• Armand1@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 months ago

    Social housing typically doesn’t look as good as high-end apartments, but it doesn’t have to look terrible. Here’s some pretty neat looking social housing in south Paris.

    It’s kind of the China Town of Paris.

    It’s right next to an accessible tram station, has green spaces and social areas spread around, a couple of malls with great independent restaurants right next door. There are cycle lanes all around the place.

    If you’re curious, here it is on Google Maps

    I’d live here. I only wish there were more neighbourhoods like this.

  • irelephant [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    0·
    2 months ago

    Copying and pasting an old comment i made:

    Honestly, commieblocks arent that bad. Most of the pictures of them are cherry picked to be the unmaintained, dirty ones, and are exclusively taken in gloomy weather. The houses on the inside are usually good quality as well (though likely not well maintained anymore).

    Hell, if you just painted them colourfully, they’d look nice.

    • SealofLove@leminal.spaceEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Nah man. I lived in Russia most of my life and commie blocks are as depressing as they look on those pictures. You have a point that some are poorly maintained, but that’s not some, that’s most of the country. Just a mass of featureless grey blocks. Dirty, ugly and inescapable. About them being good quality on the inside is debatable. The flats are small and I could hear my neighbors all the time. Some of them used to be painted, but the paint is peeling off, only hylighting the ugliness. There’s very little upside to them in the modern world.

      • Allero@lemmy.today
        0·
        2 months ago

        I live in Russia nearly all my life, and I can tell it really is a matter of proper maintancnce. Many cities do a very poor job keeping these buildings in a good shape, but when they do, it looks fairly good. Look through the comment section for examples, they are real, I’ve seen quite a few.

        Not to mention European neighbors where they are still common, but due maintenance makes them look actually good.

        The sound issues are fair, but there are ways to limit them.

        • SealofLove@leminal.spaceEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          is a matter of proper maintenance to an extend. You can paint a box, it’ll still be a box, just not as grey. And let’s not pretend Russia maintains anything. In Moscow maybe, but most of the country looks just as depressing as shown on the picture in OP. Our government never has money for fixing old infrastructure, only for war. My point is, panel houses don’t have to look so ugly anymore. But people here are arguing like it’s the only alternative to homelessness. Live in ugly, cramped panel houses or nowhere at all.

  • RidderSport@feddit.org
    0·
    2 months ago

    When the coops that own and manage these houses hire creative architects for renovation, you can these buildings to be much less bleak looking. They mostly miss coloured paint. The gray plaster they used is what makes them look shit.

    Otherwise these buildings often have quite clever design in regards to natural light for all flats as well as relative quietness even when next to busy roads.