!architecture !engineering without getting into the merits of apartment blocks (I believe they're great for social housing projects), here's /r/urbanhellcels discussing the horror of American Suburbia. I partially blame films like "American Beauty" for this.
Where the F**K are the trees?! That should be illegal...
Edit: I see the trees now - Thanks guys, I thought it was all bushes and shrubbery. I didn't realize ONLY having small trees could disturb me so, Lol
Ok, avoiding heat island effect is something suburban urbanists should take in account.
Idk, maybe it's just because I'm British and quite young so the best home 90% of us could afford is one room of 15 sheds stacked on top of each other but I always though these were kinda nice. A little samey sometimes, sure, but they don't seem THAT bad.
In the uk i feel like you. Can access stuff easily via walking or public transport if you are living in such a small space. As that's usually in cities more culture etc. lived in Oxford n the housing is tiny but theres stuff to do outside yk? Idk
Lmao, Bongs posting their 
What depression really looks like
And here even /r/urbanhell isn't having ut anymore
Y'all act like people can't walk 15 min to a park here, this looks a common middle to above middle income neighborhood. You know what you probably won't find here? Homeless doing drugs, gangs, traffic. This looks like peace away from home, they probably see their neighbors once a week. It looks like I can grill in my backyard all day long without anybody bothering me.
Now for commieblocks 
https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/15kjnk3/commieblocks/
Unironically comfy
the fact all the buildings look the same height is really satisfying ngl
I thought they hated the sameness of the suburbs 
Looks like afforable and healthy housing, dense enough to be serviced by public transportation. Could use a new coat of paint and some additional facade elements like shading and such. But overall, I love it.
It just needs some painting
I grew up in a 5 story Khrushchevka. It needed better insulation, but the actual urban planning was brilliant. Huge play area for children up front, close to stores and public transportation. Lots of benches and green areas. Beat the pants off any shitty American suburb with no sidewalks, where you could get run down by an SUV without even being aware of it.
SUV chads continue to make redditors seethe!
https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/fvn45q/moscow_russia/
Meh. The apartments in the photo appear to have balconies and wooded courtyard areas between buildings. There are millions of people in this world who would love to live in a clean apartment with heat and running water; apartments like these would be like paradise for them. If you think this is urban heck, you ain't seen nothing!
Fine, but it doesn't change the fact those buildings look hideous and probably need maintenance, they were build with pre-fabs back in the 1960s and have problems with insulation.
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This definitely would be a controversial opinion in rdrama since it is so aggressively anti reddit and anti communist, but I would unironically prefer living in commieblocks than those prefab Suburbia copy of a copy of a copy houses. At least in the former I would get two things.
One, the solace that I had no say or alternative means of housing and two, if everyone is living in the same design like a fricking NPC, at least it takes up minimal space and opens up the surrounding spaces where a community hall, an auditorium, a library, fountain, park etc can be set up.
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The commie blocks are prefab copies though. Take the Khrushchevkas, they're concrete paneled buildings. They're great for social housing but not so much if you have a better income, an issue with them is that they were meant to be replaced in the 1990s, so they weren't really meant to last. But then again neither are American McMansions which is why I'm biased towards concrete houses.
I think you would love the Brazilian condominios
They're high-quality and have pools and sportive areas if you enjoy to interact with neighbors. Plus they're located in the middle of major urban centers.
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Living in Brazil is bad enough, imagine living somewhere where there are Brazilians above, below, and on every side surrounding you.
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Honestly I have a very positive opinion of Brazil after being on this site. I would like to visit some day.
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Aren't you just a cutie!
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Don't you do that in you tall building in Manaus?
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How do you think I know that it's so bad, my dear jigga?
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I don't know, I live in a big house with a big jardim and quintal and I barely have to interact with my neighbors
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Literally my parents living in their condominio, except they're friends with their neighbors.
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Wtf are you talking about? We got whole neighborhoods of 100 year old wooden houses here and they're still just fine.
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I'm talking certain types of McMasions made with poor materials. I know wood houses can last for centuries when done right while the thing with concrete is that the reinforcement eventually rusts (so we usually estimate a lifetime of 100 years without need of major repairs).
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My "new" house is made out of wood and is going to be 100 yrs old in 2030.
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Those types of houses really aren't as common as people think. A decently built wood home is insured for 150 years.
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They are heck on earth
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I don't particularly like big residential building but I'll take it as long as isolation is sufficient and you don't hear the neighbours.
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The problem I have with condos as a whole is that deferred maintenance catches up and fricks you in the butt. Big buildings in particular- even if you have 100 units, a 25-50 year maintenance project can come in at eye-watering millions of dollars that just rock your equity
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Yes, those tower apartments are what I mean. I wouldn't mind living in an apartment if I get basic amenities plus access to a wide range of services which need space, like a swimming pool or tennis courts. Whereas I would absolutely hate living in what essentially is a commieblock, just separated by 3 meters of pavement and a fence and call it "capitalist housing".
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Why would you go swimming in a commie block pool? Public pools spread STDs. Youre gross.
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!chuds is swimming in an apartment pool a dogwhistle for Habbo Hotel?
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Why would i need a dog whistle for habbo hotel? Public pools are gross, your basically swimming in human soup from unwashed immigrant asses.
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Its only bait if i dont mean what i say
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Obviously you mean what you say.
I don't like honey & I don't like that bee vomit shit are the same thing. One's bait, one's not.
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T. Never lived in a commieblock city.
Hahahaha the only thing you get is a society of distrust, suspicion and backstabbing.
People dont understand what these blocks do to people psychologically. Its a human cattle farm, there is no feeling of privacy and individuality, you have your pod and dozens of other pods under the same roof, and subconsciously that makes it feel like being roommates with strangers, people you never see and that might as well be ghosts.
But hey, you have your own 4 walls at least, right?
No. All the dozens of other people will meet everyone visiting you, you cant have any privacy. When they come, when they go, all seen by dozens of unseen eyes behind thin doors or curtains.
And what you do in your home is also open to at least the ones living next to/above/below you. Relationship issue? Make-up s*x? Bad news? They know, and that means before long everyone will know.
Oh and that nice window of yours? It looks outside right at the next pod building, where even more unseen eyes are spying on you, intentional or not.
Commie blocks are paychological torture, they're the architectural embodiment of the total surveillance state that were the communist countries and couldnt have been designed better as such if they were made by the KGB.
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Save me BIPOCman!
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Motherlover that holds for all apartments in every big city in america (or anywhere else in the world for that matter). What, if you live in an apartment tower in Dallas or Melbourne or Vancouver or London suddenly people in the other units of your apartment turn blind and deaf to what you're doing? There's no politicking regarding the apartment complex association's elections?
And moreover it holds even more firmly for small towns. I knew half the people in the town my grandpa lived before I was 15 (and we visited him only twice a year). My grandpa knew literally everyone and what they were up to.
Truly
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Yes no shit, apartment living is fricking terrible. Which is why aside from cost and proximity to work, everyone would choose a house 100% of the time. Anyone living in an apartment is just coping with their shitty lot in life, me included.
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My parents live on a house with a nice large yard and pool. Yet my mom talks about wanting to buy an apartment so they can move in their old age, I honestly don't understand why, they can buy a single story house if she doesn't like the idea of climbing the stairs in the future (they're in their early 50s and in good shape lol). My dad rolls his eyes when she brings up the apartment idea lol.
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All apartments are commie blocks
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They're better than living in a wooden shack in a muddy yard with the same number of prying eyes like they had in Russia before
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By nature of population density there wouldnt be a fraction as many eyes. Amd subconsciously its much different to have your own property, even if small and shitty, than sharing your roof with dozens (if not hundred, for the big commieblock towers) of strangers
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Is it any different from a large apartment complex? I live in one of these and don't feel bad about it at all
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We have all that shit in the suburbs already. You can't possibly be suggesting that you'd rather get to the library 5 minutes faster than have a backyard for your pets and your kids and your grill.
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I'm saying I'd rope from guilt if I had the freedom to choose something other than the two options and still ended up choosing either.
If I had no other choice then I would choose to live in a block of concrete inside the city with everything I need within the shortest distance.
In short, i prefer vertical commieblock to horizontal commieblock
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So you don't like kittens and puppies. Really revealing a lot about your character here...
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if we take your logic and take it to its logical endpoint, the conclusion we'll be arriving to is that we should fine all pet owners in high rise apartments for animal cruelty
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Unironically this. Never met a city dog that was well adjusted.
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Yes, we should
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But consider: one of your neighbours can accidentally burn your house down too!
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Neighbour I've had the misfortune in working in one of these https://maps.app.goo.gl/3dKZbmKYnNETnGq46 hellholes. The planners of these things set them up in the outskirts of the city as anyone in power did not want anything to do with them near them. And it was built with the paternalistic view that all the savages need is greenery around them to civilise them. But most of the inhabitants have to get crammed into either a lift or stairwell to access their properties, which kind of defeats the strength-through-open spaces philosophy. And my man Jane Jacobs was right. You could put those blocks on their side and build normal properties in the same plot of land. Anyway, peak design was achieved in the 1930s with the council semi detached and we have been reinventing the wheel ever since:
compact use of land but only one other property with ability to cause noise - fight them one-on-one if you do
nice long roads without cul-de-sacs takes you to the main road with plenty of shops and no need to use a map app
plenty of variety in architects designs, they knew to add a bay window or two or throw on cement render to mix it up a little
layouts for every taste, go 2BR with bathroom upstairs or 3BR with bathroom downstairs
solid non-cavity walls allow external insulation to be added if you believe in all that greeny nonsense
perennially expandable by use of attic conversion
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Exactly my point. The 12 storied blocks made by a government to cram as many poor people into the minimum space possible is somewhat acceptable. Taking out a mortgage on a 800 grand house which is the same as the 499 house surrounding it just sad. That's just premium-membership commieness. I would rather live 45 minutes out of the city in a secluded house I bought which has lesser square footage for the same amount but one which I can infinitely tear down, remodel and renovate without getting a HOA notice every week.
Architectural design variations, area and pricing variations, and the ability to modify your property as you wish are mandatory if you are to call yourself a property owner. If you can't, you're living in both denial and a commie system
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Our commieblocks are endlessly modded lol. My landlady was telling me there's an annoying lawyer who lives underneath us so once he's out for a while she'll start work on an extension. Elevators are put in, floor space is expanded often by 50% or even more. I live in a complex of probably ~1000 4 floor flats that were built around 1980s, by this point every single one looks different. Some got bought up totally by a single family and turned into a duplex. Some had ground floors converted into commercial plots.
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Are you feeling okay bud?
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Die commie die
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Can be, but won't. Instead it's more commieblocks
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Chinese style skyrise courtyard complexes are great since they come with semi private parks you can boot bums out of.
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A lot of them are really poorly furnished and renovated because
s are poor. My studio in china is pretty good though,
I pay about 350$ a month for it.
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The ones I've visited/lived in were all basically gated communities with guards at the entrances but nowadays you can literally get in wherever by just wearing a delivery driver outfit
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It's basically an invisibility suit more or less
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Lol. The only thing that might be nearby is a homeless shelter and a safe injection site.
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"at least we're all equally miserable"
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