As post war Europe settled it’s self into the long game of two opposing, nuclear armed ideologies a common and urgent theme was apparent in both. Social housing was desperately needed and one vision was unifying in its reach across post war Europe.
“Le Corbusier’s theories were adopted by the builders of public housing in Western Europe. For the design of the buildings themselves, Le Corbusier criticised any effort at ornamentation. The large spartan structures, in cities, but not of cities, have been widely criticised for being boring and unfriendly to pedestrians.”
However in ‘Eastern’ Europe the ideals and laws of a Socialist vision ensured that ’social realism’ and art were one and all buildings should contain percentages of ‘art within architecture’ and pushed the ideas of Corbusier to the extreme.
“The industrial city of Zlín planned by František Lydie Gahura in the Czech Republic are notable plans based on Corbusier’s ideas, while the architect himself produced the plan for Chandigarh in India. Le Corbusier’s thinking also had profound effects on the philosophy of city planning and architecture in the Soviet Union, particularly in the Constructivist era.”
Watch a short film about Solidairty Estate
Solidarity estate was the first pre fabricated estate built in the newly formed Czechslovak Socialist Republic and the following Stalinisation of building methods and materials. The estate was realised during 1947-1951 and led by František Jech. Although the housing was low level, two story concrete panel houses, they were to form the blueprint for future tower estates of up to 100,000 inhabitants.
The Nazi invasion of Czechslovakia and following occupational period put a halt to all the mass of building work which had been taking place before the Wall Street crash. The means of production were put on full throatle for the Nazi war effort. Steel was used for tanks and munitions at the Skoda factories and the cranes which had just been realisng the Czech cubist and functionalist vision sadly lay silent. However after the ‘liberation’ Social Realism took hold and implemented its constructivist visions starting with Solidairty as the blueprint.
With the liberation by the Red Army and the carving up of Europe by the allied powers the already active communist movement within Bohemia and Moravia took control and within months soviet planners were put into action to transform and expand the city of Prague. A committee was put in place to ensure the restoration and preservation of the Lesser side and New Town sides of the river.
The palaces and bourgeois buildings were now owned by the state and at the enjoyment of the party members. Yet the workers needed homes. This meant, to perserve the historic signifiance of Prague and to use it as a model of Social Realism, blueprints for massive new estates in undeveloped parts of the city were needed by merging villages into mass urban concrete dwellings called ‘Panelák’s’.
“Panelák is the colloquial name of blocks of high-rise panel buildings in the Czech Republicand Slovakia constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete. The full name is panelový dom (Slovak) / panelový dům (Czech), meaning, literally, “panel house / prefabricated-sections house”. The Czech and Slovak plural is paneláky. The buildings remain a towering, highly visible reminder of the Communist era. According to census statistics, around one in three Czechs still live in a panelák.”
Old plans drawn up in the Austro-Hungarian period for a metro system were reopened to connect the city and new mass transit routes planned to connect Prague to Brno then onto Bratislava.
For people moving into the new estates it was a time of great joy. To have running water, inside toilets and bathroom, central heating and all the other amminities of unified living realised. Trash collection, post office, local shops, school, doctors clinic and tram links to any part of the city. Estates included social events through local theatre, hospodas (pub), parks, play grounds and restaurants.
Still today many of the estates are very dignified and enjoyable living spaces. Although the inpact of big shopping malls, hastily ereceted with little regard to local trade, traditions and design ethics have effected life on the estates and local traders. The last bastion of social realism holding out to the multi national coffee chains and cheap Arabic beans.
For the past four years I have been exploring central and eastern European housing estates. In my quest to learn and love the block I have interviewed architects, artists, engineers, housewives, families and local mayors. All living their lives inside a Panelak.
My voyage started in the housing estates of Prague and ended at the Bulgarian Black Sea.
In this series for Spotted by locals I will introduce to you my explorations to discover what it was like to live and love the blok.
RW
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