this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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You just compared people's houses to prisons. I hope you didn't mean it that way.
When it's designed for pure efficiency, housing often starts to take on a more prison-like architectural style. After all that's how they design prisons as well, just on a much more brutal level. It's good that post-war civilians were saved from homelessness, but it's not really an architectural style to emulate, and the fact that they're still around isn't a virtue in its own right.
I'm not saying the people who live there are in prison, but rather that it's a bleak and inhumane way to design things. You see the same mindset in the design of many overpriced condo blocks in the US, they just dress it up with bigger windows, as well as kitchen islands, Murphy beds and other glitsy bullshit.
How is it bleak and inhumane to build free, strong, effective houses? HAVE YOU SEEN MODERN APARTMENT BUILDINGS IN USA?! I feel like I’m going crazy. The only people that like those new fuck ugly “mixed use” developments is rich old smarmy people who’s family left their home town 20 years ago. And they have the worst fucking interior taste I’ve ever seen it’s all white and sanitized and they got nothing on the shelves or walls. I don’t wanna hear shit from Americas about “inhumane design.” My house is sided with fucking asbestos.
That is obviously not what is being complained about. The chief complaints are:
I'm not sure what you mean by mixed use developments but if you mean this, then you are flat out wrong. Mixed use developments are the cornerstone of the kinds of urbanism that encompass walkable neighbourhoods and the 15 minute city, which is overwhelmingly preferred by the non-car-brained.
Not really relevant since interiors can be ugly or not independent of the ugliness of the buildings.
That is the exact type of building I am talking about. I work in one. It was built by a company that is worth over 50 billion dollars. It has not made our city more walkable. It has made our city less affordable, less walkable, and they are building an identical “mixed use” building right across the street from it with competing businesses.
This building I work in used to have a clinic, it failed and is no longer there, a realtor office that failed and is closed, and my own boss tried to expand the restaurant I work in and failed spectacularly and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own personal money that he is now indebted to (it was probably the dumbest thing my boss could have done but you know business owners)
The Montessori school in this building complex is a private school that costs over 13 thousand dollars for one child K-12.
There is a section of “green space”, in the middle of the parking lot inside that is about 20-30 square feet of grass and about 4 cherry blossom trees. They are quite pretty to look at out the window while I’m working, but I would hardly classify it as an adequate green space.
What you are describing as an effective communal living area for all people (not just the rich) would be a commie bloc. These 5 over 1 buildings are cheap money grabs that do not function correctly, raise rent prices wherever they are placed effectively gentrifying entire neighborhoods, and are meant to serve a rich subset of capitalists thru “rent controlled” apartments that have a minimum wage requirement for you to even apply. That wage requirement is way higher than I make working in the same exact fucking building.
The areas between communist blocks are not “featureless”, and that is a hilarious accusation when trying to defend these money holes of a building. They are literally cheap imitations of commie blocks that are uglier, not made as well, and don’t work as well. These 5 over 1 buildings being “Cornerstone of urbanism” is the best joke I’ve ever heard about American infrastructure. Those pictures in the Wikipedia article you linked are perfect examples, those don’t have ANY green space. I bet for private residents in the back parking lot there’s a few square feet of grass. Is that what you want over this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADdlisko ?
Go and walk down the street in one of these gentrified neighborhoods and see how fun it is, buy a 16$ sandwich and 4$ coffee, have to walk a quarter mile to where you parked and by then your 2 hour limit is up so you got a ticket and now you gotta park where all the homeless people are. (that got pushed out by the development of this multi-million dollar building).
I don’t know about you but I actually like hanging out in the cafe to drink my coffee, these are “public spaces” and to you they are cornerstones of urban development, wouldn’t you want people to oh, I don’t know, spend time (and therefor more money) in the business and schools that this company paid millions of dollars for? No? Oh, so we’re only interested in mass housing/ending homelessness when it’s under a capitalist society and you can walk from your apartment to the cafe without going outside. And it has to LOOK SUPER NICE RIGHT AWAY. And we need THE TINIEST GREEN SPACE SURROUNDED BY A PARKING LOT! THATS THE KINDA GREENERY WE LIKEEEEE
You really think these buildings are better than the blocs because what, they look better to you? Solving homelessness isn’t aesthetically pleasing enough? I know a certain GERMAN political party that agrees with your sentiment…
I'm not American, I'm British. Towns and cities all across Europe are filled with "5 over 1s" and similar, and it's fine, and works well. Just because the US can't not fuck it up, doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone else.
Lemmy.ml user try not to accuse another user of being a Nazi for literally no credible reason challenge: impossible.
We're a discussion about architecture and urban planning, my dude. Commie blocs solved the homelessness relatively quickly and relatively cheaply. Great. Fantastic. That doesn't they were best and most ideal solution possible at the time, and it certainly doesn't mean they're the best and most ideal solution now.
Now, as it stands, I don't think commie blocks are that bad, I just felt like pointing out that your arguments seemed somewhat unserious, but in case you're curious, here are the things I think are non-ideal about commie blocks:
If you're asking me what I'd prefer instead, I'm thinking something like Eixample.
That isn’t even close to what I said :( My point is what you’re describing is based on commie blocks and have had more time to develop. But yes as you pointed out, the US can’t not fuck it up, you are totally correct there, and there are some in America that are better than mine (still expensive junk mini-malls, but more fun to hang out in)
Like, this urban planning was ahead of its time, and you are right about the infrastructure and the lighting, the mid/high rises, but the purpose of communist blocks was quickly built, free housing after the war. If they were built like prisons, those prisons are humanely built. lol. Socialist model of urban planning was ahead of its time.
If you’ve never been to America, you wouldn’t understand what I mean by walking around one of these!
Your comment is a great example of the growing literacy crisis on the anglo web.
And your alternative to housing built after WWII to save people from homelessness is Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi houses? Delusional.
Yeah, I swiped it all out on the phone, and I accidentally a few words. Sorry, that's my bad.
I think that when we're talking about housing, it should perhaps be implied that I'm not talking about the cathedral and the other tourist attractions. I'm talking about:
Yeah, a lot of the buildings in Eixample are more ornate than they would be if you were building them in bulk, quickly, and I'd probably throw in more parks, too. But the plan is sound, and very achievable.
at the risk of whataboutism, have you ever seen a suburb in the USA? there are entire neighborhoods of exact duplicate houses that go on and on and on.