Jižní Město - The Icon of Communist Prague

[@pavelgrulich2989]

Debunking time! Your description of the communist regime's forced relocation and not so rarely practised demolition of older buildings (or even whole districts) is spot on, as well as the description of the current state and the mobility options for the inhabitants. Now let's expand the topic of the prefabs and the urban planning a litte bit more. Calling czech prefabs Brezhnevkas and soviet style flats is an insult to the czech architecture (slovak architecture is a slightly different case, it didn't apply to Czechoslovakia evenly). Czechoslovak series of prefabs were of much higher quality than the soviet ones and are considered the best and most "future proof" buildings of the communist era in the entire Eastern bloc. The series used in Prague (and mainly in Jižní Město) were VVÚ-ETA and an adapted version of the danish Larsen Nielesen series. Both were of the best technology available at the time. All of these houses have styrofoam sandwiches within the panels to ensure some sort of built in insulation (with today's standarts it's not enough, but for the time these were considered the most advanced and the most suitable types of apartment buildings, hence the widespread usage). Every predeveloped unit was perfected by the central ateliers to get the absolute maximum out of the technology, considering the production and financial capabilities of the production companies and the investors. The explanation to this phenomenon is mostly financial, not so much political/ideological. Let's picture you're a communist goverment with a dictated economic growth and you need to build a huge number of apartments ASAP. You can either build a district with the traditional types of housing, which would realistically take decades and would cost an unimaginable ammount of money, or you can use the production infrastructure you have been building for more than 20 years to create a win-win situation, building a lot of top quality apartments (for the time being, given the technological capabilities of the era) and also using the minimal ammount of money needed for such a project to be done. Considering that this is the biggest communist housing estate within the whole Czechoslovakia, there had to be cuts in architectural and production costs. This was made possible by duplicating subdistricts, maintaining a certain number of predeveloped unit variants and differentiating those districts by color schemes and symbology. With prefabrication technology, the general rule is the more you produce with your current infrastructure, the cheaper it gets in the long run. And that's exactly what the communists had been doing all over the Eastern bloc. Czechoslovak architects had no dictate on what they should develop or build, but they had always been given requirements in terms of minimal apartment count, usage ratio of different aspects of the estate (living space, free time areas, culture, services, etc.) and the financial capabilities of the investor. As to the grayness of the blocks, this was again a problem with the state of the communist technology. During the period from the 60's to the mid 80's, there was a limited palette of chemically stable facade colours. You don't want to paint a house in a color that fades within a few years. The main goal with such construction project was to get the best longevity. There was just the right amount of money to build these houses, so you had to plan in advance to make sure the least ammount of maintanance was needed in the future. Financial cuts and limitations were also the sole reason for the uniformity of said blocks. Every series of the czechoslovak prefabs was initially designed to be able to be very flexible in terms of architectural design. The lack of financing meant that only a small portion of the planning capabilities were actually used. This can be seen on the post communist development project that still used the very same series. The free market and richer investors meant that architects could finally push those series to their limits, creating projects that are almost identical to the modern architecture, both in the ways of design and quality. The last of such series to be build was the T06B, which had been developed in the year 1962 and was used by the north bohemian company Interma up until it's bankcrupcy in 2016. Living in such a house, you wouldn't even know it's basically a modernised variant of a 60 year old technology. And last but not least, the demolition of old buildings/districts. The main goal up until the mid to late 80's was to build new housing estates in empty spaces. When there was no suitable empty space or there was an estate that was unrepairable at the time (again, given the technology of the era) or too expensive to repair, it was demolished. It wasn't the standart and a big part of Jižní Město is occupying historical empty spaces. The ratio of demolished buildings to empty space is relatively balanced in this case though. If you look at other czechoslovak housing estates of the era, most of them haven't touched a single old building in the process of planning and construction. Anyway, great video, usage of the word Brezhnevka triggered me like hell and as a historian studying czechoslovak prefabs I strongly disagree :D

[@TheTramly]

Thank you for the great insights! Yeah, it's true that I probably painted a worse pictures of Jižní Město and the houses within it in a more negative light than what was probably warranted..

[@monikadoe]

An architect friend of my parents' who left in 1968 and came here to Canada, was engaged as a professor of architecture in Quebec largely on his expertise with panelaky/prefab buildings. As a child, I was endlessly fascinated by Safdie's Habitat '67, which is an example of modular housing (it commands high resale prices and is much in demand). Interest in prefab housing is definitely growing here. Some of the interiors I've seen in Prague were of 2 storey homes, and were very attractive. What is lseriously acking in what I've seen of Jižní Město is landscaping -- much of the space feels like No Man's Land. Is it being left empty because of plans to build more? Or is it barren because no one wants to spend on landscaping? The landscaping possibilities are exciting. As well, the small pre-fab central malls could be fantastic locations for small mom-and-pop businesses -- unique local businesses that could serve as incubators. Cafes, restaurants, specialty food businesses (butchers, greengrocers, independent bakers), tailors... all sorts). So Jižní Město still strikes me as having a lot of unrealized potential. Love your videos Tramly -- keep 'em coming!

[@pavelgrulich2989]

@@monikadoe The landscaping is a complicated topic when it comes to czechoslovak sídliště's. Most of the public places are owned and managed by the city, not the buildings that inside these areas. That means that the city has to take care of pretty much all of the city, and when you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing in the end. There is definitely potential to turn some of these places into parks, playgrounds or building ground for new housing, but it really comes down to the usage of the place. Areas where people are walking by daily and spending their time in are well maintained and renovated, the forgotten places are mostly original as there's no need to cultivate them. And given the most of the stores and services are located in the sídliště's center, the usable/used space is a rather small area. You as an investor would need to change the mindset of the people so they would be willing to go to these other places, which may be away from the usual route to the metro station etc. In the sídliště's center there already are cafés, small shops, butchers, grocers etc, in fact, there always have been. In the socialist era these were the equivalent of the modern shopping malls within each sídliště. Tailors and other "not a daily neccessity" businesses have either closed down or moved to the shopping malls (in this case the Westfield Chodov on the edge of Jižní Město II) and have been replaced by new shops. So in a nutshell, there is a lot of effort to landscape the blank areas and to renovate the old center, but given the size of the sídliště, it just goes too slow to notice, but gradually it does improve. If you look back on how Jižní Město looked 20 years ago and how it looks now, you can see a big differnce. In the next 20 years it will look even more different and mostly for the better.

[@blinski1]

The whole story of Jižní Město, its looks and structure is very, very similar to Ursynów in Warsaw. One major difference is that before Ursynów grew in the 70's and 80's there was nothing there but fields of cabbage:)

[@TheTramly]

I wonder how'd Jižní Město cabbage taste like, haha

[@EVBell-gz8iv]

your channel might be niche but it's exactly perfect for me :) I love Prague and it's history, i love urban planning and city development content on YT, and this is both while also being in English - I study Czech but i have hard time watching YT in Czech (very few czech channels create subtitles, sadly for me). anyhow I really like this content, I hope you keep making videos :) I'd really love to see your take on preserving more modern style architecture, like when should the city make an effort to save the "not so old" old buildings? like the panelaky, brutalist buildings, or the recent re-developemnt of the Máj department store on Narodní. I read they're renovating Kotva now for luxury brands and wow, what an ironic future for the communist-era department store

[@TheTramly]

I'm glad my channel is a perfect fit for you! and sure, I could make a video about the preservation of historical buildings, although it's not on the current agenda next week, I'll drop one video about the Tatra Electric Railway in Slovakia, and a special one for April fools ;)

[@EVBell-gz8iv]

​@@TheTramly Těším se na to!

[@Ioulimontium]

It’s a big shame that planning of new prefabricated housing estates didn’t continue after the velvet revolution. There wouldn’t be any restrictions so architects could experiment and create beautiful affordable housing. But yeah, I understand that goverment built housing wasn’t cool anymore in the 1990s. Great video btw.

[@TheTramly]

Glad you liked the video! and yes, I agree, it's quite a shame.. These houses definitely aren't the most aesthetically pleasing, but I'd argue that homelessness is even less so

[@zdenda5645]

Naprosto skvely video! Hodne dobre to vypravis a mas supr prizvuk

[@TheTramly]

Děkuji!

[@erichamilton3373]

The Lidl looks like most Lidls I've seen (in Germany). Lidl doesn't care about looks I think.

[@TheTramly]

hmm.. most LIDLs here in the Czech Republic look way better in my opinion

[@LaszloVondracsek]

Very interesting video, indeed, nowaday JIZNI MESTO looks very well! PS. Gratuluji k tomuto video, je to super. A velmi zdokumentovane! Navic vase anglictina je vyborna, ani bych si neuvedomil, ze nejste rodily mluvci anglictiny, kdybych neslysel vyslovnost JIZNI MESTO... To vas....zradilo!😊😊 Zdravim z Rumunska, kde zije pocetna cesko-slovenska mensina!

[@TheTramly]

Thank you! that really means a lot! Posílám pozdravy do Rumunska

[@gabrielebianchi8976]

One thing really interesting would it be find out how were the different developments financed, as today a lot of cities experience housing shortage or unaffordability issues, and in a capitalistic society it seems to be impossible to funds public house schemes. I would say, it would be interesting to see especially as the post-war times in ex USSR states there was a constant shortage of pretty much any good and lines at shops for whatever a shop might have.

[@TheTramly]

That could absolutely be a future video! I'm adding it to the list of possible ideas.

[@skyde72]

381 is also a semi-feeder line in Bucharest, but it drops you off at a lot of stations as it doubles line M2 for a bit of its journey and terminated near the 1 Mai Station on M4

[@TheTramly]

More cities have these types of lines? cool!

[@skyde72]

@@TheTramlythe suburban lines in bucharests are 100% feeders as they stop at the nearest metro station

[@skyde72]

and i was trying to say that in a picture you showed a bus on said route, while refering to it as a feeder

[@gabrielebianchi8976]

Hello, I've been checking again the video and I had a thought that I would share with you. Usually what is criticised about the communist style blocks it their dullness and their stark contrast with the urban environment. I was however thinking that those blocks are not so different to the modern transit oriented developments buildings (5 over 1s), and the latter are sometimes also considered premium buildings. What I think is wrong are not the buildings themselves but, at least according to my experience, is the street design. At lest where I remember those blocks are situated mainly on high traffic roads with 3 or more lanes of car traffic per direction, and because of that you have the feeling of having out of scale buildings. If you would immagine a tramway as median of the road separated with a tree line one or two car lanes a tree line and sidewalk you have less hight contrast. I would say that also a tree canopy interrupts the sight and channels your vision between the ground and 2nd floor so, as pedestrian experience at this point does not matter if there are other 2, 3 or for floors above. In this case I think replanning the street way for transit and trees really improve the perception of those buildings.

[@TheTramly]

I 100% agree! In fact, I think we have some of these better designed commieblock districts here in Prague, in a district called Dědina: maps.app.goo.gl/WKsxa2AWdcNCe2wN8 I absolutely agree that commieblock housing estates can be great, if some love and care is put into them

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

if there are people who protest and are not grateful to live in this apartment. they should see dharavi , Mumbai India.

[@TheTramly]

I agree, Jižní Město is still pretty great even with its flaws

[@Tobi-ln9xr]

0:25 That’s not Prague, that’s Dresden….

[@OssWiX]

Somehow this reminds me of the Bijlmer (amsterdam)

[@TheTramly]

I mean, the houses look similar (also, is it wrong that the first thing I thought about when I read Bijlmer was the El Al air disaster? 💀)

[@czechmatebro]

10:42 ...and if you don't let nimby babushkas cancel a desperately needed housing block project in a sea of housing blocks because it would disrupt the vibe of... a sea of housing blocks (sounds stupid but is 100% true)

[@TheTramly]

Yeah, i know💀💀💀 context for people who don't know: www.asb-portal.cz/aktualne/mimoradne-zrudny-projekt-praha-11-odmita-vystavbu-dvou-vezaku

[@sglenny001]

Reminds me of Park Hill Flats

[@joeh773]

Taky jsem tam vyrostl, nebylo to špatný. Škoda že srovnali se zemí předchozí baráky, ale to se dělo/děje i v nekomunistických zemích a i dnes, bohužel. Parkování stojí furt za ho.no, ale Metro a autobusy jsou super, potravin všude dost, zeleň...

[@TheTramly]

Taky bych řekl že jizak je celkem v pohodě, i když má určitě svoje mouchy

[@wakinki]

Lepší se ti přízvuk :)

[@TheTramly]

to rád slyším!

[@pippocalzelunghee]

sick video, but there is an error in the title!

[@TheTramly]

Thank you! and the error is now corrected, idk how I missed that💀💀💀

[@pippocalzelunghee]

@@TheTramly no problem ahahah :)

[@josko2149]

[@TheTramly]

JZ město is quite good too!

[@josko2149]

@@TheTramly so far still the best modern development. hexagon carfree districts with metro and a big park are so much better urbanism wise than what is being built now :/

[@JoshuaWilliams-d9z]

Ernser Highway

[@WilliamArvizo-b9j]

Roob Mountain

[@wheninthecourseofhuma]

Best to translate place names. Jižní město → South Town, Náměstí kosmonautů → Cosmonaut Square, etc., to make the video more accessible. Also, it's 'number' of cars, not 'amount'. (Forgive my pedantry.)

[@joeh773]

BS, it's better with the original names. Enough we butcher Praha into Prague. Can't translate everything, better stick with Czech names.

[@TheTramly]

I don't think translating the place names would be desirable, but with the grammar, thank you! I'll try to do better next time

[@BowmanKitty-r1g]

Destinee Square

[@VotasBird]

first

[@Pidalin]

here is zlatý bludišťák for you, but you probably don't know what it is 😀