Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a Brutal Soviet Era

Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by simias on Friday October 19, 2018 @11:17AM (#18257270)

Even in non-communist France these horrible concrete boxes were once hailed as the future of housing. When they were first built they had all the comfort the middle class yearned for at the time. The problem is that they degraded very fast and soon became synonymous with "poor people houses".

Here's a postcard from the 60's for instance: https://i.redd.it/3ofea4jd6k2z.jpg

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by rfinney on Friday October 19, 2018 @12:21PM (#18257782)

Same in the U.S.:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cabrini+green+projects&t=ffsb&ia=i...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=robert+taylor+homes&t=ffsb&iar=ima...

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by V-2 on Friday October 19, 2018 @11:30AM (#18257385)

France wasn't communist, but it was heavily influenced by communist ideas. I believe it had the second largest communist party in the West (after Italy), and Le Corbusier was highly revered in the USSR.

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by Symbiote on Friday October 19, 2018 @12:00PM (#18257651)

You can find similar buildings in Britain, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and probably others.

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by V-2 on Friday October 19, 2018 @12:19PM (#18257774)

Designs spread.

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by rocky1138 on Friday October 19, 2018 @12:40PM (#18257942)

Hey! I live in one of those types of places. If they are kept up with the times and maintained properly they are a nice place to live

http://www.rentcompass.com/Rentals/Guelph/1407/2-Quebec-Stre...

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by baybal2 on Friday October 19, 2018 @11:51AM (#18257587)

>horrible concrete boxes

The cubic shape has the best utilisation of materials per unit of usable space. Houses must be cubical.

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by Jedd on Friday October 19, 2018 @06:15PM (#18260497)

> > horrible concrete boxes

> The cubic shape has the best utilisation of materials per unit of usable space. Houses must be cubical.

I think parent was describing combination of box-like aesthetics with the unpleasantness that is concrete.

I think you may be mistaken - domes are perhaps a better utilisation per unit of usable space.

Also, it's definitely not the case that houses must be cubical, for any reason(s), let alone just to attempt to maximise the ratio of materials per unit of area / volume.

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Re:Postcards from Big Brother: The Curious Propaganda of a B... by fourthark on Saturday October 20, 2018 @08:31AM (#18262968)

Humans need natural light. Big cubes have a low proportion of rooms with natural light.

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