Ukraine can move beyond its Soviet architectural legacy

Ukraine can move beyond its Soviet architectural legacy(counteroffensive.news)

48 points by dbuxton 363 days ago | 18 comments

poisonborz 363 days ago |

Those plattenbau apartments still provide affordable and good housing - often modernised with insulation or solar roofs - for hundreds of millions in postsoviet states for the same demographics that live in cottages, moldy drywall houses or rotting trailer parks in "first world" nations.

lupusreal 363 days ago | |

Oh god, anything but a country cottage!

Gotta love how in one conversation, Americans will be mocked for living in "cheap McMansions". Then in another, Americans will be mocked for having small houses. Mocked for being rural. Mocked for being suburban. Only urban apartment dwelling bus riders are spared, but even then they are called substandard.

yourusername 363 days ago |

It don't think it is fair to characterize plattenbau as "Cheap, low-durability and unsafe". Many of these buildings have lasted for 65 years already and are plenty safe if no bombs are going of nearby. If you're actively being shelled almost no house is safe be it wood framing, brick or a modern glass skyscraper.

kubb 363 days ago | |

If you believe that building more housing is a solution to the housing crisis, then building large blocks of flats from prefabricates should seem like an attractive option.

You can build cheaply and efficiently because of economy of scale, and with large scale planning, entire settlements can pop up within 10 years complete with public transport, and amenities.

It really doesn’t have to look bad either. With modern materials, a bit of ornamentation, and greenery it can be a great place to live for hundreds of millions of people.

ohnonotagainno 363 days ago | | |

Somehow OT, but @what about those revolutional-technical-evolutions coming with "density":

https://videos.metro.co.uk/video/met/2024/10/29/645142234187...

...regards

Tade0 363 days ago |

I grew up in a panel block, now live in a more recent building and my general impression is that while their build quality left much to be desired, I had no complaints about walkability. I could go to school, the clinic, the dentist or post office without crossing a road - only streets with heavily restricted traffic. Almost all parking spots were in a ring around my superblock.

Much of that was due to the fact that communists weren't so bent on squeezing as much value as possible from every square meter of land.

Meanwhile in more modern architecture the (built in 2002) block neighbouring mine is spaced a regulatory-approved 7 metres away - windows facing. My relative lives in an even newer apartment which has windows facing the southwest only. AC becomes a necessity in such circumstances.

I can't recall ever seeing panel blocks where you could peer into your neighbour's apartment like that. In all the instances I can think of both blocks have blank walls there.

Zanfa 363 days ago | |

> I grew up in a panel block, now live in a more recent building and my general impression is that while their build quality left much to be desired, I had no complaints about walkability. I could go to school, the clinic, the dentist or post office without crossing a road - only streets with heavily restricted traffic. Almost all parking spots were in a ring around my superblock.

Very few people had cars when these houses were built, so parking and car-friendliness wasn’t obviously a priority. With the number of cars these days we have major issues with parking and emergency service accessibility around commie blocks.

noeltock 363 days ago |

nice article, would be nice also... some thoughts

- who finances? everything goes to war, even post-victory, focus will be on replenishing and criticial infra.

- shelters? only a handful of people with kids go to them

yakshaving_jgt 363 days ago | |

Last time I was in Odesa, the shelter (which was our underground parking garage) had maybe 20-30 people each night. At the time, russia was firing cruise missiles and drones at the city literally every night.

I suspect the future reconstruction effort is going to involve quite a lot more investment in underground shelters. I don't think Ukraine is going to trust russia for at least the next 100 years. Similar situation to Finland.

xenator 363 days ago | | |

In my childhood we had bunkers everywhere. In schools, daily care, around in the neighborhood. I never saw them functioning, but we knew about them. But during growing up them was completely abandoned and destroyed. It took only about 45-50 years after WW2 ended.

We had them because of Germany.

I spent my childhood in Ukraine.

troupo 363 days ago | | |

Sweden only stopped mandatory bunkers in apartment buildings in the 80s IIRC.

They might start again

fluder 363 days ago | |

No one goes to shelters in Kharkov, the alarm can go on for 12 hours at a time.

The missile flies for 40 seconds, the alarm usually goes off after the explosion.

noeltock 363 days ago | | |

exactly (ps: I live in kharkiv)

ulrischa 363 days ago | |

Germany will finance it you will see

ellis0n 363 days ago |

When the war started, I advised various public and business figures about houses for relocation and someone even replied that work was being done on it, but I don’t see any progress. I had many friends who lived in panel buildings and everyone complained, it was a real curse. In addition to poor sound insulation between walls, over time the panels start to delaminate, you constantly have to seal cracks to stop cockroaches from migrating. The lifespan is 20 years shorter than that of brick buildings, though it depends on the specific batch and some are of decent quality.

Another issue is centralized heating. Problems begin when they start repairing the pipes, going six months without hot water is normal. Insulation is a must, usually done on credit at your own expense.

These buildings are completely lacking in bomb resistance. Of course, there are many types and configurations, for example, I lived in Odessa in some fairly decent panel buildings that were apparently built for a few from the USSR Politburo, so probably elite.

Living underground is hell. It’s better to solve the problem politically with reliable air defense systems. On top of that, terrible high-tech bombs keep getting more advanced and basements could end up costing more than the houses built above them.

The outskirts of Kharkiv are a tragedy, condolences.