UnPopular Opinion, Eastern European Commie Blocks Beat Irish housing Estates Both in Quality of Life and in Appearances

41 comments

  2. They are much easier to service with public transport, the 3 bed semi D model is totally out of sync with Green policies.

  3. In short I think they have gotten an unjustified bad name in the west someting furthered by the fact every photo you ever see of them is of them in winter in the early 2000s when they haven’t been mentained in 20 years.

    I have lived in these kind of apartments and while I initially thought I’d hate it i Actually came too love it and while I will always be a country man at heart they certainly made city living bearable due too all the out door space.

    If we are serious abought housing the best place too look for workable and inspiration that we can work on and improve is the east and how they fixed there own housing crisis after ww2 and industrialisation.

    TLDR: commie blocks look great if photographed properly and we should build improved versions if we really want too fix the housing crisis in a sustainable fashion with future proofing

  5. Well the Eastern European blocks look to have more green spaces. But certainly more apartments blocks with public transport would improve Ireland. I also suspect that Eastern Europe has suburbs too.

  7. Be careful what you wish for and dont forget Grenfell Tower – it only goes to the cheapest bidders and many people lost their lives there.

  8. > well mentained summer time buildings surrounded on all sides by green spaces and public amenities and transport

    It works *assuming that is done*. Following through on these kind of amenities after giving planning for residential projects has not been something we’ve been strong at.

    When it’s not done for high-density developments, you end up with essentially slums.

  10. Much more environmentally friendly, too. Centralized waste collection, electricity and water provision, etc, as opposed to one-off houses ruining the Irish countryside.

  11. “look great if photographed properly” is a very funny phrase ha.

    I lived in ‘Хрущёвка’ (literally Khru-slums) in Novosibirsk. They are particularly bad although can be cosy inside. But they did contain dampness, coldness, and occasional company of a rat.

    These were built in in 1960s. Much nicer versions were built after 1980s.

    Housing estate seems like poor use of space, but I don’t know much about it. I am not sure what is best living space for the human bobý.

  13. I lived in one up until I was 17. I strongly disagree with you. In those blocks you feel like sardines in a tin. I agree with apartment living, but not that type of apartment blocks.

  14. A lower density version of these is what Ireland needs.

    Maybe max 3-4 stories. 10-15 or so apartments per building, including apartments with 3-4 bedrooms for larger families.

    Irish people generally detest apartment living and feel entitled to houses. We need to change.

  18. Sometimes I think Dublin could have used a light bombing during WW2 as a excuse to replan the city.

    It did wonders for most European cities. You know… minus the deaths

  20. You need to have neighbors that aren’t cunts on 4 sides of you or it becomes a nightmare to live in them.

    At least your odds improve a bit with a semi detached and you don’t have to listen to everyone around you watching love island.

  21. Really not sure how you come to the conclusion that the blocks look better, especially considering you cherry picked photos and the brutalist blocks still look rotten

    There’s defintely advantages to housing styles like this but appearances generally tend not to be one of them

  22. Ballymun, badly built apartments and high management fees have has put apartment living as a second class type of living in Ireland. And the policy of high density not high rise still has a long way to go before they admit it is failure. But I lived in apartments like that for a while, much better than I expected. I loved the amount of green around them. I do think this type of development is needed in Ireland, but I worry over stuff like maintenance, it is never properly managed in Ireland in my experience.

  26. I adore posts here aka “BuT BaLlYmUn Is BaD So AlL ApPaRtMeNtS aRe BaD!”. Absolute smooth brain.

  27. personally this what we should have done with shannon city, a mix of semi ds and apartment blocks with good ammenities and public transit, it would have made it still successful to this day. it could have been a more productive and still active city, with it being an export hub for ireland and being a nice place to live in at the same time

  30. I have a very contrary cranky neighbour and he went to visit a woman in Bucharest and stayed for two weeks in an apartment in a block which had several other blocks surrounding it. I kind of expected him to point out every fault about the place but surprisingly he said it was actually a peaceful place with little or no noise. His only complaint was about how small the apartment was. Funnily enough when herself and her son came to visit his place they were shocked at the aggression and drunkiness of the local girls here. On their first night all they could hear was the girls screaming, shouting and fighting on the street from a neighbouring party.

  33. I do agree in this part – in middle and east Europe, you’ll have like 3 apartment buildings , then a little playground, bakery, post office. Bus stop usually too . Then 5 more buildings. Another playground, school, creche. 3 more buildings, then A pub and a restaurant too, small supermarket as well.

    In Ireland you tend to build 200 houses on a land like, and then theres no school, doctor, creche, or anything else at the walking distance.

  37. I lived in Kosice in Slovakia … Once your there the apartments become second nature. Lots of play ground and lots of green. Good cheap transport.

    The locals prefer the communist build apartments as they were build to last forever, thick walls and cheap heating. The new ones are shite.

    They have communal boilers with each apartment metered. But to save money they don’t turn on the heating unless is drops below 13’C for 3 days in a row 😂

  38. Those blocks are called paneláky in the Czech Republic and are generally well-built, good mix of demographics and social groups co-existing, more energy efficient, and surrounded by well-kept public space and greenery. Seriously, much better than the for-profit, shoddily constructed estates in Ireland

  41. Taking photos of apartment blocks from afar means nothing. I bet if you went inside those massive complexes, you’d see some fairly grime sights.

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