memes

D'you place the order before or after heading downstairs?

Correct, and the drop-off and pick-up is done through QR codes over WeChat, here is a (German) documentary about this very building showing the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgVXPEORuA0&t=724s

I'm from Poland.

I’m talking Soviet-style, grey concrete commieblocks

So the commieblocks are always:

• few minutes walk from school, kindergarten, grocery, doctor's office, post, dentist and bus stops
• sane distance from another block
• either surrounded by good greenery, or next to a park
• surprisingly good quality
• small elevator
• little parking spaces

Vs "modern" blocks:

• large elevator
• the blocks are so close, if you open your window you could pee in the neighbours coffee cup
• usually surrounded by pavement, cement, or car parking
• better at noise reduction
• you're more likely to need a car to go to doctor's office or drop your kids off, or go to the grocer.

To me the ideal is the commie era urban planning with modern techniques, but that's uncommon.

Yeah but I'd also like to see such huge buildings in the middle of nature. Imagine 10.000 people with their own daycare, school or even medic / doctor surrounded by fields and food forests so they can produce their own food. Generates it's own power, centralized super efficient heat storage system for winter, cleans up it's own water etc. And have a fast mass transport to the next hub, like a chain of such buildings a few miles apart linking to the next big city. That's my solar punk.

We don't even necessarily need those, fucking row townhouses like old Chicago or New York would be a massive improvement in space usage and density alone. Just modify the design to have a garage in the back and make the alleyway larger. Hell you could narrow the front road if you do it right.

3-5 story housing with no parking works in France/Europe. No elevators/pools is huge cost savings. Room for cars ridiculously expensive where land is ridiculously expensive. Bikeable/walkable communities FTW. 5th story units would be cheaper, but young people need cheaper.

The problem is that, for the property owning class, the unaffordability of homes is broadly a feature and not a bug.

That’s how you create undesirable neighborhoods which eventually turn into ghettos. Many cities in Europe tried that and many of those neighborhoods quickly became unsafe and derelict. Like many of the banlieus in Paris or the Bijlmer in Amsterdam. Because people who eventually have the means to move out will leave asap. Nobody wants to settle in such a neighborhood. So only the poor and desperate stay. Which in turn means local business will leave as well.

We need mass housing, but also a focus on aesthetics.
I noticed my area has done a nice job after visiting Chicago. Chicago was concrete, roads and parking lots, and barren. Fly back to metro Vancouver and even worst neighborhood has beautitul construction, parks, trees and flower beds everywhere.

I long for mixed used housing without an automobile parking requirement in an area with ubiquitous mass transit.

I remember watching some stuff about cities where it feels like you went out on street level but really you're still XX floors up.

You can also just build trains