View Full Version : Bucharest (Romania) commieblocks


Ayceman
April 11th, 2009, 04:38 PM
Here are some pictures from wiki and www.norc.ro of various commieblocks in Bucharest:

Militari neighborhood:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Lujerului%2C_Militari.jpg

Vitan neighborhood:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Blocuri_la_Mihai_Bravu%2C_Vitan_(dinspre_Miraj)%3B_oct_2oo7.jpg

Titan neighborhood:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Blocuri_Titan.jpg

Berceni neighborhood:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/ABCD000611.JPG

Unirii Avenue (aka commieblock wall avenue) - high-end commies:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Unirii_Boulevard.jpg

Alba Iulia square (the commies at the end of the previous boulevard):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Bucuresti_Alba_Iulia_circle.jpg

Mihai Bravu blvd. (part of the ring-road) near Iancului Square, but looking away from it:
http://img60.imageshack.us/img60/6034/iancului.jpg

Moșilor Avenue (a lot of banks and casinos to be found at the ground floor of the commies lining it):
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/8803/mosilor.jpg

Obor Square, looking towards the ring-road (left) and Colentina (right):
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9818/obor1.jpg

Obor Square looking towards Moșilor (there's a G+14f commie there):
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/9577/obor2.jpg

Tei neighborhood, on Teiul Doamnei street:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5462/teiuldoamnei.jpg

Drumul Taberei neighborhood, the boulevard:
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1307/drumultaberei1.jpg

Drumul Taberei again, sidestreets (this was one of the more successful urban developments in the commie period):
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/263/drumultaberei2.jpg

Low rise (and low-quality) commies in Baicului neighborhood:
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/4830/baicului.jpg

Time for high-quality commies, looking south from Victoriei Square:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3875/victoriei.jpg

Unirii square commies:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2904/unirii.jpg

A „capitalie” (a commie universal store rebranded shopping center):
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7193/unirea.jpg

A street height view of Alba Iulia square (looking towards the Palace of the Parliament):
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/210/albaiulia.jpg

Iluminat
April 11th, 2009, 11:22 PM
Time for high-quality commies, looking south from Victoriei Square:
I wouldn't call buildings like that "commieblocks" they're closer to this style http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_realism#Architecture so a form of historism while "commieblocks" should be modernist at least in planning imo...

Ayceman
April 12th, 2009, 01:26 PM
Well, we call them commieblocks because they are built with the same thing in mind as the „walls” on Mihai Bravu, Ștefan cel Mare, Moșilor, etc. And they do provide the same impact. (look at Obor and then Unirii). The style is indeed different, and they seem to be inspired by the Agricola-Fonciera and Adriatica-Trieste buildings:
http://www.nowandthen.ro/1/agricola_fonciera.jpg http://www.nowandthen.ro/1/adriatica2.jpg

Iluminat
April 12th, 2009, 03:51 PM
^^So it's socreal "national in form, socialist in content" altough there is no clear definition of what a commieblock is so I guess you can call many things by this name:dunno:

How many of this buildnigs were build in the '80 ?

Ayceman
April 12th, 2009, 05:24 PM
Yes, it's a late form of socialist realism, or neoclassicism. I'd call is ceaușism, as it has a specific style.
I don't know how many were made, but this is the extent (construction, not including demolition, started in 1984 and ended in 1990 - only 6 years):

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9954/socreal.jpg

EDIT: The buildings highlighted include various degrees of quality of finishings, from average-high (Calea Călărașilor) to very high (Bulevardul Unirii). Yellow areas are monumental buildings made in this style (Parliament, Academy, National Library - work restarted on it now, Radio House - to be part of the Dâmbovița Center development)

EDIT2: I forgot about these in Victory Square (Piața Victoriei):
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5629/vsr.jpg

EDIT3: Updated the previous map, the other two were already there in the 60s.

ZimasterX
April 16th, 2009, 12:44 AM
Does anybody have photos of Bulevardul Unirii or the Civiv Center from the 80s, or 90s, before all the billboards and traffic?

Ayceman
April 16th, 2009, 11:12 PM
Only this (I saw more, but lost track of them, when I switched computers):
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YtH7HQKRjhQ/Sc81uNajIWI/AAAAAAAAGXk/ugUSKTJHzFs/s1600-h/image0000095A.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YtH7HQKRjhQ/Sc808VK2_CI/AAAAAAAAGVk/NLHzRkgJuJ0/s1600-h/image0000143A.jpg

(March 1990)