90s City Residential Architecture - Altengrad 95

Building the first 90s postmodern housing projects not using concrete panels. Talking about real life projects and their architecture. Urbanism will be in a different video.
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Altengrad is a time-progression Cities: Skylines series where I build a Central European city, located until 1989 in the Eastern Bloc, taking inspiration from Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The series starts around the year 1920 and slowly advances forward in time, which means the city will naturally evolve all the way to modern times. The city is not a recreation of any one real-life city or country, but it takes inspiration from them.
PC specs are in the channel's About page. No, the game doesn't run like this in real time. Cinematics are recorded slow and made faster in editing.
/ akruas
Pictures used:
(1) Černokostelecká, zastávka Nové Strašnice, od Černické by ŠJů / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0, creativecommon...
(2) Strašnice Starostrašnická Kralická by VitVit / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0, creativecommon...
#citiesskylines #altengrad

[@cybernakulum]

Placing a random-ass pyramid in the middle of a tiny plaza between late 90s postmodernism is one of the realest things in Altengrad so far.

[@mewosh_]

We do love random glass pyramids here tho... 1. maps.app.goo.gl/d6kMZTu6i1RMAv3VA 2. maps.app.goo.gl/9K9Lnpw5PvxMpwNt6 these are just 2 examples I could think of in 5 seconds and they're 800m from each other

[@vomm]

This will boost the land value beyond the sun

[@indigo_carmine]

akruas just pretended to be buying a flat so he could get into all those houses and see the interiors :D

[@Akruas]

Maybe

[@timowagner1329]

@@Akruas what are you telling them you do for a living? Just out of curiosity

[@qhu3878]

​@@timowagner1329 he said hes a materials engineer in ep61 of this series so

[@timowagner1329]

@@qhu3878 👍

[@theorixlux]

​​@@qhu3878 materials? That's made out of contents. Engineer? That's one who makes, or creates. Does that mean materials engineers are just content creators? 🤔

[@racecardriverrr4201]

Undoubtedly the king of ultra realism builds. All the cinematic shots look incredible, keep up the amazing work Akruas.

[@purplebrick131]

Hi, urban planning student from Germany here. For the upcoming video on urbanism I got some things that came to my mind when watching this video, especially the projects that pivoted in style when the regime change came. In the reunited germany, there exists the legal framework of "Städtebauförderung", roughly "urban development grant programme". That's money that the federal state distributes to municipalities which apply for it, to make structural changes to their city fabric or fund renewal processes that that couldn't fund themselves. So to say to fix the mistakes of the past and provide a better future. Within that programme, right after the regime change, there exists a "Sofortprogramm", "immediate programme", which was funding for the panel housing projects that were half finished. For a year these provided the cash to continue with building, until everything could be sorted out. After the regime change, Eastern Germany started shrinking in population, a process that hasn't been halted until today. Some cities grow again now, but in the 90ies and 2000s they just bled population, even Berlin. And while at that time huge proposals were in place to build new stuff, these had to be cut short because of the demographic development. In the urban development programme, a new category was created called "Stadtumbau Ost", "city-transformation east". With this, money was provided to fix a lot of the old buildings, but also tear down panel housing estates that stood empty, while the city continually shrunk in size. Usually they were city owned, and the municipalities had to pay for upkeep, something they just weren't equipped to handle. So they got money to tear them down, which continues, in smaller scales, to this day. The reasoning was that the municipalities were not at fault for the empty housing, because housing construction was centrally planned and they had no say in the matter, so they shouldn't have to shoulder the fallout. In that time many cities also sold all their social housing stock, because nobody could imagine rents ever going up again. But as the bigger cities in the east recovered as the countryside continued to shrink, rents did go up. And they sorely miss them now, or had to buy their formed social housing units back at horrendous markups. I hope this wasn't too boring or rambling, it's quite long but maybe it helps provide some perspective :)

[@Akruas]

Thank you, interesting stuff

[@heinzmeier2]

@@AkruasI can confirm the things written in this comment. A place you could take a look at is Berlin-Buch (a former village, which grew massively in the GDR through panel houses) and next to it Berlin-Karow, both are areas that had a lot of development in the 1990s and early 2000s. In Buch, some of the GDR panel houses fell into decay (not visible on aerial images, they were located to the east of the also abandoned palace at Zepernicker Str.). With the inhabitants gone, typically public services like schools and kindergardens were also shut down. The public hospital (today Asklepios Klinik) was largely upgraded and privatised. Next to it, a large research park with offices was built, mainly with research topics of medicine and biotechnology. The former GDR government hospital was abandoned but not demolished (located south of the intersection Hobrechtsfelder Chaussee / Wiltbergstraße) - you can actually see some lost place clips about it on KZbin. From 1992 onwards, just 2 kilometres from the demolished panel housing, a new estate with homes for about 13.000 people was built: Neu-Karow, the area around Ballonplatz. It was a contrast to the old Karow, which was essentially still a village (although being closer to the city centre than Buch). The building type are mainly the white, minimalistic houses of various sizes mentioned in the video. Another one of these projects can be found about 3 km to the west: Französisch-Buchholz (the area around Arnouxstraße). Not all projects were successful however, a relict of a failed one is the street Am Luchgraben just 2 Kilometers east, which literally goes nowhere. You can already see prepared attachments for a similar estate, which then never came. At the same time, a massive suburban sprawl began, that is still ongoing to this day. Buch and Karow are at Berlin‘s outer limit, and the next villages and cities in Brandenburg massively grew since the 1990s. The directly neighbouring community of Panketal (Schwanebeck, Zepernick, Lindenberg, Röntgental, Neu-Buch, Hobrechtsfelde) grew from 10 000 inhabitants in 1990 to more than 20 000 as of 2023. Similarly, the next city, Bernau, grew from 19 000 to 44 000 in the same time. The suburban communities mainly grew with single family housing and some low density residential estates, but in the recent years, a lot of former soviet barracks were either demolished or entirely renovated in order to form new, 4 to 6 story housing estates (for example: Panke-Park in Bernau). Interestingly, during all these developments, public transport was no priority. In fact, neither the infrastructure nor the frequency of trains on the S-Bahn coming from Berlin via Karow, Buch, Zepernick to Bernau were really changed since 1990 (still only a train every 20 minutes between Buch and Bernau). This is, to dive very far back into the history, due to the removal of the second S-Bahn Track on large portions between Buch and Bernau after WW2 as a reparation payment, which has never been reinstated. This by now has become very difficult because of constructions blocking the former alignment. Going back to the main topic, the development of Neu-Karow is just along the railway line, but very far from both Buch or Karow station. The development at Am Luchgraben would have been even further away. Until about 2010, progress in terms of public transport was slow, but it has since accelerated. Maybe that will help you, I think that Buch, Karow and it‘s surroundings are a typical example of 1990s/early 2000s changes in the GDR. Keep up the great work!

[@mewosh_]

I feel like I'm attending a very interesting lecture while watching your videos. Every time you show an example from real life I pause and look at it on Google Maps on my phone lol

[@timowagner1329]

I love your combination of Cities Skylines, history, architecture and sociological discussions in you videos :) Its fascinating to see how our (past) life has shaped the places we live in, especially cities.

[@halayoussef6981]

WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP NEW ALTENGRAD VIDEO and are you going to make a new series akruas

[@egeyazgan3948]

I am fond of urbanism and residential use implementations of the 90s postmodernism. I grew up in a neighbourhood that was purely a fruit of it and enjoyed the sugar-coated life it provided as a child. So thanks a lot for this dear Akruas, what you do is very valuable for KZbin and the CS community.

[@Ikke2010-ss5tw]

I'd love to see a "ship" building from Wroclaw Psie pole somewhere in Altengrad. It looks like a wild late 90's project

[@proamulus6844]

Honestly that building sums up the postmodernism in Poland so well, especially with the warehouse and very run down barracks next to it. Not to even mention the irony of a ship-shaped building in a region that's famous for being flooded.

[@thomaspatts4160]

I'm obsessed with those very last prefab buildings that featured all that customization and detailing. Makes you wonder what could have been if the system actually gave a damn in the previous decades, eh?

[@de_g0od]

Me: has to do stuff Akruas: nope, new altengrad video!

[@danonck]

There's no such thing as a too long Altengrad episode! Amazing stuff as always. While I absolutely hate the 90s kitchy architecture, these episodes bring me so much joy and warmth I can't wait to see more right after I finish watching.

[@mihamihanik]

11:05 for a second got spooked by a guy with a strange steampunkish/cyberpunk stilts walking down the streets

[@mikedanilov8978]

Altengrad episode posted: day immediately goes from "mid" to "hey it's not too bad"

[@ala9606]

Im obsessed with this series. Please never stop!

[@king_of_you_guys]

I would love to see an airport. maybe a small one and later a second airport for the city a large one

[@delta6378]

a german style one that takes 20 years to build and costs 10x the budget

[@king_of_you_guys]

@@delta6378 yeah but it would look cool

[@MestruTrmonen]

during the series he claimed that airports-metrolines will not be built in the city

[@regomarsi8416]

Wow perfect timing! I just got home and the video came out 5 minutes ago!

[@CallMeThyme]

I’ve never completely followed this series but every so often i check in on what’s happening and it’s so cool seeing it evolve over time

[@Equulai]

The cool thing with modern prefabricated housing is that you can have a lot of individuality but also cheap standardization.

[@cedHoyer]

Already teased the "white blocks" of the 2010s, looking forward 🙃

[@Mfn77]

I actually really like this architecture style. I don't know how would it be to live in it since this style didn't reach here in Turkey(most also didn't because of poverty), but it's really interesting to look at. I think it could be nice to live in a city with these colorful and crazily shaped buildings rather than minimalist style that most of Europe has now.

[@emanueleferraris4505]

I came to your channel for the gameplay. I come back for the educational side.

[@timzschiedrich1004]

It would be cool to see some kind of gentrified neighbourhood in the 2000s or 2010s. Many citied expierienced gentrification in in historic quarters sourounding the old town at that time.

[@davidthememer5852]

Central europe after ‘89: 🤗🤗😁😁😍😍 The balkans after ‘89: 💀💀

[@AlexDahl]

The buildings you used (the newer ones at least) are all from Vancouver, BC. They were built in the 2010's so you're a few decades too far ahead haha. It's a problem I've found too, there are a ton of panel housing blocks but not much from the 90's and early 2000's. Guess it's not a very loved period amongst the modders.

[@egg_musubi]

When I last visited Vancouver BC, I always thought some of the new tower blocks were from the 90s too, haha

[@basementrocketry5868]

When this series is over you could do a "Revisiting Altengrad Through the Decades" series, and keep the finished city as it is, but time travel back to when it all began and focus on the rural towns surrounding it. It would be a much shorter series obviously, probably only a couple of videos per decade. BY the time you caught up, Altengrad would have a few surrounding towns, which would look nice

[@RacingTheo]

I was in Prague for the first time literally yesterday. So it's nice to see it again 😂

[@marcossanchez9731]

Fist i want to say this is my favorite series on KZbin!! I really love the way this city is coming together. I would also love to see more comercial advertising in the facade of the old buildings of the city, as well as some more details of small business. Kind of the way it actually is

[@EmJayEll]

definitely more ugly adverts and billboards in the 90s, which can then be removed 20 years later!

[@KungTu1]

Great video as always! I would love it if you would also talk about the projects "Helle Mitte" in Berlin-Hellersdorf and "Wohngebiet Landsberger Tor" in one of your next videos. I find the first project particularly interesting because it really is a stark contrast to the prefabricated buildings, but somehow still continues them logically and actually creates something like an urban center that these residential areas were missing Helle Mitte: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helle_Mitte Wohngebiet Landsberger Tor: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wohngebiet_Landsberger_Tor

[@Akruas]

Thank you, yes I was planning on showing Landsberger Tor.

[@seanrhine2019]

I'm learning more from you videos than in architecture school

[@lagritsalammas]

Great video as always. It's very interesting to compare all the developments that happened in Central Europe to those in Estonia. Although many of the ideas were similar in both regions, it's the sheer scale that was vastly different between more populous countries like Czechia or Poland and the less populated Baltics. Our postmodernist estates are tiiiiiiiny in comparison to those you showed, although there are interesting examples of urban infills, especially in smaller towns. I particularly like the very space sensitive postmodernist developments in Kuressaare, feel free to look them up just for general information.

[@pixosato5312]

Thank you for your video 👏, what if for the next new city you go from antiquity to now in a territory other than Western, like in China for example :)

[@haelww1]

"It bothers me that the video is too long" - No one ever.

[@pinkfluffypandicornblub2706]

Best CS series by far.... I love it! I kinda wish to see more small industry parks with car dealerships and garages, warehouses , craft producers, gas station, hardware store, maybe a police department and so on :) might be not as interesting architecture wise, but I'd still love to see it :)

[@lucachilla6456]

Altengrad needs an Airport

[@SoWhiskey]

Nice! Keep them long, no problem! More urbanism! YT will hold!

[@KolonE]

omg my favourite series on youtube got a continuation omgomgomg

[@Spacey.official]

Because of your video’s I’m gonna check out Prague this summer

[@paddyoderso5758]

11:05 from this view, it looks like the guy in the middle of the street had reeeally long legs 😄

[@wojciechszapacki3330]

Yay! Szczecin is back! 😎 Great video as usual

[@BenMcGinn-tq3um]

Let's go a new Akruas vide!

[@maxgross9728]

another banger, lets go

[@Papcio3x6]

Hey Akruas! Regarding Szczecin, Poland and your desire to investigate more - I live in Szczecin and I can take some pictures of Osiedle Bukowe for you. Cheers.

[@orinbeard3693]

Top vid 👌 👏

[@rudolflevente6760]

11:37 there is a ferrari 812 superfast in the bottom left corner

[@TheOmegakix]

8:07 Oh yea, the obligatory Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of a "out of town center" building... I bet dragon fruit selling store is just around the corner xd

[@pistakrk4888]

I am still hoping for more random ass build inspired by Liberec :D Loď at 1st Máje or some downtons shopping mall that occupies whole city block would be "nice" :))

[@ComradeMeow]

Ironically, in Romania people still prefer communist panel flats. After 1989, real estate developers have been known to cut a lot of corners, in some cases with dangerous results and in other cases leading to buildings degrading extremely fast after being built. Meanwhile commieblocks, especially after the 1977 earthquake, were essentially built to last forever. They're well-designed, more spacious, more comfortable, with better and more efficient layouts and most often made with much higher quality materials than developers nowadays use. A lot of people also really like the commieblock aesthetic. And some of the commieblock projects, like for example the ones in Unirii square here in Bucharest, are quite unique and beautiful, with their mixture of brutalist and neo-classical architecture that was the official architectural style of the Ceausescu period.

[@linusfloyd9034]

please make a new modern city series soon! are you waiting for proper cs2 mod support?

[@ulysse2145]

Love it ❤

[@RazvanCalinCTP_318]

will you put Renault,Irisbus, Karosa buses in Altengrad?, specific to the 90s, the beginning of the 2000s in the Czech Republic!

[@Akruas]

Some are in the Workshop but don't look all that great, some are not so I'll have to work with what's available.

[@RazvanCalinCTP_318]

​@@AkruasOk

[@indigo_carmine]

*loud noises from the dungeons

[@yaboiandrew2058]

3:34 Czech baseball??

[@TheNewOrder-DaysOfConflict]

Question: why there is no Brutalism buildings in Altergrad despite the state is communism

[@GrandePaco.]

Why would it be here? Brutalism was not popular anywhere in the Central European communist countries. Or any of the Soviet bloc countries. It was a phenomenon in the 1970s Great Britain, France and to some extent in the United States, Canada and Yugoslavia. There are a few examples of it in the Soviet Union, but only for a small number of theaters, museums and experimental housing estates. But in the Region of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary - where Altengrad is located - there was no Brutalist movement in architecture. Yes, you can find isolated cases of individual houses or cafes, but nothing serious. The main and most popular architectural style from ~1955 to ~1985 was modernism and soc - modernism, and there is plenty of it in the series.

[@serebii666]

@@GrandePaco. Sorry fam, but no. Brutalism was a movement in the Eastern bloc just as in the Western bloc. Czechia has a number of high quality examples that were important commissions. The ones off the top of my head for instance are Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary, The Koospol (now CUBE) admin building in Prague, The hotel InterContinental in Prague's center that is now being fully renovated to it's original look, the Federal Assembly Building in Prague, the Prior shopping center in Olomouc, and the Shopping center Kotva in Prague. Mastery over Brutalism also saw it be the representative style of Czechoslovakia abroad in the 70s, visible by the Czechoslovak Embassies in Berlin, Stockholm and London from that period. The Hotel Praha and Transgas buildings were also important and beautiful examples, though unfortunately torn down in the past decade. The Socialist states maintained connection to their Western peers in Architectural theory and trends, if a bit delayed. the 1970s were characteristic for Brutalism which saw projects already appearing in the Eastern Bloc from the mid 1960s, and Post Modernism arrived in Czechoslovakia in 1980, just as the first major Post-Modern Buildings in the West were being completed, The first PoMo buildings were then finished by 1983 (like the ČKD Building or the New Scene of the National Theatre). Other example sin other states are for instance Hungary's Puskás Stadium, Gellért Hill water storage facility, All Saints Roman Catholic Church or Budapest Hotel. Yugoslavia is well known for their massive Brutalist housing estates, and in Poland there are examples like the Hotel Forum, or Kijów cinema in Krakow, the Mausoleum at Majdanek, or Warsaw's apartment developments like Smolna 8.

[@_FnejFox_]

musisz zrobic jakis epizod z na przykład powodzią albo innym wydazeniem 😊

[@0Friedrich]

yay

[@Gavroche_]

The city needs new parks!

[@MeTrehugger]

Hm i wonder will i cs2 series be next?

[@googlegogel2673]

Hi Akruas, how do you run your game so smoothly? I see you’ve got a 1700X and manage to run at over 60 FPS, but when I play with a 5800x3d it starts at around 60 then drops to 20 over time. Which mods do you use to improve your experience?

[@Akruas]

No, the game doesn't run like this in real time. Cinematics are recorded slow and made faster in editing.

[@googlegogel2673]

@@Akruas Oh I did not know that, thanks!

[@doublea06]

(If the city needs more transport, I thought.)

[@qhu3878]

sup

[@fagocitotico]

best day of the week

[@TheFrenchPlayer]

comment for engagement

[@delta6378]

pls suffer and add a realistic-ish amount of single family housing

[@VENTRIXI1]

I CANT WAIT for high-rise buildings in the traditional European housing like in Warsaw and Kraków this man is waiting for procedural objects in C:S2 because his live depends on it- like really depends on it- AND STOP SHOWING PANEL HOUSING THAT I KNOW AND PASSED IN REAL LIFE VISITING MY FAMILY IN POLAND I HATE IT!!!! 😭

[@redfront6707]

I don’t understand how people can like postmodernism

[@MestruTrmonen]

imagine you lived for 50 years inside a gray box and then they give you carte blanche. that's exactly what happened after the collapse of soviet union in eastern europe

[@gonzoballinski8375]

algorithm

[@CakeboyRiP]

This comment is for engagement ❤

[@asticek2115]

Well, the Černý Most (Black Bridge) Estate is not the best place, this 90' part is probably one of the worst places to live in this district. Like the location is great, but HELL some of these neighbours are.... They once beat up my classmate here for no reason. Welcome to Černý Most. : )

[@AfmanBoi225]

2nd comment

[@Marcoshsilvaa]

[@seanrhine2019]

It would be great if you posted your content on Instagram and TikTok, you could reach way more people

[@mateo_sid]