3 ms·

Prefabricated housing [1] was also employed in Europe after WWII to accommodate the demand for housing in and around cities as many headed from rural areas to c

by niftich 10y ago

Prefabricated housing [1] was also employed in Europe after WWII to accommodate the demand for housing in and around cities as many headed from rural areas to cities for work [2]. The social connotation usually varies by neighborhood, as with other types of housing, and merely living in a prefab flat is not commonly considered undesirable. Although most often found in the former Warsaw Pact countries, they are also fairly common in Sweden [2] and France [3]. The same can be said about Hong Kong [4] and Singapore [5]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panel%C3%A1k https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panel%C3%A1k [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Programme [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banlieue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banlieue [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Hong_Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Hong_Kong [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore

kuschku 10y ago
> and merely living in a prefab flat is not commonly considered undesirable Ehm, no. Those prefab buildings are the immediate definition of "housing for unemployed immigrants". The social stigma is so bad, when I was in elementary school, I lived right next to one – and my grades were horrible. Some day, my parents told the teacher we actually owned a house right next to the bloc (the teacher had thought we lived in the bloc), and suddenly my grades jumped from D to A. All of them. The stigma is massive, and it will affect your life massively.
- mc32 10y ago
  I think you're both right. In the eastern bloc I think the stigma was less and in Singapore there was no stigma that I could tell --maybe some super rich people might have looked down at people in the estates, but I didn't come across them. However, in France for sure there is stigma.
- majewsky 10y ago
  Really depends on where you live. I'm writing this from a 2-room apartment in a modernized WBS 70/5 [1] in East Germany, and I have not noticed any social stigma until now. Instead, I get to enjoy the good prices (under 400 euros incl. utilities for 48 m² = 523 sq ft) and public transport connections. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBS_70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBS_70
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Would you have a reference to how the interiors look? I'm curious now!
    - majewsky 10y ago
      Well, I don't really know what to say. It's just a regular apartment, by German standards. :) When I moved in, the owner had just refurbished everything a bit (as they always do when a new tenant moves in). The ingrain wallpaper [1] on the walls and ceiling painted plain white, the linoleum [2] floors freshly cleaned, and the jambs of the interior doors had been replaced by new ones. If you don't know what linoleum looks and feels like, imagine a typical office floor, but with a faux parquet pattern instead of these generic blue-green-grayish dot patterns. The linoleum shows a bit of wear (you can see where the previous tenant had put their furniture), but I don't mind. Apart from that, I've got radiators (connected to district heating) in both rooms, water and sewer pipes leading into the kitchen (but the kitchen furniture and plumbing needs to be supplied by the tenant), and a fully-furnitured bathroom with tiling all around, toilet, sink and bathtub. If anything from that list should ever break, I call the landlord and a craftsman will be on site to fix it the next day or so, at their cost. That's the state if the building is well-maintained. Some of these "Plattenbauten" (German for large-panel system buildings) have been privatized and sold to investors. These are usually the only ones which haven't gotten a makeover since the iron curtain came down. Rent is about the same, though. The situation is better for me since my apartment is owned by a housing cooperative which dates back to GDR times. They don't have to pay any interest or dividend, so all the money can go into maintenance, modernization, and sometimes new construction when they can get their hands on a nice plot of land. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrain_wallpaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrain_wallpaper [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum

by niftich 10y ago

kuschku 10y ago

> and merely living in a prefab flat is not commonly considered undesirable Ehm, no. Those prefab buildings are the immediate definition of "housing for unemployed immigrants". The social stigma is so bad, when I was in elementary school, I lived right next to one – and my grades were horrible. Some day, my parents told the teacher we actually owned a house right next to the bloc (the teacher had thought we lived in the bloc), and suddenly my grades jumped from D to A. All of them. The stigma is massive, and it will affect your life massively.

mc32 10y ago
I think you're both right. In the eastern bloc I think the stigma was less and in Singapore there was no stigma that I could tell --maybe some super rich people might have looked down at people in the estates, but I didn't come across them. However, in France for sure there is stigma.
majewsky 10y ago
Really depends on where you live. I'm writing this from a 2-room apartment in a modernized WBS 70/5 [1] in East Germany, and I have not noticed any social stigma until now. Instead, I get to enjoy the good prices (under 400 euros incl. utilities for 48 m² = 523 sq ft) and public transport connections. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBS_70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBS_70
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Would you have a reference to how the interiors look? I'm curious now!
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Well, I don't really know what to say. It's just a regular apartment, by German standards. :) When I moved in, the owner had just refurbished everything a bit (as they always do when a new tenant moves in). The ingrain wallpaper [1] on the walls and ceiling painted plain white, the linoleum [2] floors freshly cleaned, and the jambs of the interior doors had been replaced by new ones. If you don't know what linoleum looks and feels like, imagine a typical office floor, but with a faux parquet pattern instead of these generic blue-green-grayish dot patterns. The linoleum shows a bit of wear (you can see where the previous tenant had put their furniture), but I don't mind. Apart from that, I've got radiators (connected to district heating) in both rooms, water and sewer pipes leading into the kitchen (but the kitchen furniture and plumbing needs to be supplied by the tenant), and a fully-furnitured bathroom with tiling all around, toilet, sink and bathtub. If anything from that list should ever break, I call the landlord and a craftsman will be on site to fix it the next day or so, at their cost. That's the state if the building is well-maintained. Some of these "Plattenbauten" (German for large-panel system buildings) have been privatized and sold to investors. These are usually the only ones which haven't gotten a makeover since the iron curtain came down. Rent is about the same, though. The situation is better for me since my apartment is owned by a housing cooperative which dates back to GDR times. They don't have to pay any interest or dividend, so all the money can go into maintenance, modernization, and sometimes new construction when they can get their hands on a nice plot of land. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrain_wallpaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrain_wallpaper [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleum