The Lasting Significance of Eastern Bloc Architecture, According to Its Inhabitants
The authors of a new photography book, "The Tenants," which portrays the remaining residents of prefab panel blocks, explain why the austere housing estates are postwar relics worth preservation.
The authors of a new photography book, "The Tenants," which portrays the remaining residents of prefab panel blocks, explain why the austere housing estates are postwar relics worth preservation.
The monolithic high-rise complexes built around the former Eastern Bloc after World War II go by different names across Central and Eastern Europe, including panelák (Czech Republic and Slovakia), wielka płyta (Poland), panelki (Bulgaria), panelky (Ukraine), plattenbau (Germany), and panel’niy dom (Russia). Rapidly assembled and cheaply built to provide mass housing for expanding city populations in postwar socialist countries, the prefabricated, prestressed concrete towers expressed a basic aspect of Soviet ideology that emphasized egalitarianism, collectivism, uniformity, and function—but they often featured structural weaknesses such as bad insulation and leaky windows as the result of financial issues and rushed construction. The prefab panel blocks have faced further degradation due to lack of preservation and gradual wear and tear since the fall of Soviet communism. Still, the unadorned residential complexes—which house a largely aging population—serve as towering relics of a poignant era.
A new photography book from David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka of Zupagrafika, an independent publisher and graphic design studio in Poland, documents 40 of these concrete-slab housing projects in 37 different cities of the former Eastern Bloc and ex-Yugoslavia, from Berlin to Kyiv and Tallinn. The Tenants portrays the inhabitants of these complexes holding cut-and-fold paper models of the prefab panel blocks where they live. (The photos were taken by Navarro, Sobecka, and a number of contributing photographers between 2012 and 2022.) Dwell spoke to Navarro and Sobecka about their takeaways from the decade-long project, including what we stand to lose if these prefab panel blocks deteriorate, whether by neglect to upkeep them or destruction in war.
Barbara, a resident of the Plac Grunwaldzki estate in Wrocław, Poland, is one of many inhabitants of the postwar prefabricated panel blocks featured in The Tenants. "I was one of the first tenants here," she says. "I absolutely love my flat on the fourth floor. I have three spacious rooms with a small kitchen. The only disadvantage are the pigeons, oh dear! The renovation looks pretty and clean on the outside but they didn’t lay ceramics on the balcony floors, as they promised."
Photo by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka (Zupagrafika)
Dwell: How did you find the residents you photographed and featured for The Tenants?
David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka: In 2012, during our first shoot with the paper model of the Orła Białego Estate in Poznań, Poland, one of the residents approached us and shared the story of the life she had lived there. She kindly agreed to be photographed holding our paper model in front of her flat. Since then, we continued to take portraits of the inhabitants of these buildings. We’d approach them in front of their houses while shooting on-site and ask for their story. In recent years, we also invited local photographers to contribute to The Tenants. They made it possible for the book to include some areas that would’ve been out of reach for us otherwise, especially during the pandemic.
"These panelak houses were built very quickly so that people had places to live," says Josef, a resident of the Jižní Město estate in Prague, Czech Republic, featured in The Tenants. "Everybody liked it here. Then the Velvet Revolution came and they wanted to tear them down; if they had demolished them, we would not have homes today."
Photo by David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka (Zupagrafika)
What were your impressions of the prefabricated panel blocks you visited and photographed for the book?
We live and work in Poland, therefore, the architecture of the socialist era, or the ‘PRL’ (Polish People’s Republic), is still present in our everyday lives. The cities in Poland are surrounded by huge prefabricated panel block estates that are home to hundreds of thousands of people. Martyna was born in the mid-1980s, and, like many folks from this generation, was raised in a wielka płyta estate. We see the buildings featured in our books as the antiheroes of modern architecture—these postwar housing estates might often be viewed as homogeneous, gray masses of concrete, but rich diversity can be found in their design and urban planning.
Oksana, a resident of the Obolon housing estate in Kyiv, Ukraine, holds a replica of the high-rise complex in The Tenants. The residential buildings, also known as The Chamomiles and Corn Cobs, were designed in 1981 and built in the northern Obolonskyi District using monolithic framework technology. The towers are 17 and 22 floors high and provide more than 200 residences in total.
Photo by Tatiana Kabakova for Zupagrafika
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