3 ms·

> not hearing my neighbors conversations is quite pleasant. Build proper walls! It get that average Joe in the anglosphere is clueless when it comes to aparme

> not hearing my neighbors conversations is quite pleasant. Build proper walls! It get that average Joe in the anglosphere is clueless when it comes to aparments, bike lanes and other uncommon issues, but why are planners illiterate too? Even when they invest the top dollar, they still can't get it right. I lived in an apartment in Czech republic and never heard my neighbours, never had a noise complaint. Moved to UK, and in a terraced house I could hear my neighboir's baby crying. Had neighbours call police over parry noise in a detached house (!). Wtf. I was shocked to discover that in UK separations between apartments are just made of drywall - thats a security risk! In Czech republic the apartment building has a yard, a lawn, a space for a barbeque and a playground for kids. This is not rocket science. Apartment in UK has a concrete courtyard that looks like a prison, and a tiny lawn in the front with a big sign "no ball games" and "do not step on the grass". Ex-communist countries actually know how to build apartments that work, any shorcoming are due to lack of money. If you pay top dollar, you get nice and livable apartments. In Anglosphere, apartments suck no matter how much you pay, either the planners can't read or learning from counties with the most experience is beneath them.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Walls in still communist country like China are built out of concrete and use lower skilled labor (as a jobs program for migrant workers), so are incredibly overbuilt. They are at a thickness that would fly in developed countries, so more material is wasted, and you get fewer stories than more advanced techniques (limited to about 30 stories). You don’t hear your neighbors, but the building is likely to look like a brutalist tear down in 20-30 years without lots of extra maintenance. You are still paying $1 million for a two bedroom apartment in Beijing even though that brand new building is probably coming down in 30 years or less. Not sure if buildings are like that in the Czech Republic, although the Chinese learned these techniques from the soviets so it wouldn’t surprise me.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  > that brand new building is probably coming down in 30 years or less. Why do you think so? That's extremely short, even the worst quality soviet blocks last more. Europe has some apartment blocks that are 200 years old.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Those 200 year old apartments are probably not brutalist Soviet apartment blocks. They can last more than 30 years with lots of extra maintenance, the problem comes when that maintenance isn’t applied.
- KptMarchewa 3y ago
  The "extra material" has barely any relation to price, which reflects pretty much only to land value.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    The land that a flat in a 30 story building consumes isn’t significant.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

Walls in still communist country like China are built out of concrete and use lower skilled labor (as a jobs program for migrant workers), so are incredibly overbuilt. They are at a thickness that would fly in developed countries, so more material is wasted, and you get fewer stories than more advanced techniques (limited to about 30 stories). You don’t hear your neighbors, but the building is likely to look like a brutalist tear down in 20-30 years without lots of extra maintenance. You are still paying $1 million for a two bedroom apartment in Beijing even though that brand new building is probably coming down in 30 years or less. Not sure if buildings are like that in the Czech Republic, although the Chinese learned these techniques from the soviets so it wouldn’t surprise me.

ClumsyPilot 3y ago
> that brand new building is probably coming down in 30 years or less. Why do you think so? That's extremely short, even the worst quality soviet blocks last more. Europe has some apartment blocks that are 200 years old.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  Those 200 year old apartments are probably not brutalist Soviet apartment blocks. They can last more than 30 years with lots of extra maintenance, the problem comes when that maintenance isn’t applied.
KptMarchewa 3y ago
The "extra material" has barely any relation to price, which reflects pretty much only to land value.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  The land that a flat in a 30 story building consumes isn’t significant.