Why is communist architecture so horrendous and ugly?
The interiors of some government buildings or metro stations are good, I'll give them that at least.
>>1405405
The majority of architecture during the cold war period worldwide was shit.
Along with the massive industrialization there was a dire need for workforce. The new workers were relocated farmers from the villages and they needed housing asap. These block were build in a hurry.
>>1405405
even on your own pic there are trees clearly visible
because soviet cities were built by the same centralised plan approved by usually one man (city architect) usually with his own vision (so 0 meddling from private property owners because there are none) one could achieve better results in zone planning
They made sure there were lots of trees (for both aesthetical and ecological reasons) and lawns between each and every building, wide roads, fountains and so on
>>1405528
Speak for yourself. I wish my apartment building had a warp nacelle.
>horrendous and ugly
>>1405405
I don't really see the problem. Your eyes are too soft and delicate I think.
It was a temporally buildings.
>>1405405
>Why is communist architecture so horrendous and ugly?
Why is Western architecture in the last 40 years so horrendous and ugly?
>>1405405
It's your opinion, i accept it. For me i actually like most architecture of former communist and fascist countries.
What i don't like is this post-modernist bulshit like pic related
>>1406858
They have taste where it matters, just not for the buildings in the middle of nowhere.
>>1406858
Not communist in the least
Commie architecture is shit too
But was is shit BECAUSE of communism? I don't think you can really make that comparison fairly.
Because "Capitalist" architecture in the past few decades has also been dogshit.
>tfw brutalist architecture didn't catch on
Late soviets was shit at implementing good design choices, even if their engineers was being able to design utilities like that in 1985.
>>1406949
And the economy never really progressed beyond heavy industry. R+D and mass production of plastics, microprocessors and consumer goods never really gathered momentum.
>>1405405
it's not bad because communists made it, it's bad because they made it to hold as many people as they could as cheaply as they could. I guess you could chalk that up to central planning, but it certainly exists in capitalist countries too.
>>1405405
>why are affordable housing projects ugly?
Because they are cheap. Same in every country, regardless of ideology.
![c7006f365590e46e40cbf9f8637f4a2e[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3Xxwaxl.jpg "c7006f365590e46e40cbf9f8637f4a2e[1].jpg")
constructivists had some cool ideas that never got implemented
![tumblr_o8k4amRSa51unjxq9o2_540[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/qT8Gdd0.jpg "tumblr_o8k4amRSa51unjxq9o2_540[1].jpg")
not a fan of most brutalism or whatever but this one has it's charm
http://www.sosbrutalism.org/cms/16817875
>>1405405
Government housing isn't designed to look pretty.
wouldn't be so bad if they used a bit of paint
>>1406866
Only like 10% of the Moscow metro looks like that, the rest is drab shit.
Also people seemingly can't differentiate between Stalinist and post Stalinist architecture, the Stalinist one was actually good.
>>1407206
That's Metabolism, not Brutalism. Japan is great for it and surprisingly so is the city of Skopje.
>>1409356
This is precisely why the US doesn't build huge apartment projects any more.
>>1410573
No it's because it had never went further than paying someone to build these behemoths and shift tons of people there without a day 2 plan. Proper housing estates of the sort in Europe, while they still operated properly, had everything from community centres, to pubs, activity clubs, leisure halls, dedicated social services etc. As a result the American projects and their mis-managed European counterparts failed. You can't just plonk 5000 poor people in a couple of big buildings and hope everything goes well.
>>1406862
this feels dehumanising, nauseating and nightmarish
A lot of commie blocks would look half decent with a brick facade or a smattering of stucco I think.
Everything to shit once Stalin died. After his death they stopped giving a shit
>>1405405
>>1405528
It is architecture of the Faustian man, the pure sensualist enraptured in practical philosophy
>>1405405
the answer is painfully obvious, I don't understand why you even ask.
COMMUNISM. You get a ton of buildings that cost nothing to build, and they all are equally bland and boring.
CAPITALISM. You get some insane buildings and a SHITTON of shitty buildings.
>>1410243
paint=maintenance
>communist architecture
Are you fags really this oblivious? the Western world too is littered with cheap tower blocks, Britain, France, Us, West Germany, Korea, Brazil and so on.
Its not communist, its cheap, mass produced post-war architecture.
>>1412060
That is what visiting France is like, anon
>>1406862
The way the Axe historique goes from Paris' historical center, through the Arc de Triomphe and ends at the Grande Arch in La Defense is an urbanistic masterpiece.
>>1412267
most of those things are in the process of being knocked down, or are planned to be.
>>1405405
Check stalinist architecture. 7 sisters in moscow, palace of culture and science in warsaw. I like it.
The bad architecture is like from the 60ies onwards. It was actually a worldwide phenomenon although happened more often in commie countries. Brutalism is part of it.
>>1412267
>brazil
>western
>>1406761
>They made sure there were lots of trees (for both aesthetical and ecological reasons) and lawns between each and every building, wide roads, fountains and so on
That's always been a terrible way to 'bring life' to a town. What would you rather stroll down, a quaint little lane with shops and things, and a little garden tucked away to the side, or by a ten lane road with massive strips of grass on either side and the local supermarket a good kilometre away from your commieblock flat.
>>1412420
>>1412420
Lanes, looked anything but quaint prior to the de-industrialisation of the West and its cities. Read what Margaret Harckness and Jack London had to write about London in the late 19C and early 20C. It was more like a victorian version of Kowloon.
At least there is a lot of space and green zones between buildings.
>>1412420
>local supermarket a good kilometre away from your commieblock flat
You are right about that
Because soviet architecture naturally tended to centralise and give order to everything buying stuff was a hassle because they were grouped by the type of goods they sell: you buy bread from one shop, milk from the other, fruits and veggies from the third specialised shop. Usually they were all around the vicinity of one maybe two blocks, but still. It was like RTS videogame where one building can only dispense one type of resource.
It was that or going to local market (bazar, barakholka, privoz) which was even further but you had bigger selection.
You can still see old soviet letters above the buildings saying just "Milk", "Veggies" and so on.
Same applied to bigger shops which despite called "universal" were still specialised: one big shop for furniture, another for clothes. And there is always one big supermarket type shop which sells everything else that is hard to categorise which was ALWAYS called "1000 trinkets" -- every single soviet city had one with the exact same name. You usually went there to buy nails or screwdriver or things like that.
It wasn't until 90s when small local shops and businesses started appearing right inside living blocks mitigating that problem.
>>1412107
Astetic buildings=happier people and you can't put a price on that
>>1410566
Skopje brutalism is kill, google "Crimes against concrete"
>>1410615
basically this and to a great extent it also applies to modern american suburbs.
Here's a commieburb that's designed to be livable.
>>1405405
because they needed to build allot of apartments in a small area in the most efficient way
> le functionalism
>architecture is only good if its extravagant baroque/neo-classical eyesores
lmao
>>1413449
That makes it worse, tbqh. Tree-lined streets are good, but those big empty spaces just create isolation by making it take longer to actually get anywhere.
![Auteurs_20130402095819_luchtfoto%20zuidoost[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/uf1AUo8.jpg "Auteurs_20130402095819_luchtfoto%20zuidoost[1].jpg")
Used to live in this commieghettoblock, i actually liked growing up in here even with the bad rep it has.
plz
communist arch in my city
>>1405405
Because after WW2, there was a massive rush for cheap housing. Commie blocks are not unique to the USSR, they are fucking everywhhere in the world, it's just the USSR was more fucked than the others AND had a massive shift from rural to urban in the same time period.
I don't like Stalinist architecture, but I do see how some people here would really like Stalins vision for a redeveloped Moscow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av2kj54msIA
1920s Bolshevik Constructivist architecture was GOAT though.
Also pic related is one of my favourite buildings and is Soviet design.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/21/soviet-squares-public-space-post-communist-cities
>>1416346
I can see my house
kek
I hate to break it to you OP, but Brutalism can be found in the US as well. A lot of government buildings look like that.
>>1406866
My eyes would hurt walking down that.
>>1406866
>metro station looking like that
distasteful af
>>1416398
Yeah, you can find a lot of brutalism in DC. A lot of people will recognize our metro from Fallout 3, but it really is one of my favorite examples of the style in the States.
I like Brutalism.
Sure it's a bit depressing and vaguely fascist, but I feel like it's got a good aesthetic going for the lost dreams of the 60s and 70s in the modern world.
Brutalism thread?
Bank of London in Buenos Aires
>>1412420
having lived in both, I can say that if russia actually maintananced its building with paint and so on, i would much prefer the big lanes.
theres not so much grass as there is trees, trees everywhere
Fuck mega buildings imo. The world's population has become to big and suburbs are cancer. I don't understand why aesthetics have to suffer just to make things more "convenient" and "modern." Older style cities are much better in my opinion and newer cities shouldn't be forced down everyone's throat.
