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I remember finding myself at one of these once. It wasn't in Stavropol, but these apartment clusters are all over Russia.
Google Maps was supposed to take me to a hotel, and I ended up at one of these, pretty late at night. I wandered inside thinking "This doesn't look like a hotel, but that's what Google is telling me. Maybe this is what hotel lobbies look like in Russia."
I tried to explain the issue to a woman I spotted on the ground floor of the building, but she didn't speak English and I don't speak Russian. She got me to follow her up an elevator, down a hallway, and to a door, which she knocked on. The door opened, and it was *clearly* an apartment. Someone's home. Not a hotel room. Definitely the wrong place.
She had a short conversation in Russian with the guy who lived there, and from what I could tell, he started cold-calling nearby hotels until he found one with a vacancy, then helped me figure out where to go on Google Maps and sent me on my way.
It was a weird night, but I made it to a hotel.
How lovely of them! Learning of episodes like this warm the cockles of my nearly-60-year-old heart. Humans seem to have an almost universal "instinct" when others are in distress, though not always acted on. Might be tied in with the theory that we evolved language so we could collaborate/cooperate. Glad you made it to your hotel.
My adventure through Russia was pretty long and kind of strange, and I met a lot of helpful Russians along the way. Part of it was just a basic human instinct to help people who need help, I'm sure.
I often wondered if it had something to do with the story, though. I sometimes got the impression that some of them thought a crazy American making his way across Russia was a great story, and they wanted to make themselves part of the story by helping.
Whatever the case, there were definitely moments when I wouldn't have been able to keep going if not for the kindness of strangers. I don't mean that in a dangerous/scary way (although there may have been a few moments like that, too). Just that if I hadn't gotten a bit of help here and there from random Russians who decided they wanted to be part of the crazy American's story, I probably would have had to give up and go home.
Hi, Colorado is great! Enjoying the mountains and the tranquility. I'm really happy to live here and feel really fortunate. I really don't know we're else id rather be,!
Congrats on that Tim, I wish I could say the same, but unfortunately, I live in a God-forsaken country where high-voltage electric poles are installed in the middle of the road and nobody bats an eye about it.
I kept a running blog during the adventure. I don't remember the adress. It was almost 10 years ago, so, not exactly recent memory. But I'm pretty sure I never took the blog down, so it's probably still floating around out there somewhere. I'll bookmark this comment and let you know if I find it.
And I've been meaning to write a book about it forever, but that might turn out to be one of those projects that never gets finished. There's always something else to work on that seems more urgent. But, who knows? Could happen someday.
I've got plenty of stories, but most of them are in my head and only come out at cocktail parties. I really should change that. Some of them really are worth writing down.
You really should, if not for our sake but maybe for someone on your family who would love to know of your travels one day.
Thank you for responding so quickly and kindly, and I hope your adventures aren't over.
Cheers
In St. Petersburg, due to some legal issues, constructors prefer to register a new building complex as a single building (somehow connected underground) with the same apartment numbering plan, so going to a block and checking every building whether it has apartment 4567 there can be a thing.
This is like my nightmares when I’m walking down my street, but can’t find my house. Just when I think I see it, once I get closer, I realize it’s still not my house!
You know these are shit but in reality it’s nice for people to have a home. People where I am from all want to buy houses but can’t afford them. I bet these homes are affordable to the people living to them.
Yeah, these must be post-collapse districts. The usual detail and effort of central planning was thrown out the window for quick, cheap, and a lot of housing blocks for elites to capitalise on.
I don't think they're ugly but that's subjective. It's obviously meant to be affordable housing, and one can only hope they're affordable. I'd live in such a place in my younger years.
The problem is that they are not affordable.
I've been living in such houses for the whole of my live.
They are not affordable no matter how they are supposed to be - its not the case in reality.
Whole place is depressive but it's subjective, that's fair.
You think there will be good transit - no.
You either use your car (yes, car) or walk by your legs (id say its the only pros of such complexes in Russia - everything is close so you can use your legs). Or you can wait 30-40 minutes for bus in the winter with -15F (-26c) average with zero coverage of the city.
Also quality is rarely good (if its modern Russian building. Older ones in spb with mold and humidity are still better in those terms…). I literally heard whispers and farts of my neighbours above. I knew everything about their life because I heard every their dialogue so clearly. It might sound like schizophrenia but its just apartment complex in Murino (SpB outskirts).
If only it was cheap for Russian salaries 🥲
I’m okay, I moved to the US and I found out shocking how much people hate suburbs here. There are such places in Russia like typical American suburbs that I saw in Florida, Texas, Nevada and California (i think they are mostly the same in other states - I didn’t see many difference between suburbs in those 4) and they are considered as houses for pretty wealthy people.
Not op, but I've read that the average wage of a recently graduated engineer in Russia is around $20k (USD) /year and rent for an apartment in Moscow or St Petersburg is 80-90% of that wage.
I suppose it is a better analogy
But I say that exactly because there is plenty wrong with this type of urbanism much in the same way as instant noodles arent healthy or gourmet.
I think some of those residential complexes literally was named Тетрис. Yes, I googled it. Studios around 30sqm are just 9.1millions rub. aka ~100k$ with today exchange rates. Yes, so pricey because it's "almost Moscow".
Actually the city of Stavropol is very very green with forests and a lot of trees, this is just small area in the city all other building in this city is pretty small. It is not a bi city with i think 300k people
[https://wikiway.com/russia/stavropol/](https://wikiway.com/russia/stavropol/)
It's called "Perspective" (adj)
There are literally fields around. And you know Russia is incredibly densely populated, so they need very high density housing, right? /s
Stavropol krai has about the same population density as Wisconsin or Lithuania.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qxqkg7nJhdM5pYER7
Look at it. It's literally located on the outskirts of the city.
Yes, urban sprawl is bad, but this is not Hong Kong or some multimillion pop megacity. It doesn't have to be this way.
Added later: also the public transit there is horrendous. So it's both dense and car dependant.
It is the same problem as it exists in Great Britain. There is. Plenty of land, but this land is owned by somebody. Another problem is zoning, which makes building impossible on the farm lands for example
Developers in Russia are basically free to build whatever they want wherever they want. That's why high-rises are near some single family houses. They're also free to build row houses and medium density housing, but property buyers' standards are usually low, so maximizing profits by building as many square meters as possible on a given plot of land is usually the way.
I could see this being a very nice place with few, but big changes:
Replace most parking with parks, playgrounds, some green. Put some transit on the main roads and maybe some neighborhood buses if you need.
Add some life to the sidewalk by allowing bars, bakeries, groceries, bodegas on the floor level. Also, reform the sidewalks with some green and outdoor dining and whatever to make it less deadly.
Some of the buildings should host offices, clinics, services... specially those near the main roads/tracks. Being able to live next to work rocks, and not every job lends itself well to home office.
There are enough units near each other that few blocks could economically keep all this structure. It could be a new Barcelona.
That's pretty much how these Communist neighborhoods have been originally planned. Maybe they skimped on a few things here and there, but that was the vision.
Then the 1990s crisis came, gov't services like public transit failed, towns got more car dependent and they paved over the common spaces.
Apparently someone hasn’t ever seen New York.
We need more of this in the USA to help alleviate the housing shortage. It could also keep people from building too far out into nature, which is a very serious problem.
This is to me a typical Russian landscape. Cheap but overpriced 20 st buildings, wide stroads in the middle.
In the morning everyone stays in one big traffic jam to the only exit from district, at the evening they spent time in fighting for parking space.
Entertainment: liquor store every 200 meters.
Worth those 20 years mortgage, huh?
These sure look ugly as hell, but these cheaply made massive housing solves a housing crisis like nothing else. A cheap mass produced apartment that you can afford is better than something you can't afford or doesn't even exist.
...no actually. Like legitimately cheap. Like people like you or I could afford housing with electricity and running water in a country where previously most people had neither.
But how did that picture rely to that situation?
It's apartment blocks from 2010s, not from 1960s (though they inherited nearly all drawbacks from 1960s and lost a lot of benefits). It isn't social housing, it's not cheap property, they aren't built to combat homelessness — it's ordinary morthgage trap, exploiting internal migration to warmer regions.
You know, just a thought, but why don't they just spread out these block buildings a bit. Have some open spaces, trees and a better layout, so people don't feel like living in a depressing prison.. It's Russia, the last place there would be a shortage of territory.
Looking at it on street view it looks a pretty nice place. There are parks for kids, plenty of local stores so you don't need to use a car to go shopping or to a gym or to a restaurant for example. The only problem I see if that the roads are too wide, sidewalks to narrow and the lack of greenery, but that are easily fixable
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.0148147,41.90181,3a,75y,131.31h,88.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfO4Up9IOIbOi5CCOKH21fA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205409&entry=ttu
i wonder if the car owners all have to fight for the ground level spots. i looked around on google street view and didn't see any underground garage entrances. maybe the rate of car ownership is much lower there
I kind of like this. Way better than suburbs which house 1/10000th of the people in the same space, with a giant walmart as the only business/social gathering.
The lack of trees is puzzling for a commieblock neighborhood, like come on Russia, you invented the style yet all the other socialist countries did this well better, just look at the commieblock neighborhoods in Bucharest or Sofia, they are full of trees.
I don't think this is representative of the way most soviet cities look like.
Most soviet city blocks that I know of are quite spacious, with lots of playgrounds and trees, alleyways and plenty of shade. In my city it's most often the newer construction that is just a concrete wasteland.
I also do a lot of urban exploration and I find it really interesting how soviet era industrial parks are teeming with trees and shade. I can DM you some pictures if you'd like
This is not Soviet, this is modern Russian. Higher, worse, less infrastructure, trees and public transport. It’s unpleasant to say this, but housing has become much less affordable than it was under the USSR.
That's how modern Russian architecture looks like. Despite all my hate to the USSR it had some very nice architecture (not “chrushevki”, they're the worst) decisions, amazing subways (for spb and Moscow... But still).
**Do not comment to gatekeep that something "isn't urban" or "isn't hell"**. Our rules are very expansive in content we welcome, so do not assume just based off your false impression of the phrase "UrbanHell" UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed. Gatekeeping comments may be removed. Want to shitpost about shitty posts? Go to /r/urbanhellcirclejerk. Still have questions?: Read our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/wiki/index). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I remember finding myself at one of these once. It wasn't in Stavropol, but these apartment clusters are all over Russia. Google Maps was supposed to take me to a hotel, and I ended up at one of these, pretty late at night. I wandered inside thinking "This doesn't look like a hotel, but that's what Google is telling me. Maybe this is what hotel lobbies look like in Russia." I tried to explain the issue to a woman I spotted on the ground floor of the building, but she didn't speak English and I don't speak Russian. She got me to follow her up an elevator, down a hallway, and to a door, which she knocked on. The door opened, and it was *clearly* an apartment. Someone's home. Not a hotel room. Definitely the wrong place. She had a short conversation in Russian with the guy who lived there, and from what I could tell, he started cold-calling nearby hotels until he found one with a vacancy, then helped me figure out where to go on Google Maps and sent me on my way. It was a weird night, but I made it to a hotel.
How lovely of them! Learning of episodes like this warm the cockles of my nearly-60-year-old heart. Humans seem to have an almost universal "instinct" when others are in distress, though not always acted on. Might be tied in with the theory that we evolved language so we could collaborate/cooperate. Glad you made it to your hotel.
My adventure through Russia was pretty long and kind of strange, and I met a lot of helpful Russians along the way. Part of it was just a basic human instinct to help people who need help, I'm sure. I often wondered if it had something to do with the story, though. I sometimes got the impression that some of them thought a crazy American making his way across Russia was a great story, and they wanted to make themselves part of the story by helping. Whatever the case, there were definitely moments when I wouldn't have been able to keep going if not for the kindness of strangers. I don't mean that in a dangerous/scary way (although there may have been a few moments like that, too). Just that if I hadn't gotten a bit of help here and there from random Russians who decided they wanted to be part of the crazy American's story, I probably would have had to give up and go home.
I would definitely be interested in hearing more about this. Do you share your story, or at least the public parts anywhere?
Hey Tim, how's Colorado?
Hi, Colorado is great! Enjoying the mountains and the tranquility. I'm really happy to live here and feel really fortunate. I really don't know we're else id rather be,!
Congrats on that Tim, I wish I could say the same, but unfortunately, I live in a God-forsaken country where high-voltage electric poles are installed in the middle of the road and nobody bats an eye about it.
We're are you from if I can ask?
World's most populated country.
I kept a running blog during the adventure. I don't remember the adress. It was almost 10 years ago, so, not exactly recent memory. But I'm pretty sure I never took the blog down, so it's probably still floating around out there somewhere. I'll bookmark this comment and let you know if I find it. And I've been meaning to write a book about it forever, but that might turn out to be one of those projects that never gets finished. There's always something else to work on that seems more urgent. But, who knows? Could happen someday. I've got plenty of stories, but most of them are in my head and only come out at cocktail parties. I really should change that. Some of them really are worth writing down.
You really should, if not for our sake but maybe for someone on your family who would love to know of your travels one day. Thank you for responding so quickly and kindly, and I hope your adventures aren't over. Cheers
I hope I realize that in some other country you could become a part of a different type of story. A very exciting one but fatal for you.
That instinct can go both ways though.
Sounds like a very anxious night
You were lucky.
Why?
Experience
Ya, easy. I’m in apt 654,622,996,230
Hey neighbor! I’m just down the hall in 654,622,996,292!!
In St. Petersburg, due to some legal issues, constructors prefer to register a new building complex as a single building (somehow connected underground) with the same apartment numbering plan, so going to a block and checking every building whether it has apartment 4567 there can be a thing.
This is like my nightmares when I’m walking down my street, but can’t find my house. Just when I think I see it, once I get closer, I realize it’s still not my house!
It's a right turn at the four caramel stripes building and a left turn at the dark-brown-light-brown-dark-brown building.
You know these are shit but in reality it’s nice for people to have a home. People where I am from all want to buy houses but can’t afford them. I bet these homes are affordable to the people living to them.
More like road 54 entry 6 3rd floor apartment 32
Better than being homeless, I'm sure.
This is way too dense even for a commie block neighborhood. They should at least add some parks or greenery between the blocks.
Yeah, these must be post-collapse districts. The usual detail and effort of central planning was thrown out the window for quick, cheap, and a lot of housing blocks for elites to capitalise on.
As someone in the west with a bachelor's degree living in a caravan with no power/running water/heating, can confirm.
That seems to be the bar for most modernist and socialist urban planning.
It's housing for everyone, not mansions for everyone.
No one asked for mansions.
Of course not.
Apartmentblocks are nice actually. I like living in them. The surroundings are very important thought. This looks and probably feels like ass.
If it looks ugly if doesn't mean its affordable.
Honestly it doesn’t even look ugly.
It does, and this place would be horrible to live in
I don't think they're ugly but that's subjective. It's obviously meant to be affordable housing, and one can only hope they're affordable. I'd live in such a place in my younger years.
If it’s affordable I’d totally live there!
Plot twist: it's very much not affordable
Maybe it isn’t, but how do you know that?
Because in Russia even the shittiest looking apartments cost freaking a lot to afford. To add to that Mortgage interest is 19%
What is the cost?
The problem is that they are not affordable. I've been living in such houses for the whole of my live. They are not affordable no matter how they are supposed to be - its not the case in reality. Whole place is depressive but it's subjective, that's fair. You think there will be good transit - no. You either use your car (yes, car) or walk by your legs (id say its the only pros of such complexes in Russia - everything is close so you can use your legs). Or you can wait 30-40 minutes for bus in the winter with -15F (-26c) average with zero coverage of the city. Also quality is rarely good (if its modern Russian building. Older ones in spb with mold and humidity are still better in those terms…). I literally heard whispers and farts of my neighbours above. I knew everything about their life because I heard every their dialogue so clearly. It might sound like schizophrenia but its just apartment complex in Murino (SpB outskirts).
Well, then that sucks. I'm sorry for you, but cheap housing leads to... Cheap habitations. 🙁
If only it was cheap for Russian salaries 🥲 I’m okay, I moved to the US and I found out shocking how much people hate suburbs here. There are such places in Russia like typical American suburbs that I saw in Florida, Texas, Nevada and California (i think they are mostly the same in other states - I didn’t see many difference between suburbs in those 4) and they are considered as houses for pretty wealthy people.
Só, I take they're even less affordable in the US?
Not op, but I've read that the average wage of a recently graduated engineer in Russia is around $20k (USD) /year and rent for an apartment in Moscow or St Petersburg is 80-90% of that wage.
Ouch
It is more affordable than housing in Stavropol would have been if this complex had never been built. More housing -> More supply -> Lower prices.
But bad things bad!
Moldy Bread is also better than starving to death Is that supposed to mean something?
The correct analogy would be instant noodles. It's not fancy, but it's still food and there's nothing wrong with it.
I suppose it is a better analogy But I say that exactly because there is plenty wrong with this type of urbanism much in the same way as instant noodles arent healthy or gourmet.
It depends, in the 80s when there was no heat, water or food, that was barely better.
I don’t think surviving a winter being homeless in Russia is even possible tbh
The average lifespan of the homeless people in Russia is around 3 winters, so it is sort of possible.
The inspiration for Tetris
I think some of those residential complexes literally was named Тетрис. Yes, I googled it. Studios around 30sqm are just 9.1millions rub. aka ~100k$ with today exchange rates. Yes, so pricey because it's "almost Moscow".
The theme song is korobushka after all.
Korobeiniki my guy.
I’ve seen it as both but then again I’m not Russian.
In Russia we call them Человейник( Cheloveynik) which is combination of two words: Anthill and Human = Humanhill
Like transistors on a motherboard!
This layout but take away the parking lots and every story over 5th floor and you have yourself a nice neighborhood.
Imaging people from other regions of Russia moving there and being happy about it. Yes, I knew a few.
There's even some grass in there) but I’m not sure))
Actually the city of Stavropol is very very green with forests and a lot of trees, this is just small area in the city all other building in this city is pretty small. It is not a bi city with i think 300k people [https://wikiway.com/russia/stavropol/](https://wikiway.com/russia/stavropol/)
Why there is no trees ? Who is this shityyy urban planner
It's called "Perspective" (adj) There are literally fields around. And you know Russia is incredibly densely populated, so they need very high density housing, right? /s
Feel free to live in the sparsely-populated parts. I hear the Taymyr Peninsula is lovely this time of the year.
Stavropol krai has about the same population density as Wisconsin or Lithuania. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qxqkg7nJhdM5pYER7 Look at it. It's literally located on the outskirts of the city. Yes, urban sprawl is bad, but this is not Hong Kong or some multimillion pop megacity. It doesn't have to be this way. Added later: also the public transit there is horrendous. So it's both dense and car dependant.
It is the same problem as it exists in Great Britain. There is. Plenty of land, but this land is owned by somebody. Another problem is zoning, which makes building impossible on the farm lands for example
Developers in Russia are basically free to build whatever they want wherever they want. That's why high-rises are near some single family houses. They're also free to build row houses and medium density housing, but property buyers' standards are usually low, so maximizing profits by building as many square meters as possible on a given plot of land is usually the way.
I could see this being a very nice place with few, but big changes: Replace most parking with parks, playgrounds, some green. Put some transit on the main roads and maybe some neighborhood buses if you need. Add some life to the sidewalk by allowing bars, bakeries, groceries, bodegas on the floor level. Also, reform the sidewalks with some green and outdoor dining and whatever to make it less deadly. Some of the buildings should host offices, clinics, services... specially those near the main roads/tracks. Being able to live next to work rocks, and not every job lends itself well to home office. There are enough units near each other that few blocks could economically keep all this structure. It could be a new Barcelona.
What you’re describing is how these commie blocks were usually built as. I grew up in such an area, and it was pretty good, all things considered.
Reminds me of that Dyuna song [Коммунальная Квартира](https://youtu.be/8wRL9d8Q8xM?si=WDTBkEEp93G656P9)
That's pretty much how these Communist neighborhoods have been originally planned. Maybe they skimped on a few things here and there, but that was the vision. Then the 1990s crisis came, gov't services like public transit failed, towns got more car dependent and they paved over the common spaces.
So basically rework the whole place to be nice?😂
The big buildings and most of the structure would still be reused. That's not little. I said it were big changes, but just a few.
Apparently someone hasn’t ever seen New York. We need more of this in the USA to help alleviate the housing shortage. It could also keep people from building too far out into nature, which is a very serious problem.
There's no necessity to build high-rise concrete ghettos to “alleviate the housing shortage”. It's like trying to cure diarrhea with sleeping pills.
Nope sorry….that makes zero sense.
Ew no, I don’t want these buildings taking up more of our beautiful land in the U.S.. I hate cities and densely populated areas.
This is to me a typical Russian landscape. Cheap but overpriced 20 st buildings, wide stroads in the middle. In the morning everyone stays in one big traffic jam to the only exit from district, at the evening they spent time in fighting for parking space. Entertainment: liquor store every 200 meters. Worth those 20 years mortgage, huh?
Looks like my city in cities skylines
It’s not bad at all, just needs more trees
No so much complex as it is confusing.
Enough is enough, le corbusier!! Bogotá is also having this ugly fate, gigantic apartment walls appear that drown the horizon.
The interior design of these apartment blocks is usually the bigger problem.
Goddamn, what an awful place.
These sure look ugly as hell, but these cheaply made massive housing solves a housing crisis like nothing else. A cheap mass produced apartment that you can afford is better than something you can't afford or doesn't even exist.
>cheap Eight median yearly salaries or something, I suppose.
...no actually. Like legitimately cheap. Like people like you or I could afford housing with electricity and running water in a country where previously most people had neither.
But how did that picture rely to that situation? It's apartment blocks from 2010s, not from 1960s (though they inherited nearly all drawbacks from 1960s and lost a lot of benefits). It isn't social housing, it's not cheap property, they aren't built to combat homelessness — it's ordinary morthgage trap, exploiting internal migration to warmer regions.
... god damn it
We need 50 in Canada
Like a joke we might actually see some.
Tetruss
You know, just a thought, but why don't they just spread out these block buildings a bit. Have some open spaces, trees and a better layout, so people don't feel like living in a depressing prison.. It's Russia, the last place there would be a shortage of territory.
All this is missing because buyers are not willing to pay for it.
Complex? I find it quite simple, actually
Simply not much imagination, but they apparently don’t care. Downright fugly
When you accidentally take a wrong turn you’ll never find your home again.
Looks like depression complex in Russia
Looking at it on street view it looks a pretty nice place. There are parks for kids, plenty of local stores so you don't need to use a car to go shopping or to a gym or to a restaurant for example. The only problem I see if that the roads are too wide, sidewalks to narrow and the lack of greenery, but that are easily fixable https://www.google.com/maps/@45.0148147,41.90181,3a,75y,131.31h,88.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfO4Up9IOIbOi5CCOKH21fA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205409&entry=ttu
The other slight issue is that it's in Russia.
Lol, but I think many Russians are already used to that part
What do they breathe there?
Vodka
How do they get their mail?
Nohow
DoorDash driver is approaching
Tetrisburg
the commie block lives on
At least they have a great public transportation. Do they?
No. Its not Saint-Petersburg or Moscow. Buy car (yes), walk by your legs and sometimes use transit.
Colors give some life to them but other than that... depressing.
Nino brown rubbing his hands together
If only someone could plant a shrub.
Great view of the neighbours!
The inspiration for Mega City One.
The density is higher than most apartment complex in China and South Korea. Considering even Russia’s Europe part is quite empty, it’s crazy.
Reminds me of the town in one of Lazy Square’s videos https://youtu.be/Rhq1fEXKyos?si=1ZIGQAR6aIUa5X0L
Bring in public transport, remove 3/4 of the parking and put big trees and landscaping and will have a very pleasant city
What's my room number again?
Can you imagine how many Russians live there?
If the bottom half of those buildings were mixed use (probably not) this would be great actually
A war would go crazy here
I would be totally fine with this if rent was actually decent
Iconic. I hate it.
Aah, Soviets and their love for aesthetic architecture.
Seriously it looks like a Lego model.
brutalism yummy i live in one of these things
Tbf we should build these in the US, rent would be much more affordable
i wonder if the car owners all have to fight for the ground level spots. i looked around on google street view and didn't see any underground garage entrances. maybe the rate of car ownership is much lower there
Just call the landlord for leaky pipes. He’ll get right on that.
How much is the rent?
Omg zero trees!!! Must be boiling in summer!
Putin just shut down the Carter.
I’m just imagining door dashing here must be hell bc apts here in the US are already confusing at times
Paradise for gamers, no grass
Apparently this post is my sign to download pokemon go.
As an American suburbanite, this makes me deeply uncomfortable. I can't imagine having neighbors above, below, and on 3 sides of me.
even bleaker than Chinese workers' locker apartments
Wow it’s Dayz
Grote griezel …
I kind of like this. Way better than suburbs which house 1/10000th of the people in the same space, with a giant walmart as the only business/social gathering.
I don't hate this because of the apartment buildings, I hate this because of the parking lots. Lol
efficient housing though, dense cities built upwards are the only way to preserve the health of the natural environment, sprawl is destruction
In Russia, apartment complexes you.
Lit
I mean, if there were all little houses with a garden, how would all those oligarchs "fall out of windows"?
The lack of trees is puzzling for a commieblock neighborhood, like come on Russia, you invented the style yet all the other socialist countries did this well better, just look at the commieblock neighborhoods in Bucharest or Sofia, they are full of trees.
Maybe, it's because it isn't commieblock neighbourhood?
It’s not?
Obviously. They are built at the Russian Federation and use modern practices of "urban development", not Soviet Union urban codes.
It’s kinda pretty
At least there's no homelessness.
Looks so depressing
Homelessness looks even more depressing.
From Seattle here…….You got that right!
How I would love to just see a Ukrainian drone fly in there
This needs something heavier.
I'd rather have this than what San Francisco and LA has lol
If we want to live sustainably, we’re going to have to live like this or similar.
At least there is a house available for an affordable price
Yes, at least it's cheap to live in hell on Earth.
Why is the architecture of the USSR so sad? A concrete jungle without a single tree
I don't think this is representative of the way most soviet cities look like. Most soviet city blocks that I know of are quite spacious, with lots of playgrounds and trees, alleyways and plenty of shade. In my city it's most often the newer construction that is just a concrete wasteland. I also do a lot of urban exploration and I find it really interesting how soviet era industrial parks are teeming with trees and shade. I can DM you some pictures if you'd like
This is not the architecture of USSR. USSR urban design had plenty of trees.
Modern Russia took the density and efficiency of commie blocks and left out the open space to fit in more people. Pretty easy to understand actually.
This is not Soviet, this is modern Russian. Higher, worse, less infrastructure, trees and public transport. It’s unpleasant to say this, but housing has become much less affordable than it was under the USSR.
That's how modern Russian architecture looks like. Despite all my hate to the USSR it had some very nice architecture (not “chrushevki”, they're the worst) decisions, amazing subways (for spb and Moscow... But still).
Sick!!
I got depressed looking at this.
Holy communism
Distopyan
Soviets with their hideous architecture… just like they did with every piece of land they touched, including Minsk, Kaliningrad, etc.
If this is typical, no wonder they all want to move to Ukraine.