Why do we live in such ugly houses?

[The Lawspeaker]

The whole Crimea needs it.
And not only Crimea.

Here.. some of the earliest examples of modern social housing in the Netherlands. In this case - Amsterdam:

We're talking the late 1910s here:



Details ? They got them right too:








And the level of detail in housing for the middle class (slums were still an issue until the 1950s) in housing dating back to the 1930s:






Some of the first examples of post-war housing weren't too bad - the second picture in my first post dates back to the 1950s - but later on - they went really effed up.

[ixulescu]

They are ugly for the same reason that our flat boroughs are ugly: they were built hastily to fulfil an immediate demand for housing in a post-war period when much of Europe was a smouldering crater. It's, essentially, emergency architecture that served its purpose but which has run its course and has the end of its lifetime. Plus: on both sides of the Iron Curtain, we had some idiotic planners that didn't just want to remodel cities but to reform society itself (be it in the form of La Corbusier or the foolish notion of the New Soviet Man).

This last one building is a beauty compared to regular commieblocks.

Though surprisingly, commieblocks are common in certain Western countries, like Spain for instance.

[The Lawspeaker]

This last one building is a beauty compared to regular commieblocks.

Though surprisingly, commieblocks are common in certain Western countries, like Spain for instance.

That's from before the full-scale adoption of concrete commieblocks. That's, pretty much, how the reconstruction started off: a lot of "Swedish houses", British Airey-houses (first just in rows - flats only came at the end of the 1950s) and brick row houses ("doorzonwoningen") and low blocks of brick appartments (higher in some cities). This was pretty much the style of the day:



And, yes, I still think they're hideous.

[Rumata]

Давно заметил, что окружающая архитектура заметно влияет на отношение к жизни. Сталинский ампир - пожалуй лучшее, что есть в нашем городе.

[Rumata]

Rounded shapes look much better than angular ones.

[Ülev]

Sergey Baklykov is from city of Ufa, about 2 years ago with his family moved to Petersburg, his channel has 123 thousands subscribers

[ixulescu]

That's from before the full-scale adoption of concrete commieblocks. That's, pretty much, how the reconstruction started off: a lot of "Swedish houses", British Airey-houses (first just in rows - flats only came at the end of the 1950s) and brick row houses ("doorzonwoningen") and low blocks of brick appartments (higher in some cities). This was pretty much the style of the day:



And, yes, I still think they're hideous.

This one is bad. The previous one had no aesthetic value to it, but at least it wasn't decidedly hideous, like the commieblocks are.

There's gonna be a massive effort to transform commieblocks into something, cause I don't think they're gonna be demolished any time soon.

[The Lawspeaker]

Rounded shapes look much better than angular ones.

They do. Material is also very important.Concrete should never be allowed to be visible in any way, shape or form: it tends to get dirty very quickly and those dark grey walls that you see in Soviet architecture but in British post-war housing estates create bleak spaces. Particularly when the surrounding grounds are unkept or.. just barren. These are some examples of what I mean. I am left wondering: what were the architects thinking when they put this together ?




''

Somehow they really believed this was "good enough" and they were, somehow, surprised when these areas become trouble zones.

[The Lawspeaker]

This one is bad. The previous one had no aesthetic value to it, but at least it wasn't decidedly hideous, like the commieblocks are.

There's gonna be a massive effort to transform commieblocks into something, cause I don't think they're gonna be demolished any time soon.

Personally.. I think we should preserve a couple and move them to the Dutch Open Air Museum (fit them out with a period interior) and then blow up the rest. Move back to the 1930s style and start from there.

[ixulescu]

They do. Material is also very important.Concrete should never be allowed to be visible in any way, shape or form: it tends to get dirty very quickly and those dark grey walls that you see in Soviet architecture but in British post-war housing estates create bleak spaces. Particularly when the surrounding grounds are unkept or.. just barren. These are some examples of what I mean. I am left wondering: what were the architects thinking when they put this together ?

Generally I agree with you, cement shouldn't be visible. However, brutalist buildings can have visible cement and still look good. But never use brutalist architecture for apartment buildings, as soon as cement darkens the whole place looks like a ghetto.