Cradle of commieblocks-Russia

[Singidunum]

Originally Posted by Nikita Khrushchev

We must select a smaller number of standard designs .. and conduct our mass building programs using only these designs over the course of, say, five years .. and if no better designs turn up, then continue in the same way for the next five years.

What's wrong with this approach, comrades?

THE END OF DIVERSITY



Bill Levitt, the father of mass-produced US suburban homes, stated that no man who owns his own house can be a communist. From the looks of it, the Soviets agreed. In the ideological climate of the day, capitalist cities were regarded as products of the chaotic development of exploitative societies, and the qualitative differences between center and periphery as expressive of social inequality. Consequently, socialist architects were tasked with the development of a new form for the city; one structurally tuned to the new, socialist lifestyle.

This new city type would be instrumental in the substitution of individualism and privatism with collectivism, and would eliminate social segregation. Large volumes of studies, norms and standards were dedicated to the development of typified projects for dwellings with matching furniture, household equipment and much more. Today, Russian urban space consist almost entirely of concrete panel houses of but a few types spread across the entire nation, making most cities - and interiors - look alike.

Cities have expanded outwards from the center in planned construction thrusts. And with technological progress allowing for ever higher structures to be erected, the tallest buildings stand at the very edge of the the city, such that the built environment closes with a show of force. There is no gradual transition, there is no suburban state to the socialist city, where in absence of free enterprise sprawl was impossible. At the city's outer limits, the landscape alters abruptly and radically.

From there it's either farmland, or industrial territories, or most likely something of an in-between nature that I like to think of as 'nothing'. Past the last city block comes a void where the soil is barren save for hardy shrubs or marshland grass. The earth is punctured and scathed by prematurely abandoned ground works, and littered with nondescript waste. Dogs growl hoarsely at your heels and watchmen defending last strongholds measure you up in apprehension and suspicion. Here is a suspended state awaiting definition, a post industrial brownfield sort of condition that might double as a pre-urban state in expectancy, with scattered tracts of half-bulldozed land, the earth having been touched upon but not developed, not claimed for a conclusive purpose. A kind of No Man's Land separating reinforced-concrete civilization from Nature, a hinge between constructed and natural environment, a frontier zone of temporary indecision with symbolic aspirations.

I went out to investigate that Zone where concrete rips into the earth, and from thereon wandered back through the micro-districts causing this pattern of earthy scar tissue. I finally became truly conscious of this city I live in, and came under its spell of monotony of shape and color, of stark revoke of individualism, and of Modernistic street-phobia - that denial of the social value of the street as fundamental element of the urban structure. I was by turns puzzled and thrilled by the bizarre rhythms of the randomly dispersed housing blocks that fail to create streets and boulevards in any clear urban idea. The whole suddenly seemed to result from a creative system embracing at once controlled chance and even failure. I finally fell for the Soviet city's disturbed minimalism.

Bee Flowers, 2004

[Pavlvs]

hot pics

[VelesHomais]

I'm sure when everybody sees these pics, immediately has the urge to move there.

[DonQui]

Those actually do not look that bad. The scenery looks depressing, but, I have seen worse commieblocks in Western Europe.

[boots]

wow i love the vibe of the city, amazing.is that moscow or??

[Saulene]

Quite good when you see it in black and white pics... Not commies, but pics look quite nice, I mean.

[Singidunum]

Originally Posted by boots

is that moscow or??

Could be but generally I haven`t seen any commieblocks in Moscow that look this bad or for that matter not many looked bad at all.

[Tomesh]

eh these really dont look that bad, keep in mind that the pics are also made in winter

[BobDaBuilder]

Down in Oz the term for this type of building is not 'Commieblock' but 'Soviet Brutalism' style.

[coth]

^Commieblock = Communal Blockhouse
a block of flats with serial design


unfortunately i should say winter+b/w is not good...

[wc eend]

great!

[CborG]

Creepy..

[Kuvvaci]

May I ask you anything?

does "commieblock" have a negative or positive meaning as term? How do you use it generally?

[System_Halted]

For my account, I love commies as long as they are nice designed.

[Küsel]

Originally Posted by coth

^Commieblock = Communal Blockhouse
a block of flats with serial design


unfortunately i should say winter+b/w is not good...

The pics are BEAUTIFUL - exactly because of the winter - I feel home

BTW: in German the term is "Plattenbauten" - I think because they use especiall prefabricated elements to erect them as fast and cheap as possible.

[Victoria]

Looks depressing (probably because of the colour of the photos).

[Sideshow_Bob]

/\ or the colorless commies.

[Gatsby]

truly awful!

[El_Greco]

Now thats what i call true beauty!

[Abbil]

JOJO very colorful
Amazing!