Interesting pictures

[SeaCat]

Now these are some interesting pictures.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-57351.html

Cat

 

[sadangel]

Those were interesting. Thanks SeaCat

 

[popcorn2721]

Thanks for posting that link Cat.


If your looking for some more interesting pictures check out this link... Ive went through the picture archive, it is nothing short of amazing. Oh, and the author rides a motorcycle too... if that doesnt bate you in, I dunno what will!

A walk through Chernobyl

This is another archive by the same author and photographer, checkit.

Photos from the Ukraine

 

[SeaCat]

Thanks for posting that link Cat.


If your looking for some more interesting pictures check out this link... Ive went through the picture archive, it is nothing short of amazing. Oh, and the author rides a motorcycle too... if that doesnt bate you in, I dunno what will!

A walk through Chernobyl

This is another archive by the same author and photographer, checkit.

Photos from the Ukraine

I've seen these and while they are interesting I believe they are fakes. (At least her stories of personal exploration.)

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=109;t=000628;p=1

Cat

 

[Loring2]

Hades

I have seen these scenes from a helicopter .. I won't comment but thanks for finding this Cat and thanks to whomever took the pics.

tearful !

 

[TE999]

Such is the lot of those unfortunate enough to live in a Socialist workers paradise.

Those apartment complexes in the pictures bear an uncanny resemblance to the blocks of Public Housing erected here in the sixties and seventies...most of which have since been demolished as they failed as social experiments.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Such is the lot of those unfortunate enough to live in a Socialist workers paradise.

Those apartment complexes in the pictures bear an uncanny resemblance to the blocks of Public Housing erected here in the sixties and seventies...most of which have since been demolished as they failed as social experiments.

But, but Tom! That style of architecture is directly derived from the La Ville radieuse, the seminal work by Le Courbusier describing the wonders of modernist urban living. How could anyone not want to embrace such forward thinking style?

 

[TE999]

But, but Tom! That style of architecture is directly derived from the La Ville radieuse, the seminal work by Le Courbusier describing the wonders of modernist urban living. How could anyone not want to embrace such forward thinking style?

People drool over Frank Lloyd Wright's designs too. They make for great art and lousy homes. Roofs leak, floor plans are impractical and building sites are maintenance nightmares. Fallingwater's a classic example.

I betcha LeC and his followers never lived in one of those monstrosities.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

People drool over Frank Lloyd Wright's designs too. They make for great art and lousy homes. Roofs leak, floor plans are impractical and building sites are maintenance nightmares. Fallingwater's a classic example.

I betcha LeC and his followers never lived in one of those monstrosities.

Bang on. Hollyhock House here in L.A. is a classic of his 'neo-Mayan' style. Every time we have an earthquake, it has to be closed and repaired 'cause the fool, who designed the most earthquake proof building of its time, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, couldn't figure out how to build a house in SoCal!

 

[TE999]

Bang on. Hollyhock House here in L.A. is a classic of his 'neo-Mayan' style. Every time we have an earthquake, it has to be closed and repaired 'cause the fool, who designed the most earthquake proof building of its time, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, couldn't figure out how to build a house in SoCal!

Many of his projects were in fact designed by his acolytes and 'students' and the old fraud took credit for them.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's about it for Hollyhock. LW designed it, ignoring the input from the client who gave him complete Hell about it in a series of letters written during the construction. LW was in Japan at the time and sent an associate to oversee the construction. Material? Hollow cement block! In L.A.! On a fault system! Whaddanidyot!

 

[TE999]

That's about it for Hollyhock. LW designed it, ignoring the input from the client who gave him complete Hell about it in a series of letters written during the construction. LW was in Japan at the time and sent an associate to oversee the construction. Material? Hollow cement block! In L.A.! On a fault system! Whaddanidyot!

Ol' Frank was no engineer and it shows. Fallingwater costs the Western Pennsy Conservancy a bundle to keep the damn thing standing...it's original owner called it 'Rising Mildew' and 'Seven Buckets' for all the roof leaks...a FLW trademark.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yeah, what is this crap about flat roofs? Mercy!

 

[TE999]

Yeah, what is this crap about flat roofs? Mercy!

Builders put flat roofs on many homes and businesses down here for years between 1930 and 1970. They were a nusaince then and still are...they leak, require yearly maintenance and are hot. They were however, cheap...no peaked roof beams...and fast to build...some decking, some tar paper, roofing tar mixed with gravel, some drain holes, white paint...viola...a roof.

 

[Liar]

Now these are some interesting pictures.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-57351.html

Cat

Yannow, it looks awfully gloomy in soggy grey photos like that.

I've been in those blocks in Rostock. Got friends who live there. Once tidied up and with some trees, grass and 21st century modernities, it's pretty nice.

It's an ugly shape for a house, yes. But practical, affordable, green (easy to heat in the winter) and with a priceless view from the higher balconies.

It's really not the architecture as much as the lack of maintenance, the fact that many of the Rostock photos were from a place in the process of being landscaped, and our knowledge that it is from commie East Germany.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5744416
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6338356

 

[ishtat]

I've seen slums like Rostock built by local government in London by 'Mafia entrepreneurs' in Naples, Favellas in Rio and Projects in the USA.

They are bad wherever they are.

 

[xssve]

Such is the lot of those unfortunate enough to live in a Socialist workers paradise.

Those apartment complexes in the pictures bear an uncanny resemblance to the blocks of Public Housing erected here in the sixties and seventies...most of which have since been demolished as they failed as social experiments.

Of course, the "Capitalist" experiment of forcing everybody to buy a McMansion they can't afford hasn't worked out so well either - Seattle at least, has taken the progressive approach by simply de-criminalizing something that has been tradition, probably since the first cites were built.

Still illegal due to zoning restrictions in most areas, even here where I live where there is a chronic housing shortage and real estate vales are inordinately high, the city council recently cracked down on residential homeowners renting out rooms - that what trailer parks are for presumably, though of course developers are always eying those hungrily, which is why the only acceptable form of low income housing tends to continually be moved further and further away from the city center, where the jobs are.

The idea of a home as a place to live has been replaced with the idea that a home is an investment, and and god forbid you should live in it, you don't hang out the laundry on an investment.

 

[driphoney]

Of course, the "Capitalist" experiment of forcing everybody to buy a McMansion they can't afford hasn't worked out so well either -

I haven't read this thread, I just opened it and saw this line. "Forcing"? Really?

But, I did read the rest of your comment, and I completely agree about hanging laundry, etc. Grrr. I'm so totally weird, I think townies should be allowed to keep a couple of hens within reason (no loud crowing roosters! ) Just like other pets, only productive!

The laundry thing burns me up. I need to get back to doing it. When energy skyrocketed I hung a couple of lines up and got a re-education. I live in Texas and my clothes were drying in 15 minutes or so in the summer heat. No joke. I have privacy fencing and am not really sure about our city code, but I didn't get a warning.

Okay, laundry vent over. And no, I wasn't forced to buy a McMansion, though my town is cram-packed full of them. Of course, I do see your point, in some cities this is a huge problem. Which is one reason I choose not to live there any longer.

 

[R. Richard]

The most telling of the pictures wasn't the drab, unpainted concrete apartments, but the people standing in line to buy whatever was available.

I have talked with people who lived in the old, evil empire Russia. Many people did stand in long lines to buy necessities. However, it wasn't really necessary. If you were of at least Poobah rank, you could buy in special shops that were always well stocked, mainly with high quality imported goods.

All of us are equal, but some are more equal than others.

 

[3113]

Now these are some interesting pictures.

Not at all interesting without the captions to explain them. They look better than most of our ghettos. Do you find photos of those interesting to look at?

Such is the lot of those unfortunate enough to live in a Socialist workers paradise.

And if I took pictures of ghettos and showed them in socialist countries I'm sure someone would say, "such is the lot of those unfortunate enough to live in a capitalist paradise." In fact, I can pretty much bet you that I could show you pictures from capitalist governments that were far, far, far worse than any of these. Places that WOULD make these pictures look like paradise by compare.

East Germany was no paradise, it was miserable. But any bad government will bring misery on its people. I'm sure Liar can show us some lovely pictures of the socialist paradise he lives in--and none of them will be anything like these.

Just because there was misery under this socialist government doesn't mean there's misery under all socialist governments. Please stop equating the one with the other, or trying to shove propaganda down our throat that insists one example proves the rule. It's bad logic and keeps us from having objective, historical discussions on such governments.

 

[3113]

Ever lived for a time in a FLW house?

People drool over Frank Lloyd Wright's designs too. They make for great art and lousy homes.

Ever stayed in one? I have. Loved it. Would own it if I could. What people like you--and evidently VM don't understand is that (1) as homes they're not that "lousy." I've been in worse. And (2) Saying that a FLW home is "art" is stupidly dismissive. Art is something you look at. A FLW is something that tries to offer you a unique way of living.

FLW homes make you feel a certain way, live a certain way, look at the world around you in a certain way. They transform the way you interact with others in the home--for example, you become more social, even as you stop stepping on each others toes. The house manages to allow everyone to be together in a room, yet feel like they've got their own space.

Another example, the house makes you feel like you're outdoors even when you're indoors thanks to large windows and open floor plans. It also gives you an instant "peaceful" feeling because it makes use of certain repeating patterns in design.

I could go on and on. There were seven of us that rented that home, and we had the best time. I don't think they're for everyone, and they're far from perfect. But they've a magic all their own. And I see no point in ragging on them for what they lack when the magic they have is what they're all about...and what people who want to live in them understand and want. That unique magic is what makes them worthy of their reputation--no other homes offer such magic.

If you don't understand that, then you're ragging on them very much like the kids who hate science ragging on the nerds who love it, or those who don't like football ragging on those who do. You just want to put people down, not understand why they find this sort of architecture magical, in spite of its faults or the faults of the architect.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Ever stayed in one? I have. Loved it. Would own it if I could. What people like you--and evidently VM don't understand is that (1) as homes they're not that "lousy." I've been in worse. And (2) Saying that a FLW home is "art" is stupidly dismissive. Art is something you look at. A FLW is something that tries to offer you a unique way of living.

FLW homes make you feel a certain way, live a certain way, look at the world around you in a certain way. They transform the way you interact with others in the home--for example, you become more social, even as you stop stepping on each others toes. The house manages to allow everyone to be together in a room, yet feel like they've got their own space.

Another example, the house makes you feel like you're outdoors even when you're indoors thanks to large windows and open floor plans. It also gives you an instant "peaceful" feeling because it makes use of certain repeating patterns in design.

I could go on and on. There were seven of us that rented that home, and we had the best time. I don't think they're for everyone, and they're far from perfect. But they've a magic all their own. And I see no point in ragging on them for what they lack when the magic they have is what they're all about...and what people who want to live in them understand and want. That unique magic is what makes them worthy of their reputation--no other homes offer such magic.

If you don't understand that, then you're ragging on them very much like the kids who hate science ragging on the nerds who love it, or those who don't like football ragging on those who do. You just want to put people down, not understand why they find this sort of architecture magical, in spite of its faults or the faults of the architect.

Opinions differ. While it appears that Wright's Prairie Houses were quite livable, homes like Falling Water and Hollyhock were only inhabited for a year before the disgusted clients moved out and abandoned them forever. As a student of furniture and would-be heirloom furniture builder I deplore the angularity and over-all discomfort of his chairs. They seem to fit his houses entirely too well.

 

[CharleyH]

Now these are some interesting pictures.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-57351.html

Cat

Thanks SC - interesting photos.

 

[Liar]

East Germany was no paradise, it was miserable. But any bad government will bring misery on its people. I'm sure Liar can show us some lovely pictures of the socialist paradise he lives in--and none of them will be anything like these.

I don't live in a socialist paradise. I live in a marginally more socialistic but still pretty damn capitalistic parad... I mean place.

However, and more to the point, even under actual ye olde Soviet communism, one could selectively make it look miserable and grey and harsh, or modern, luxuriuos and beautiful.

Those slabs of functionalistic concrete gave millions of people a comfortable, safe, affordable place to live and raise their families, with modernitites that the slumming and ageing inner cities couldn'd dream of providing, and that goes for east as well as west. Complete with parks, playgrounds, schools, and so on.

 

[Loring2]

Good comment

I don't live in a socialist paradise. I live in a marginally more socialistic but still pretty damn capitalistic parad... I mean place.

However, and more to the point, even under actual ye olde Soviet communism, one could selectively make it look miserable and grey and harsh, or modern, luxuriuos and beautiful.

Those slabs of functionalistic concrete gave millions of people a comfortable, safe, affordable place to live and raise their families, with modernitites that the slumming and ageing inner cities couldn'd dream of providing, and that goes for east as well as west. Complete with parks, playgrounds, schools, and so on.

I spent considerable time in both Moscow and Minsk many years ago and I certainly saw the dank and dour buildings shown on this string but I didn't live in one of them.

Unfortunately many if not most ordinary Russian and Crimean citizens did; and not by choice.

I think though Liar that you may not understand the magnitude of difference in the conditions of choice between Russia and the USA. I agree that both democracy and socialism/communism are based on classes with democratic systems having multiple classes by choice and soc/com systems attempting to be classless.

The latter is impossible because people classify themselves no matter what nominal leadership says or does.

World wide we can observe that the Norse countries have done well in self government with the mid european nations not so well and while the USA's citizens have more wealth they also have more freedom.

Is one system better than another? ... I think so, I think that things speak for themselves.