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► Sources (cited)
Owen Heatherly, The Architectural Review, Housing in the Eastern Bloc (2015)
Edmunds V Bunkse, The Role of a Humane Environment in Soviet Urban Planning (1979)
Jack C. Fisher, Planning the city of socialist man (1963)
Henry W. Morton, Housing in the Soviet Union (1984)
Jiri Musil, Urbanization in Socialist Countries (1980)
Peter Lizon, East Central Europe: The Unhappy Heritage of Communist Mass Housing (1996)
Gyorgy Enyedi, Urbanisation in East Central Europe: Social Processes and Societal Responses in the State Socialist Systems (1992)
Owen Heatherly - Housing in the eastern block. The architectural review (2015)
► Sources (for further reading)
Herny W. Morton, Who Gets What, When and How? Housing in the Soviet Union (1980)
Alexander Block, Soviet Housing. The Historical Aspect (1954)
M. F. Parkins, City planning in Soviet Russia, Harvard University, Russian Research Center, (1949)
Anna Schpuntova, Soviet mass housing. Making a modernist dream a reality, Architectural Association School of Architecture, 2021
William Richardson, Architecture, Urban Planning and Housing During the First Five Year Plans: Hannes Meyer in the USSR, 1930-1936
► Music:
HeavenlyAir/FineTune Music - Commiserate
Rannar Sillard/Epidemic Sound - From here we can see
ChillOut/FineTune Music - Ambient nostalgic atmosphere (Too cold)
Mit-Rich/Jamendo - Piano ambient atmosphere
I mean, I don’t know. I don’t have any positive memories or associations with commie blocks. We used to live in a commie block when I was little, before our family moved to Germany. I remember my parents telling me how everyone had to wait in line for 20 years to get an apartment. How difficult it was if you wanted to move out to a different part of the city, yet alone to a completely different city.
I remember everyone I knew sharing a small apartment for multiple generations - my grandparents used to share a two bedroom apartment with their parents, siblings, and the siblings spouses. My grandparents eventually got their own apartment when my mom was little, and by the time I came into this world 5 people were living in those same two rooms - my grandma, my parents, my brother and I. And everyone I knew was living in similar conditions. Only after moving to the west did I get my own room.
Here, I moved out of my parent’s apartment and I am now living on my own with my boyfriend. Sure, rent is expensive, but we can manage. Back then, there was no ‘moving out’, and as far as I know, there still isn’t. There is only moving to your in-laws apartment, or your spouse moves in with you. Can’t imagine sharing my space with my parents or inlaws, it would drive me crazy.
I remember leaving the house was extremely dangerous, so we mostly stayed inside - I was born in the 90’s. I remember the smell of toxic car gases as soon as we left the house. I don’t know how you can romanticize commie blocks.