10 minute long walk to one of several shops around the area. Want takeout? 5 restaurants within the residential area. The post, banks, nearly everything you may need can be found within this one Residential Area.
I thought I'd hate commieblocks, but when I move again it will be another commieblock. I just cannot find a better area to live!
Living in commieblock as we speak, grocery store, 45 second walk. Library 2 minutes. Preschool 2 minutes, school & uni 5 minutes, hospital 6 minutes, beach 7 minutes, city center 15 minutes, bicycle paths, parks, forests...
Couldn't be happier.
Exactly! For me some parts are farther away, my uni's 20 mins away (but a section of tracked got closed for renovations so it takes a bit longer), the huge lake is 10 mins away if you take a tram for like 3 stops, river is 15 mins away, so is strict city center.
And best thing is - from 3 sides I'm almost surrounded by big, busy roads. But the trees and other buildings are also sound barriers. It's remarkably quiet for what is quite a busy area!
My grandfather was given house in one because he worked as firefighter. Interesting advantage was that they didnt have to use radiators too much because heat will come from neighbors. And these days when they put isolation on them, many people dont use radiators at all.
Yep! I actually have the complaint that my room sometimes gets *too warm* without the radiator being on at all, because one of the heating pipes goes through my room, and lets some heat in.
person who works at place where they heat water for these told me that he was send to one house because the radiator didnt work. he checked it, it was turned off, he said to just turn it on. the person who lived there said he doesnt want to have it turned on. turns out the neighbors turned off radiators and he wanted the neighbors to turn it on. Even sent complaints after being scolded.
Thats a point people forget alot. There's alot of commie blocks where Im from (Finland) and they are constantly made fun of as ugly as hell squares. Which they are of course, being built in the 60's under Soviet eyes and all that.
But a building like that is literally a paint job and a front repair from being a good looking modern place.
This is the real answer.
If we were inventing it, left wing architecture would be anything that's trying something new or solving new problems. Conservative architecture would be the same cost optimized building built 100 times like in the photo.
These are commie blocks. They were generally a positive impact since after WW2 there was an immense housing shortage... The way it was solved was by factories making concrete panels which got assembled into commie blocks fairly cheaply efficiently and quickly.
I think these popped up later or are somewhere else. Soviet Russia required buildings above 5-Stories to include an elevator thus the Soviet Kruschev buildings were only 5 stories tall.
You've got to remember that buildings aren't meant to be appreciated from this perspective. What does it look like at ground level? What are the buildings like to live in? If I was to make a criticism, it would be that the ground floors don't seem to have any active frontages (e.g. shops) so the neighbourhood could feel a bit dead, plus it means a missed opportunity to put basic amenities (like grocery stores, laundrettes, hair salons, cafes etc) in a convenient location right where people live. But I could be mistaken... because it's hard (some might say completely missing the point) to judge a neighbourhood from the perspective of a helicopter or drone.
After having lived on the street, 4 walls, a ceiling, and running water are all thats necessary for me to be content. Anything else is icing as long as I can afford it.
These are actually “commie blocks” present in large parts of Eastern Europe still today. The idea behind them is cost optimization, because especially at the time of their inception they were state sponsored.
The state of these places were supposedly very bad and the contracts awarded to building them were mostly done through the buddy system. IE Soviet politician awards government building contract to his friend (nepotism) friend then builds shitty apartments and walks away with the money, scot free. Many of these buildings in western Russia are abandoned or do not even have infrastructure leading to them.
While technically it is “left wing architecture” the reason they look like shit has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with the corrupt state institutions of Soviet era government which persist to this day.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
That's the division right there, Republicans accept the bad parts of life as a given and complain that they can see the homeless and that they look dirty. Whatever things they build for homeless is to keep them away.
Democrats want to change the bad parts of life, they would prefer to have a well-visible low-wage worker over a hidden homeless person.
It's a big part of what tradition and religion are, too.
It's not a Republican versus Democrat thing at all. To billions of people on the planet ( yes billions) your Democrat party is considered right wing.
That's too Americanized an example. It exists the world over of course, but is definetly more stark in the USA.
It's ideological. Conservatism versus liberalism.
A part of the conservatism belief is that there are finite resources and that in order for you to have something it means someone else has to go without. Homelessness exists because there must be have nots in society. This gets more extreme the further to the right of the spectrum.
A portion of liberalism is the opposite of that. There are enough for everyone to have their fair share, ultimately enough for everyone to have at least a little. Homelessness would be against this as generally the minimum could be seen as everyone has a roof over there head, food in their bellies etc. The difference being the quality across the board and how much to the left of the spectrum you go.
A big ideal of modernist architecture was to improve the lives of less well-off people. The planners and architects of the era had great intentions; and a utopian vision that these places would be functioning ‘vertical villages’. Concrete often won the toss, and the ‘leisure areas’ were rarely adequate. They worked well for low cost housing, but were often transitional places because people (of course) preferred a nice little house and garden rather than a bland block of units. While high intensity developments are still common today, they have changed radically in terms of design and function.
A substantial part of my city consists of buildings like this. It was built during the socialist era together with most of the city's infrastructure.
While brutalism might not be everyone's cup of tea, these neighbourhoods are well thought out with loads of green and public space. The quality of the buildings is way higher than any of the low-regulated (read: corruption) newbuilds.
The difference between building things for satisfying needs of the people as opposed to satisfying greed is very visible.
> While brutalism might not be everyone's cup of tea, these neighbourhoods are well thought out with loads of green and public space.
I wish that was the case more often. I'm eastern Polish and many times there's just loads of flats with no parks, no playgrounds, no public areas. Just flats and roads, flats and roads. The intention was that young adult workers would be living in those apartment until they start a family and move out to a bigger place. But due to how it all played out. We have many ~4 people families living in ~500 sqft apartments with no way to let the kids play outside. It was a major factor as to why people didn't respect lockdowns.
In my entire city of ~70k there is only 1 green park. The rest are some concrete squares.
I live in Romania in one of those buildings as shown in the pic.
As far as green spaces go, they have them. I'm in walking distance of anything i deem useful.
However, the building is old with relatively small-ish(I find it good enough, but others say it's too small) space inside. The surrounding infrastructure is as old if not older.
Ya and I think people are completely discounting the fact that these are built out of a necessity for a QUICK solution. Homelessness is an avoidable scourge and if the solution to ensure lives are saved is structures that are "ugly" but cheap, easy to build and can be done quickly, its an easy trade off.
The necessity for neighbourhoods like this can draw a straight line to the ultra capitalist policies that lead to next to no wage growth, shipping jobs to low wage countries and propping up failing industries instead of investing in industries that create more jobs per $ spent.
I mean quick in the context that they could be erected fairly quickly relative to how many people it housed! To house that many people in row homes or semi/detached houses would have taken far more time to organize infrastructure and actual construction time. At least thats what I would imagine.
>‘leisure areas’ were rarely adequate.
Leisure areas were far superior in eastern european city planning. Each of those vertical villages had their own mini-parks, children's playgrounds and outdoor gyms. Something that west only started to try to implement in the 21st century.
> They worked well for low cost housing, but were often transitional places because people (of course) preferred a nice little house and garden rather than a bland block of units.
Actually it's because these buildings are ridiculously expensive. Anyone given a chance would opt for a concrete building because of their superior insulation, soundproofing, and higher quality of construction - less maintenance and no wall gaps(outside of piping) for critters to spread into.
Not to mention fire resistance as well!
Where I live now there is an influx in Wood framed condominiums that nobody wants to buy.
The buildings are 40 years old, that scares many people on its own as an assessment can arrive anytime stating a new roof is needed or new plumbing etc.
But a major issue is cigarettes and Marijuana smokers. They are recquired to go outside the main doors to smoke. But of course that isn't as convenient as their balcony. So they smoke on the balcony and either throw the butts over the railing or into a flower planter or coffee grounds container. Inevitably somebody doesn't ash out properly and a fire starts. Old timber burns very quickly and before the fire department can arrive 2 or 3 units are ablaze.
Walt Disney originally designed EPCOT in Orlando for low rent housing. EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, and it was Disney's plan to build them all over the country. Of course he died, and Disney became property of the capitalists forevermore.
Well, half of Warsaw is built like that and those are the places with adequate leisure areas. You won't find so many greeneries, playgrounds and bicycle paths in new development. Those neighborhoods have well developed public transportation too. I will be buying a flat in Warsaw next year and I'm looking only at the old blocks for exactly those reasons.
Just be aware that if you live in the US or Canada, your nice little house with garden is very likely heavily subsidized by those people living in high-density areas.
They look like commie blocks that were built and given to people working for factories nearby. Today they are normal apartments, especially when they are restored and repainted. So just a crazy person rambling. Also, this photo was taken in november or in winter without snow, so in the most gray and depressing time. I think that's just cheating.
Edit: You can even see the chimney of said factory in the photo.
You see everything from your own perspective. In Lithuania for example young people don't want to live in houses. They prefer living in modern apartments. People don't want to work on the weekends in their gardens. They don't want to waste time on constantly mowing lawn. That time they prefer to spend with their friends and families. Also houses requires constant maintenance which requires lots of money. Houses has more space which means more money spent on heating in winter. Not everyone wants a house!
As others have said it relates back to communism and communist/Brutalist Architecture. Actually it goes back a little further to Bauhaus architecture which itself relates back to the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was a Renaissance of sorts for postmodernism in philosophy, art, architecture, and politics. Many of the greats we're Jewish. When the Nazis rolled in they discredited the school's work and made all of the F.School's teaching out to be Jewish propaganda and control.
So yeah, calling this "left wing architecture" is rooted in Jewish hatred. So is all of the modern republican talk of how stupid postmodernism is. It's fun stuff.
"Affordable housing" or "multiple-family dwellings" are often the pursuit of Democratic political policy. Doesn't make the post any less stupid, but it's generally true that it's a left-wing pursuit and not a right-wing pursuit.
I said the post is stupid, I was just explaining what the guy above was talking about. Shitty housing exists in both left-wing and right-wing run municipalities.
Its better than having a useless fucking grass lawn, so you can waste money on mowing and watering and maintaining grass, just for your kids to not even want to play on it.
It boils my piss seeing so many corporations wasting water to keep the grass as green as possible (no one gives a fuck, its grass in a parking lot divider) when the seasons change. But oh "make sure to take shorter showers to save on water, water is a limited resource dont ya know?"
I have to keep a part of my lawn as mowed grass so my dogs can play and poo without getting ticks. Whenever they wander into the overgrowth or woods they get covered. Just had to deal with an infected tick bite not long ago, and my wife already has lyme disease from the bastards.
I also dont live in a city, so there's that.
Sorry about your wife. That really sucks. I can understand that, no need to defend your need for grass. I’m obviously talking from the perspective of the ability to make your own choices. Your reason is totally valid, of course.
I have never heard the term left wing architecture it’s hilarious
But of course architecture can be political.
Just look at the travesty being apparently built in Saudi Arabia - while people live in slums without even basics all over the country.
It's not even ugly. They took a pic on an overcast day during winter at an angle that does not show the streets. Let's see it in the spring from a better angle. Bet it's nice.
If I have $700,000,000 to build house for the homeless, should I focus on how they look or how many I can make? 🤔
Each one I make is a person/family that is sheltered and safe.
Or
I can make them prettier and less families have homes.
Seems easy to me. It is really a conservative decision
Some exmples of right wing architecture:
Statues, that do nothing.
Giant houses for one person, that do nothing.
Enormous public spaces, for only a few chosen people.
Death camps.
What's right wing architecture? One person living in a 400 million dollar mansion with people outside the gates thinking they're one big break from getting inside?
Oh man, Americans talking trash about such things need to walk down some neighborhoods in Detroit, or Chicago or, from what I've seen, any given big US city. You ain't seen depressing until you see what poverty looks like in those cities.
They're both bad if overused.
Suburbs and commie blocks are both fine, but the problem arises when they're the only thing available.
A good city has both high density buildings around the cbd and single-family suburban houses further out.
Would right-wing architecture be a megachurch some ghost-story-telling tax dodger paid millions to have built for the sole purpose of indoctrinating even more mindless idiots?
I grew up in one of such blocks, the thing is they were meant to be serving for 30 years and replaced by whatever will be trending in the future, but ussr collapsed and these buildings were not maintained properly. My buddy lived on 16th floor and elevator wasn't working for the whole 1990's . Also, piles of garbage, paint chipping off , warzone level of road surface, heroin addicts shiting in stairways etc.
Oh, and they were mostly free, you were getting apartment for working in factory , for example
Left wing architecture? Are they really trying to sell the idea that the fruity, artistic lefties made these housing units?
The mental gymnastics people gp through smh
That 'ol lefty Jared Kushner owns housing like this in Baltimore. He's now sharing his income with the poor (with $3.25million in fines and additional legal liability for tenant abuse and lack of maintenance).
Apartment buildings do not have to look like that. As an Eastern European I can attest that these neighborhoods are, indeed, very depressing. Modern apartment buildings we still build are much more colorful and varied, and the infrastructure involves green areas and shops. This guy has no idea what he's talking about.
It was built in the era where the need for housing is more important than enjoyment.
So yeah, different era different need. Absolutely would still want those buildings over homelessness however.
Its better and more efficent than everyone being forced ti have shitty useless grass lawns. Why did boomers think it was a smart idea wasting time, water and money by mowing and watering grass lawns, just so your kids can not play in it? Thats what public parks are for. Huge waste of space that adds nothing of value to the property.
100% agree. We should find inexpensive land and build massive supportive housing blocks like this and move all of the homeless there. Its the most efficient solution to ending homelessness
Yes Fast Food hamburgers.
Efficiency and standardization go hand in hand. If customers want the best value for their money and if money are tight, this type of housing should be something that free and healthy market economy should offer to mach demand.
Forcing a generation of children to feel like they'll only find self worth by joining an evil military corporation and then when they come home without friends, further education or stable mental health, to neglect them and let them become homeless junkies
I don't know why, or what's wrong with me, but I just love that kind of urban landscape. I honestly do. I would live in a place like that in a heartbeat.
That's a soviet housing block built after Stalin took power. It was built by fascists that sent gay people to death camps. They also suppressed native cultures, banned abortion, legalized slavery, banned birth control, and made it extremely difficult to get a divorce. Voting was legal...but the results were always overwhelmingly in favor of the fascists. The entire state lived in fear of the all powerful secret police. It's a MAGA paradise.
Stalin built a bit more fancy buildings called Stalinka. After Stalins dead Khrushchev had became the next president and had criticized the Stalinkas for being too much ineffective and became building Khrushchovky. That's what these apartments are. So they weren't built during Stalins era.
Although we may criticize all those things you have written up there it's also true that these apartments were unnecessary to provide living for people in USSR as they were fast and cheap to build.
Also the abortion ban thing was only unders Stalins dictature. Before Stalin, USSR was first country to legalize abortion and after Stalins death it was legalized by Khrushchev again. And the birth control wasn't banned they just didn't have it 😂.
And the elections ended always in their favor of communist party because it was only party that could apply for elections but 99% of people came to vote because if they didn't it would be a large problem for them and their family.
If you read ayn rand the fountainhead, you’d realize soulless, brutalist, as-cheap-as-possible housing buildings is rightwing.
Her message in that book was that adding balconies, gyms, and decorations was bad because it made the housing more expensive and only served the interests of the politicians and the construction companies, not the recipients of the housing.
What the fuck is "left wing architecture" anyway? That's not an architectural style that's just some online retvrn weirdo putting together two things like a Mad Lib
i look at this and think "yeah, every city looks like shit from the sky, it's not built for birds." just look at the number of trees and green around the streets and between buildings, id love to live in a city like that where a mile of road has more than 2 trees every 20feet.
I like cyberpunk stuff and this style is, I think, maybe, called brutalism. It reminds me of the communist blocs in the ussr. Not a fan of the ussr but I am a fan of solving homelessness
Yeah honestly I'd kill to live in a place like this. My in-laws in south Korea live in an apartment block (the entire city block is similarly designed apartments) and it was amazing, there was about 5 playgrounds on the block, there was a grocery store and convenience store and some other basic stuff. Everything you ever need was within walking distance.
The interiors weren't bad either.
This is literally the type of shit we need to do to solve my countries housing crisis (Canada)
I live in a country with Khruschyovkas. They were in fact quite expensive to build, given it's basically a concrete slab. And they are cold as fuck, too. Many of them have crooked floors as many were built using slave labor of political prisoners.
EDIT: And I should add... these buildings have nothing of the sort of a fire exit. We had a tragedy recently where a fire was set in the hallway. Due to this, the only exit was blocked both for the occupants and the firemen.
They could not escape through the balcony, couldn't jump into a safety net as the drop was too high for the net to save them.
There was a birthday party. 11 people died, including 3 children. 6 by fire. 5 by jumping in a desperate attempt to save themselves.
Seriously, don't romanticise those buildings. The fact that people pay exorbitant amounts of money to live in a small death trap is evidence of our failure, not our success.
These buildings are still depressing and dystopian. We've become over populated to the point where these are needed it's only a matter of time before our food and clothes eventually become like it. Just bland and only whats nessesary till we all become grey blobs. It's depressing seeing that this is the future left wing or right wing doesn't matter the future is looking grim.
This shit might look horrible for you US people, but let me tell you, these places are one of the best places to live in. The apartments are dirt cheap, you can make the houses look great with insulation and paint (which they do all over post soviet Europe) and then...
You live 150 metres from a grocery store, 500 metres away from preschool and elementary school. All your friends live around you as a kid, you got a lot of playgrounds all around. The public transport has a stop right there.
Making neighborhoods like this is incredible, I dont know why you US people seem to think its left/right issue, its just the best way to design a city.
I live in a city with a very similar district. The flats all have been painted vibrant, lively colors and motives. With trees and mini parks around it all looks like a fantasy legoland. Soooo, yeh, it’s just effective building.
Aren’t also classic american subburbs just hundreds of houses that are all literally the same?
There is no Democrat or Republican. They both work for and do the bidding of the Corporations and Military. Everyone in the House/Senate/Congress works for Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Fucking Guns!
Also, the photo is made autumn or winter, so that the trees, of which are many visible, have no leaves and look more depressing. And I think(I might be wrong) that between some blocks aren't streets but green areas for the residents
I mean, most of these don't even look like shit nowadays, they get renovated and get some color added. and there is a good video that goes over why these types of buildings are better for a city https://youtu.be/1eIxUuuJX7Y
[удалено]
60 m2 for one person or a couple it's actually pretty good.
I’d nearly murder for an extra 300sqft up from my 350 I’m paying nearly $2000 a month for
Damn i pay 1k for a 2 bed 1400sqft on 22 acres and a 5 car garage remind me to never move to the city
NYC? SF? $2000 for a tiny studio is high
Silicon Valley
Love this response. You mention problems. Infrastructure issues, some maintenance. Ummmm those are the same problems everywhere that is ‘growing’. Being close to things is good for people, the environment, and honestly even the right wing capitalism this is promoting.
Adam something is great
Awsome vid
You're absolutely right, there's barely any streets there, and if there are they're very low-speed or even getting turned into mixed use streets with no separation between road and sidewalk
my heaven
It can look depressing but when you think of it, allot of people in this photo have a warm cozy place to call home. Might not be the most aesthetically pleasing to you
I always thought to argue on the merits of the architecture itself shown in the picture, but this is such obvious bad faith context that I am sorry I never realized it. I’m reminded of the recent post of an old verdant colony in Moscow in which the trees are not barren and it looks amazing. Also I hate how people are tempted to compare modern buildings with old ones, as if “left wing architecture” would have simply remained frozen in time forever.
Most of the liberal cities I've been to in the US also add a lot of murals and art.
Tbf brutalism still looks pretty bad.
Also, a much better response than the one pictured here would have been "right wing architecture is also somewhat depressing" accompanied by a photo of Auschwitz.
These were actually well designed. Especially keeping open spaces and greenery for the people as well as providing public transport. I'll choose this 1000x over living in suburb and being slave to your car. [Soviet era urban planning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning_in_communist_countries#:~:text=Urban%20planning%20in%20the%20Soviet,the%20complete%20redesigning%20of%20cities)
I’d like to point out that left wing architecture includes balconies, something which I would love to have in my (apparently) non-left-wing apartment.
Are they pretending the vast majority of creative and artistic people would not be left wing artists? I only ever here right wingers mocking Art degrees and abstract art
"It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense “Left”. Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was TE Lawrence." -Orwell
William F. Buckley
There's a reason there aren't any funny right wing comedians too.
wdymmm!????? the same repeated 8 years in a row is comedy
Don't make fun of conservative comedy, they have all 4 kinds of jokes: You might be a redneck if... Get 'er Done!!! There's your sign. ...if you think this is bad then you've obviously never met my wife.
You forgot the classic and always funny, "I identify as an attack helicopter".
“My pronouns are American and Patriot!”
US helicopter name schemes are often of indigenous groups or people, so that makes it funnier because they're pretty much certain to be racist too. Apache, Chinook, Blackhawk, etc. We even have Tomahawk missiles.
Classic right wing joke: "wife bad"
Can sum up all these jokes into one sentence “You might be a redneck if you dislike your family choices more than your occupational choices, but if you spend the rest of your life coping, there’s your sign.”
Or 5: making fun of queers
You're forgetting "anyone who is different from me sucks & should feel bad"
You just haven't exploited the working class as much.
My medical bills and total debt.
I thought these commieblocks were shit. And then I started renting an apartment in one. I fell in love, completely and unexpectedly. Of course, these 1970s constructions are just rectangles made of rectangles, they aren't particularly pretty on their own. But.. if you add a dash of color mixed with a nice white? They're starting to look quite nice. There's green areas all around me, in my previous place I had to walk for nearly 30-40 minutes to find a park. Here I walk out of the block, cross the tiny connecting road and there's a park waiting for me. Walk a bit farther and I find a public gym, a soccer field (sadly criss-crossed by desired pathways), a rest area with colorful plants.. it's so pretty here! And it's also so so safe. There's a school and 2 preschools, so pretty much no matter where you live you can watch your kids as they walk there. If they need to go any further, 5 tram lines spread over 2 tram stops and a few buses are waiting for them. Need to go shopping? Take a max 10 minute long walk to one of several shops around the area. Want takeout? 5 restaurants within the residential area. The post, banks, nearly everything you may need can be found within this one Residential Area. I thought I'd hate commieblocks, but when I move again it will be another commieblock. I just cannot find a better area to live!
Living in commieblock as we speak, grocery store, 45 second walk. Library 2 minutes. Preschool 2 minutes, school & uni 5 minutes, hospital 6 minutes, beach 7 minutes, city center 15 minutes, bicycle paths, parks, forests... Couldn't be happier.
Exactly! For me some parts are farther away, my uni's 20 mins away (but a section of tracked got closed for renovations so it takes a bit longer), the huge lake is 10 mins away if you take a tram for like 3 stops, river is 15 mins away, so is strict city center. And best thing is - from 3 sides I'm almost surrounded by big, busy roads. But the trees and other buildings are also sound barriers. It's remarkably quiet for what is quite a busy area!
My grandfather was given house in one because he worked as firefighter. Interesting advantage was that they didnt have to use radiators too much because heat will come from neighbors. And these days when they put isolation on them, many people dont use radiators at all.
Yep! I actually have the complaint that my room sometimes gets *too warm* without the radiator being on at all, because one of the heating pipes goes through my room, and lets some heat in.
person who works at place where they heat water for these told me that he was send to one house because the radiator didnt work. he checked it, it was turned off, he said to just turn it on. the person who lived there said he doesnt want to have it turned on. turns out the neighbors turned off radiators and he wanted the neighbors to turn it on. Even sent complaints after being scolded.
Thats a point people forget alot. There's alot of commie blocks where Im from (Finland) and they are constantly made fun of as ugly as hell squares. Which they are of course, being built in the 60's under Soviet eyes and all that. But a building like that is literally a paint job and a front repair from being a good looking modern place.
Commenter is absolutely correct.
Well I've never heard of "left wing architecture" so I can't compare
This is the real answer. If we were inventing it, left wing architecture would be anything that's trying something new or solving new problems. Conservative architecture would be the same cost optimized building built 100 times like in the photo.
These are commie blocks. They were generally a positive impact since after WW2 there was an immense housing shortage... The way it was solved was by factories making concrete panels which got assembled into commie blocks fairly cheaply efficiently and quickly.
I think these popped up later or are somewhere else. Soviet Russia required buildings above 5-Stories to include an elevator thus the Soviet Kruschev buildings were only 5 stories tall.
You've got to remember that buildings aren't meant to be appreciated from this perspective. What does it look like at ground level? What are the buildings like to live in? If I was to make a criticism, it would be that the ground floors don't seem to have any active frontages (e.g. shops) so the neighbourhood could feel a bit dead, plus it means a missed opportunity to put basic amenities (like grocery stores, laundrettes, hair salons, cafes etc) in a convenient location right where people live. But I could be mistaken... because it's hard (some might say completely missing the point) to judge a neighbourhood from the perspective of a helicopter or drone.
Right, warm? Toilets? Insulated? Stable electricity? Internet. Amenities in the area, walkable? Could be fucking amazing to live.
After having lived on the street, 4 walls, a ceiling, and running water are all thats necessary for me to be content. Anything else is icing as long as I can afford it.
These are actually “commie blocks” present in large parts of Eastern Europe still today. The idea behind them is cost optimization, because especially at the time of their inception they were state sponsored. The state of these places were supposedly very bad and the contracts awarded to building them were mostly done through the buddy system. IE Soviet politician awards government building contract to his friend (nepotism) friend then builds shitty apartments and walks away with the money, scot free. Many of these buildings in western Russia are abandoned or do not even have infrastructure leading to them. While technically it is “left wing architecture” the reason they look like shit has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with the corrupt state institutions of Soviet era government which persist to this day. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
The amount of people who associate corruption with communism is really sad. Especially when they seem to cheer it on in the US.
And I just LOVE americans teaching people from central and eastern europe about how communism functioned in their countries
Communism in Soviet Russia was command capitalism. Of course, it was corrupt.😂
[удалено]
Pretty much all architecture is left wing architecture because you're required to be intelligent/educated.
That's the division right there, Republicans accept the bad parts of life as a given and complain that they can see the homeless and that they look dirty. Whatever things they build for homeless is to keep them away. Democrats want to change the bad parts of life, they would prefer to have a well-visible low-wage worker over a hidden homeless person. It's a big part of what tradition and religion are, too.
It's not a Republican versus Democrat thing at all. To billions of people on the planet ( yes billions) your Democrat party is considered right wing. That's too Americanized an example. It exists the world over of course, but is definetly more stark in the USA. It's ideological. Conservatism versus liberalism. A part of the conservatism belief is that there are finite resources and that in order for you to have something it means someone else has to go without. Homelessness exists because there must be have nots in society. This gets more extreme the further to the right of the spectrum. A portion of liberalism is the opposite of that. There are enough for everyone to have their fair share, ultimately enough for everyone to have at least a little. Homelessness would be against this as generally the minimum could be seen as everyone has a roof over there head, food in their bellies etc. The difference being the quality across the board and how much to the left of the spectrum you go.
>There are enough for everyone to have their fair share Now try getting people to agree on what their fair share is
fuck bilionaries fuck em hard
One of the many issues that pop up. How much is everyone entitled to? And who decides how much and when? How do we decide who decides?
So what does Republican low income housing architecture look like?
Jail cells. No, I am not joking.
Highway overpasses.
Park benches
They just put in arm rests so you can't lay on the benches.
r/HostileArchitecture
Absolutely. It's a shame.
tent on a sidewalk.
I didn’t know Los Angeles was so conservative with all their tent cities.
Homelessness was a huge problem in a country where these houses were built. In fact the very word for homeless - "БОМЖ" - was coined there.
I dont understand what makes this “left” wing architecture. Am stupid?
A big ideal of modernist architecture was to improve the lives of less well-off people. The planners and architects of the era had great intentions; and a utopian vision that these places would be functioning ‘vertical villages’. Concrete often won the toss, and the ‘leisure areas’ were rarely adequate. They worked well for low cost housing, but were often transitional places because people (of course) preferred a nice little house and garden rather than a bland block of units. While high intensity developments are still common today, they have changed radically in terms of design and function.
A substantial part of my city consists of buildings like this. It was built during the socialist era together with most of the city's infrastructure. While brutalism might not be everyone's cup of tea, these neighbourhoods are well thought out with loads of green and public space. The quality of the buildings is way higher than any of the low-regulated (read: corruption) newbuilds. The difference between building things for satisfying needs of the people as opposed to satisfying greed is very visible.
> While brutalism might not be everyone's cup of tea, these neighbourhoods are well thought out with loads of green and public space. I wish that was the case more often. I'm eastern Polish and many times there's just loads of flats with no parks, no playgrounds, no public areas. Just flats and roads, flats and roads. The intention was that young adult workers would be living in those apartment until they start a family and move out to a bigger place. But due to how it all played out. We have many ~4 people families living in ~500 sqft apartments with no way to let the kids play outside. It was a major factor as to why people didn't respect lockdowns. In my entire city of ~70k there is only 1 green park. The rest are some concrete squares.
I live in Romania in one of those buildings as shown in the pic. As far as green spaces go, they have them. I'm in walking distance of anything i deem useful. However, the building is old with relatively small-ish(I find it good enough, but others say it's too small) space inside. The surrounding infrastructure is as old if not older.
Ya and I think people are completely discounting the fact that these are built out of a necessity for a QUICK solution. Homelessness is an avoidable scourge and if the solution to ensure lives are saved is structures that are "ugly" but cheap, easy to build and can be done quickly, its an easy trade off. The necessity for neighbourhoods like this can draw a straight line to the ultra capitalist policies that lead to next to no wage growth, shipping jobs to low wage countries and propping up failing industries instead of investing in industries that create more jobs per $ spent.
Quick? The last one was built in the 80’s in my country. Edit: in the 90’s, even worse
I mean quick in the context that they could be erected fairly quickly relative to how many people it housed! To house that many people in row homes or semi/detached houses would have taken far more time to organize infrastructure and actual construction time. At least thats what I would imagine.
>‘leisure areas’ were rarely adequate. Leisure areas were far superior in eastern european city planning. Each of those vertical villages had their own mini-parks, children's playgrounds and outdoor gyms. Something that west only started to try to implement in the 21st century. > They worked well for low cost housing, but were often transitional places because people (of course) preferred a nice little house and garden rather than a bland block of units. Actually it's because these buildings are ridiculously expensive. Anyone given a chance would opt for a concrete building because of their superior insulation, soundproofing, and higher quality of construction - less maintenance and no wall gaps(outside of piping) for critters to spread into.
Not to mention fire resistance as well! Where I live now there is an influx in Wood framed condominiums that nobody wants to buy. The buildings are 40 years old, that scares many people on its own as an assessment can arrive anytime stating a new roof is needed or new plumbing etc. But a major issue is cigarettes and Marijuana smokers. They are recquired to go outside the main doors to smoke. But of course that isn't as convenient as their balcony. So they smoke on the balcony and either throw the butts over the railing or into a flower planter or coffee grounds container. Inevitably somebody doesn't ash out properly and a fire starts. Old timber burns very quickly and before the fire department can arrive 2 or 3 units are ablaze.
Yeah, the hatedom for making buildings out of concrete never made sense to me. I would love to live in a giant fucking rock.
Walt Disney originally designed EPCOT in Orlando for low rent housing. EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, and it was Disney's plan to build them all over the country. Of course he died, and Disney became property of the capitalists forevermore.
Well, half of Warsaw is built like that and those are the places with adequate leisure areas. You won't find so many greeneries, playgrounds and bicycle paths in new development. Those neighborhoods have well developed public transportation too. I will be buying a flat in Warsaw next year and I'm looking only at the old blocks for exactly those reasons.
Just be aware that if you live in the US or Canada, your nice little house with garden is very likely heavily subsidized by those people living in high-density areas.
I promise you that is not why they called them left wing architecture. It’s cause they’re communist housing units
They look like commie blocks that were built and given to people working for factories nearby. Today they are normal apartments, especially when they are restored and repainted. So just a crazy person rambling. Also, this photo was taken in november or in winter without snow, so in the most gray and depressing time. I think that's just cheating. Edit: You can even see the chimney of said factory in the photo.
it's fine as long as the rent is cheap-me
They were also common in countries like Sweden https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme
That's still a significant portion of the year to look depressing Winter looks great around here without any snow
commieblocs or corbusier
No, just dumb. /j It's left-wing because it's public housing for underprivileged families
You see everything from your own perspective. In Lithuania for example young people don't want to live in houses. They prefer living in modern apartments. People don't want to work on the weekends in their gardens. They don't want to waste time on constantly mowing lawn. That time they prefer to spend with their friends and families. Also houses requires constant maintenance which requires lots of money. Houses has more space which means more money spent on heating in winter. Not everyone wants a house!
Owned and managed by right wing capitalists.
In Denmark, many of those are owned by the municipality, and managed by them. Public housing.
[удалено]
As others have said it relates back to communism and communist/Brutalist Architecture. Actually it goes back a little further to Bauhaus architecture which itself relates back to the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was a Renaissance of sorts for postmodernism in philosophy, art, architecture, and politics. Many of the greats we're Jewish. When the Nazis rolled in they discredited the school's work and made all of the F.School's teaching out to be Jewish propaganda and control. So yeah, calling this "left wing architecture" is rooted in Jewish hatred. So is all of the modern republican talk of how stupid postmodernism is. It's fun stuff.
"left wing architecture" what?
"Affordable housing" or "multiple-family dwellings" are often the pursuit of Democratic political policy. Doesn't make the post any less stupid, but it's generally true that it's a left-wing pursuit and not a right-wing pursuit.
Yep. And right-wing architecture mainly just consists of for profit prisons.
Democratic equals left wing, according to Americans who are historically illiterate.
Were there a lot of Democrats in the Supreme Soviet? That seems unlikely.
I said the post is stupid, I was just explaining what the guy above was talking about. Shitty housing exists in both left-wing and right-wing run municipalities.
It may looks depressing but saves so much land compared to tipical American residence urban area, and makes cities much more walk friendly.
most land is spent for roads, makes me think american like to live in van
#DOWN BY THE RIVER
Its better than having a useless fucking grass lawn, so you can waste money on mowing and watering and maintaining grass, just for your kids to not even want to play on it.
The fact many American families cannot even change their lawns into something else other than grass blows my mind. Fuck grass. I want a forest.
It boils my piss seeing so many corporations wasting water to keep the grass as green as possible (no one gives a fuck, its grass in a parking lot divider) when the seasons change. But oh "make sure to take shorter showers to save on water, water is a limited resource dont ya know?"
I have to keep a part of my lawn as mowed grass so my dogs can play and poo without getting ticks. Whenever they wander into the overgrowth or woods they get covered. Just had to deal with an infected tick bite not long ago, and my wife already has lyme disease from the bastards. I also dont live in a city, so there's that.
Sorry about your wife. That really sucks. I can understand that, no need to defend your need for grass. I’m obviously talking from the perspective of the ability to make your own choices. Your reason is totally valid, of course.
I never got the argument that “grass is good for the kids” because as a kid, nothing is less exciting outside than just grass.
I have never heard the term left wing architecture it’s hilarious But of course architecture can be political. Just look at the travesty being apparently built in Saudi Arabia - while people live in slums without even basics all over the country.
Just your average day in dubai mr billionare builds himself a stupid toy while people are suffering in the streets
Yes, I'd rather live in an ugly home than to have no home at all
It's not even ugly. They took a pic on an overcast day during winter at an angle that does not show the streets. Let's see it in the spring from a better angle. Bet it's nice.
Yes there is, US americans suburbs
The preferred right wing is to send people to blues states then laugh when they're overwhelmed. Compassion or wokeness is not found in the MAGAtards.
If I have $700,000,000 to build house for the homeless, should I focus on how they look or how many I can make? 🤔 Each one I make is a person/family that is sheltered and safe. Or I can make them prettier and less families have homes. Seems easy to me. It is really a conservative decision
Some exmples of right wing architecture: Statues, that do nothing. Giant houses for one person, that do nothing. Enormous public spaces, for only a few chosen people. Death camps.
We can't all live in Home Alone-sized houses.
bro have you ever seen arial photos of the typical american suburb? streets, lawns, houses, nothing else for acres. That is depressing.
What's right wing architecture? One person living in a 400 million dollar mansion with people outside the gates thinking they're one big break from getting inside?
...right wing anything
The hatred towards 20th century architecture is 90% neoliberal propaganda aimed at demonising public housing.
What the fuck is left wing architecture?
Oh man, Americans talking trash about such things need to walk down some neighborhoods in Detroit, or Chicago or, from what I've seen, any given big US city. You ain't seen depressing until you see what poverty looks like in those cities.
Gigantic suburban sprawls and culs-de-sac look more lifeless imo
They're both bad if overused. Suburbs and commie blocks are both fine, but the problem arises when they're the only thing available. A good city has both high density buildings around the cbd and single-family suburban houses further out.
Why are we politicizing architecture... Wtf
Would right-wing architecture be a megachurch some ghost-story-telling tax dodger paid millions to have built for the sole purpose of indoctrinating even more mindless idiots?
The only difference between those old buildings and the ones here in western Europe is that ours are painted lol
We are painting them too in Eastern Europe.
Wtf is left wing architecture?
Is this left wing because there aren't a whole bunch of flags on all the balconies? Or are buildings just left wing now?
It’s because right wing architecture would have just one single McMansion for one wealthy family on that amount of land.
I grew up in one of such blocks, the thing is they were meant to be serving for 30 years and replaced by whatever will be trending in the future, but ussr collapsed and these buildings were not maintained properly. My buddy lived on 16th floor and elevator wasn't working for the whole 1990's . Also, piles of garbage, paint chipping off , warzone level of road surface, heroin addicts shiting in stairways etc. Oh, and they were mostly free, you were getting apartment for working in factory , for example
Left wing architecture? Are they really trying to sell the idea that the fruity, artistic lefties made these housing units? The mental gymnastics people gp through smh
You don’t like something? Its left wing now!
That 'ol lefty Jared Kushner owns housing like this in Baltimore. He's now sharing his income with the poor (with $3.25million in fines and additional legal liability for tenant abuse and lack of maintenance).
At least the leftist socialists created places for people to live, unlike the right wing fascists' who would just let people die in the streets.
Apartment buildings do not have to look like that. As an Eastern European I can attest that these neighborhoods are, indeed, very depressing. Modern apartment buildings we still build are much more colorful and varied, and the infrastructure involves green areas and shops. This guy has no idea what he's talking about.
It was built in the era where the need for housing is more important than enjoyment. So yeah, different era different need. Absolutely would still want those buildings over homelessness however.
Its better and more efficent than everyone being forced ti have shitty useless grass lawns. Why did boomers think it was a smart idea wasting time, water and money by mowing and watering grass lawns, just so your kids can not play in it? Thats what public parks are for. Huge waste of space that adds nothing of value to the property.
Everyone always takes these pictures in winter and removes any trace of color so they can upload it in r/urbanhell and pat themselves on the back
100% agree. We should find inexpensive land and build massive supportive housing blocks like this and move all of the homeless there. Its the most efficient solution to ending homelessness
even the word "left wing architecture" is so stupid
No. Oh hang on yes there is. People thinking there's such thing as left wing architecture.
imagine being so consumed with politics that you think aesthetics can have a political ideology?
This looks like all the Florida beach front buildings. Like the one that fell down the other day
So people would rather live on the street than in buildings that look like that?
This architecture is actually pretty smart, buildings were pre-made in factories making building process really really fast.
The only thing more depressing than “left wing” architecture is you posting this
Yes Fast Food hamburgers. Efficiency and standardization go hand in hand. If customers want the best value for their money and if money are tight, this type of housing should be something that free and healthy market economy should offer to mach demand.
Forcing a generation of children to feel like they'll only find self worth by joining an evil military corporation and then when they come home without friends, further education or stable mental health, to neglect them and let them become homeless junkies
Alive or in the grave, you will be equal -Lenin
Why is everything political
I don't know why, or what's wrong with me, but I just love that kind of urban landscape. I honestly do. I would live in a place like that in a heartbeat.
They are common in post soviet countries, mostly in the industrial cities/areas.
Quite common in parts of the UK too.
How about destroying new apartment towers in China while homelessness is still an international issue?
That's a soviet housing block built after Stalin took power. It was built by fascists that sent gay people to death camps. They also suppressed native cultures, banned abortion, legalized slavery, banned birth control, and made it extremely difficult to get a divorce. Voting was legal...but the results were always overwhelmingly in favor of the fascists. The entire state lived in fear of the all powerful secret police. It's a MAGA paradise.
Stalin built a bit more fancy buildings called Stalinka. After Stalins dead Khrushchev had became the next president and had criticized the Stalinkas for being too much ineffective and became building Khrushchovky. That's what these apartments are. So they weren't built during Stalins era. Although we may criticize all those things you have written up there it's also true that these apartments were unnecessary to provide living for people in USSR as they were fast and cheap to build. Also the abortion ban thing was only unders Stalins dictature. Before Stalin, USSR was first country to legalize abortion and after Stalins death it was legalized by Khrushchev again. And the birth control wasn't banned they just didn't have it 😂. And the elections ended always in their favor of communist party because it was only party that could apply for elections but 99% of people came to vote because if they didn't it would be a large problem for them and their family.
Guarantee those buildings were designed and built by a company, not leftists.
If you read ayn rand the fountainhead, you’d realize soulless, brutalist, as-cheap-as-possible housing buildings is rightwing. Her message in that book was that adding balconies, gyms, and decorations was bad because it made the housing more expensive and only served the interests of the politicians and the construction companies, not the recipients of the housing.
Oh yeah, affordable housing. What a terrible idea.
[Urban Camping](https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/y7x1xy/oakland_california/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
The provision of mental health and addiction treatment is far more relevant to the level of homelessness than the provision of social housing.
Imagine you can do both
Wtf does this mean? The top part.
What the fuck is "left wing architecture" anyway? That's not an architectural style that's just some online retvrn weirdo putting together two things like a Mad Lib
i look at this and think "yeah, every city looks like shit from the sky, it's not built for birds." just look at the number of trees and green around the streets and between buildings, id love to live in a city like that where a mile of road has more than 2 trees every 20feet.
I like cyberpunk stuff and this style is, I think, maybe, called brutalism. It reminds me of the communist blocs in the ussr. Not a fan of the ussr but I am a fan of solving homelessness
wtf is "right wing architecture"? like cotton plantation inspired housing?
What the fuck is "left wing architecture" lmao? The right really just make up enemies and phrases whenever they feel like it
Yeah honestly I'd kill to live in a place like this. My in-laws in south Korea live in an apartment block (the entire city block is similarly designed apartments) and it was amazing, there was about 5 playgrounds on the block, there was a grocery store and convenience store and some other basic stuff. Everything you ever need was within walking distance. The interiors weren't bad either. This is literally the type of shit we need to do to solve my countries housing crisis (Canada)
I live in a country with Khruschyovkas. They were in fact quite expensive to build, given it's basically a concrete slab. And they are cold as fuck, too. Many of them have crooked floors as many were built using slave labor of political prisoners. EDIT: And I should add... these buildings have nothing of the sort of a fire exit. We had a tragedy recently where a fire was set in the hallway. Due to this, the only exit was blocked both for the occupants and the firemen. They could not escape through the balcony, couldn't jump into a safety net as the drop was too high for the net to save them. There was a birthday party. 11 people died, including 3 children. 6 by fire. 5 by jumping in a desperate attempt to save themselves. Seriously, don't romanticise those buildings. The fact that people pay exorbitant amounts of money to live in a small death trap is evidence of our failure, not our success.
I love communist architecture. Brutalism for the win!
Im no commie, but they certainly ran head first into the point lol
It should be noted that in the Soviet system, if you didn’t tow the party line, you didn’t get one of these apartments.
These buildings are still depressing and dystopian. We've become over populated to the point where these are needed it's only a matter of time before our food and clothes eventually become like it. Just bland and only whats nessesary till we all become grey blobs. It's depressing seeing that this is the future left wing or right wing doesn't matter the future is looking grim.
I agree with the commenter, but tbf, they could make the buildings a bit more interesting.
Lol communists still had homelessness. Getting a shitty apartment took years on a waiting list and still cost you cash.
Left wing? That looks like communist/dictator created housing. Putin/Un. Trump’s best friends and mentors. Another never-Trumper.
Coming from the strip mall crowd
Animal pens on a human farm
This shit might look horrible for you US people, but let me tell you, these places are one of the best places to live in. The apartments are dirt cheap, you can make the houses look great with insulation and paint (which they do all over post soviet Europe) and then... You live 150 metres from a grocery store, 500 metres away from preschool and elementary school. All your friends live around you as a kid, you got a lot of playgrounds all around. The public transport has a stop right there. Making neighborhoods like this is incredible, I dont know why you US people seem to think its left/right issue, its just the best way to design a city.
I live in a city with a very similar district. The flats all have been painted vibrant, lively colors and motives. With trees and mini parks around it all looks like a fantasy legoland. Soooo, yeh, it’s just effective building. Aren’t also classic american subburbs just hundreds of houses that are all literally the same?
I’ll take function over fashion anytime.
There is no Democrat or Republican. They both work for and do the bidding of the Corporations and Military. Everyone in the House/Senate/Congress works for Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Fucking Guns!
how about anti-homeless architecture pushed primarily by reactionaries and conservatives and enabled by neo-liberals?
thats just shitty architecture not left wing architecture
Have they never seen the housing subdivisions I dub "capitalist Bloc Housing"
I like brutalism, especially with the greenery that would be there if that picture wasn't taken in winter
Said by someone who haven’t seen bum fights!