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Commie blocks are cool
(lemmygrad.ml)
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this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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If they were limited to 8 floors and had diverse shapes (not just a prism of the footprint), they'd be abundantly exciting to live in.
I don't think the shape matters that much, so long as it's some kind of rectangle. Because sure, odd angles and curves may look fancy from the outside, but they are a nightmare to actually furnish since most furniture relies on straight lines and 90° angles.
Also the problem with commie blocks with less than 8 floors is that, at least in older apartment buildings, sometimes they wouldn't build an elevator unless there were 8 or more floors. Regulations are different now in most countries what with accessibility requirements, but that's only for newly built ones.
At the end of the day it depends on the density of the urban space that you're trying to provide housing for. If it's very dense you may have no choice but to build very tall.
For me i'd say the most important criteria are what the neighborhood is like and how big the apartments are. If you have everything you need on a daily basis within walking distance, good public transport, and the apartments are not too cramped (2-3 rooms), then i don't care too much about the rest.
You can easily achieve population densities of 10k/km^2^ (25k/mi^2^) with townhouses up to 4 floors, each with a backyard, and a couple parks and plenty of public spaces and ample public transit as well. This density will fit 1 million people in a radius of 6 km. Add in some apartments and you'll boost it even more. For this, in most cases you don't need an elevator, and you don't even need reinforced concrete. In fact the goal is to be less dependent on fosail fuels or the grid, not just for getting around town, but for entering and leaving your residence, and maybe even in the construction of it.
In terms of shapes I'm mostly talking about the footprint not being just a simple rectangle with each floor congruent to the ones above and below it. Much of it would still be close to rectilinear, but there's a lot you can do with that. Smaller floors toward the top open up the possibility for green roof balconies. Overhangs are broadly used in German timber-based vernacular architecture. Archways and courtyards are everywhere in planned units.