When cities grow, fuelled by an expanding population, housing becomes an essential component of the urban character of a metropolis. Across the world, housing experiments have been propagated by governments and states, with mixed results, and undoubtedly mixed opinions. The Soviet-era housing estates of Central and Eastern Europe are particularly interesting in that regard. These mass housing projects have been dismissed as eyesores and viewed as unimaginative monolithic structures. The legacy of these developments, however, is a lot more complicated than that.
In their most recent publication, The Tenants, Zupagrafika illustrates the legacy of mass housing in post-war socialist countries. It’s an immersive project, filled with full-page photographs of housing residents holding paper models in front of the apartments they grew up in, spent a semester in, or still live in. With the photographs accompanied by quotes from residents, it’s a publication that offers an insightful critique of the concrete housing blocks that would become the architectural signature of the Eastern Bloc.
