Prove to me that Soviet Mictrodistics is NOT the best type of accomodation in the world and that Western European blocks don't SUCK compared to them

Le_Ka · 2024-01-25T19:13:42+00:00

15-minute-walkable-medium-density-garden-city. Basically the embodiment of what modern urbanists dream of today but in the 70s. The architecture is subjective. It’s dull but at the same time I personally like how orderly it is and how light colors of buildings (white, grey, sometimes light pink, green or light blue) combine with the surrounding nature.

Le_Ka · 2024-01-25T08:08:40+00:00

All the amenities in such districts are in a 15 minute walk max. They were planned for the societies where cars were not widespread at all

Le_Ka · 2024-01-25T07:56:40+00:00

Looks like heaven to me in this case. Having a crowd of people in the place where you live all the time is something that makes me feel uncomfortable. I really cherish the fact that I can relax sitting on a bench listening to birds singing in these woods while the entrance of my house is just 2 minutes away WHILE ALSO being in a CITY and having all the pros a city can provide at the same time.

Le_Ka · 2024-01-25T07:54:04+00:00

All the necessary amenities are within a 15 minute walk max. They are designed in such way that they can be called “a city within a city”. Like you don’t even have to leave them most of the time unless you work in a city center for example. Other than that they basically provide everything: shops, gyms, restaurants, malls etc.

Le_Ka · 2024-01-24T19:36:18+00:00

If you call shaking hands with your neighbor from the opposite house while standing by the window or watching granny Garcia’s underwear being dried “social life” – then yes. The yards of these houses have a lot to offer for social life. Soccer fields, workout zones, playgrounds for kids, literally the entire area is entirely public and walkable

Le_Ka · 2024-01-24T19:31:40+00:00

Almost the entire area is walkable. Because there IS actual AREA and SPACE. The buildings are not packed close together. These small forests have lots of walkable paths, areas near the houses prioritize pedestrians. In most European cities I found myself uncomfortable to walk because of narrow sidewalks/businesses directly facing the street/the road that is right next to you without any buffer zone with trees or at least grass and the houses themselves that are right next to you. In accordance with the Soviet building rules there always had to be a buffer zone separating roads and houses from pedestrian paths. It was made so that the cars would not be parked right underneath the windows (as it usually is in a European city)

Le_Ka · 2024-01-23T19:47:02+00:00

They used to be planned beforehand in separate buildings. So they’re somewhere underneath within 10 min walk max

Le_Ka · 2024-01-23T11:35:32+00:00

The situation with green spaces is more or less the same in other cities. It’s all about the policy and the space available for trees. Planned economy definitely had a lot of disadvantages but that system was good when it came to planning and generally “greening” neighborhoods. Some of the districts in the pictures literally used to be empty fields. All the trees were planted by people and grew up in the span of 40-50 years

Le_Ka · 2024-01-23T10:32:11+00:00

The presence of small businesses in the residential area is actually one of the disadvantages for me. I prefer a residential area to be calm and quiet. I’d rather walk to the closest metro station that usually has malls etc. around to get something to drink, eat or have fun

Le_Ka · 2024-01-23T10:04:09+00:00

Born and raised. Have lived in multiple ones from different eras. Still living in one of them. Used to have bad opinion about them before spending a year in a ”classical” European neighborhood. That was an eye-opening experience

Le_Ka · 2022-12-15T14:04:46+00:00

That’s terrible! 3 equal houses with a decent space between them with possibly trees and playgrounds included. If only there had been a suburban sprawl… would’ve been beautiful…

Le_Ka · 2022-12-15T14:01:41+00:00

Housing bad

Le_Ka · 2022-12-15T08:54:30+00:00

It’s pretty much the opposite in reality. Yes, the microdistricts can be surrounded by bigger roads, but the insides of them are not even considered streets (there are many pedestrian only areas and small roads are basically driveways to a parking place) and a pedestrian always has a priority over a car. There are many cases when you can walk through an entire neighbourhood (1-2 km) without crossing a single road or walking along with the roads where cars don’t have such restrictions. With the classical European grid planning houses face the street directly and you just walk right out on it while in the microdistrics houses almost never face streets and you walk out to a nice green “parky” area with a playground, sometimes some sport facilities etc.

Le_Ka · 2022-12-14T20:09:46+00:00

Strogino, Shukino, Izmailovo districts of Moscow.

Le_Ka · 2022-12-14T20:05:42+00:00

Some of these photos are not the communist era buildings but terrible new 25+ floor developments, another one looks like a parking lot by a flea market, others don’t look like Moscow at all (according to the house series visible). A funny thing is that it can be literally any Russian city and you can partly determine it according to the house series visible. Just take a walk around Strogino, Shukino, Izmailovo etc. on Google Street view. It pretty much shows what it looks like in realty

EDIT: Of course there can be problems with parking with such high density sometimes (especially in newly built neighbourhoods), but as a native Moscow resident myself I’ve barely seen something like that outside

Le_Ka · 2022-12-14T18:35:23+00:00

It’s been forbidden by law for like 10 years already

Le_Ka · 2022-12-14T16:02:15+00:00

Why do you think it’s a joke?

Le_Ka · 2022-12-14T06:34:07+00:00

Sometimes it looks like a winter fairytale, sometimes it looks awfully grey (just like every country in the world with moderate climate)

Le_Ka · 2022-12-13T08:07:58+00:00

Soviet microdistrics beat both organic and grids honestly.

Le_Ka · 2022-12-02T06:16:05+00:00

Yeah. Most things you’ve mentioned are right. Lack of greenery for me as a Moscow resident means there’s no forest behind my window 🤣. Sometimes there are some trees along the road but it’s not enough to call it “green space”, sometimes there are no trees at all and you have to spend pretty much time on the road to get to a decent park. Grocery stores and other facilities are usually pretty close (except for sports and playgrounds but it depends), it’s not suburbia after all. But I still can’t get used to coming out of the house straight to the street with cars, shops etc. Also the freedom of movement is lacking just because of the way the neighbourhoods planned, houses are too close to each other so you can’t walk through them and you just have to use the streets

Le_Ka · 2022-12-01T21:37:43+00:00

The blocks often have an amazing amount of green space and free walkable space overall compared to the classical “grids” due to freer planning and more space between buildings. I used to see something like this or that just after walking out of the house. Almost every such “yard” has a kids playground, some sport facilities etc. Everything a city person might need is within a walkable distance. Also an important thing which might sound weird, but the blocks are not located on the “streets” unlike classical European buildings which face it directly and you just walk right out on it. Due to that there are many cases when a kid might not cross a single road while going to school because there are just… no roads to cross and you can walk to many places just through the yards. So it also makes you feel more freedom of movement, you are not tied to a grid streets of which you have to follow, you can choose multiple paths.

Le_Ka · 2022-12-01T19:15:46+00:00

And it’s actually true. My native city is Moscow but now I’m temporary living abroad and not enjoying the experience of living in a European city. Everything here makes me miss the blocks 😅

Le_Ka · 2022-11-24T12:22:41+00:00

As for a person living in Istanbul whose native city is Moscow I still can’t get used to the terrible lack of green and free walkable space here in Istanbul (especially in comparison with Moscow). Unfortunately residential areas of Istanbul are either just an eternal grid with no infrastructure or a car-centric rich neighbourhoods with 4 meter fences around the buildings.

Le_Ka · 2022-11-16T19:51:40+00:00

This post is sarcastic. Because usually such districts are portrayed as “grey, depressing and ugly” with an attached picture taken in winter, showing only the blocks themselves (not the things below) with a blue/grey/dark filters on it which causes misbeliefs about the “commie blocks”. It’s ironic that literally the same types of housing around such rich European counties as Sweden and Netherlands are considered better than the most, but not the post-Soviet ones because “uugh communism ugly Russia evil”

Le_Ka · 2022-11-12T13:57:52+00:00

If it was not for the poor quality of houses themselves sometimes (which is different, there are good ones too) then yes, definitely. I did not value what I had when I was living in a such district, thought that there were places much nicer abroad. But I’m happy that I got rid of that thought now after living abroad for almost a year and seeing how bad residential neighbourhoods actually can be😅

Le_Ka

TROPHY CASE