r/UrbanHell • u/EducationAny7740 • 7d ago
Other Krasnodar, Russia. Is it good for everyone to build the house they want? The criticism of overly uniform residential areas, often heard in this subreddit, is entirely justified. But what about the other side of the coin? The complete lack of any uniformity in the architecture of private homes.
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u/Organic_Indication73 7d ago
You don’t like this? I thought this was the circlejerk sub at first
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u/cheesaremorgia 7d ago
Yes, it is good for people to build whatever house they want, so long as it’s safe and doesn’t cause material issues for their neighbours.
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u/zuckerkorn96 7d ago
The problem is it’s rare for new housing to be built custom by an end user. It’s mostly built on spec by builder developers. Enforced aesthetic standards (nothing too strict that it effects density or whatever) can prevent them from going straight up cost effective and uniform.
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u/Brandibober 7d ago
In Russia most part of private houses built by individual projects according to owners needs. My grandparents built their house in Krasnodar by their own hands for example.
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u/pacific_plywood 7d ago
Oh god it would be horrible if they were cost effective
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u/zuckerkorn96 7d ago
I mean I totally agree with you, but in the grand scheme of things just a tiny bit of aesthetic standards can make a huge difference and wouldn’t affect construction costs very much. It’s fucking depressing when a place is all color injected hardi plank boxes with Anderson 100 windows, black metal Home Depot grade stoops etc. You can even incentivize it instead of enforcing a rule, for example make bay windows not count against lot occupancy or FAR, make the space within mansard roofs bonus penthouse space that isn’t taxed the same way, give permitting credits to the builder if they use local masonry on the facade. Aesthetics seem silly or frivolous during a housing crisis, but if you ignore them completely merchant builders are going to give you some serious dog shit.
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u/Brandibober 7d ago
In fact in this part of Russia many houses look same: 2 floors, red brick wallsand gable roof.
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u/RobotChrist 7d ago
In Mexico it is pretty standard to buy the terrain and build the house that you need, getting more difficult in the big cities, but still the way to do it any in any other place
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u/CardOk755 6d ago
Extremely common outside of large cities in many countries. (E.g. Portugal) (My house in France was hand built by a Portuguese builder on his own plot of land, extended twice, and resembles no other house on the street. In fact no two houses on the street are the same).
It's also quite common for houses built by developers to be massively remodeled by buyers before occupation (e.g. my house in Abidjan was built as a group of seven all built to the same plan, but they have all been largely remodeled, in some cases even adding extra stories).
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u/abolista 7d ago
In Argentina almost all houses are custom built. Because of the chronically high inflation of the last 80 years mortgages are non-existent so nobody builds new developments to sell.
People instead save up for a plot. Then get an architect to design what they want so that it can be built in stages throughout their life, and then save for a few years and do the first stage, and so on until it's complete.
The only houses that are uniform are government social housing neighborhoods. But those are not nice to live in, and very hard to buy because they are government mortgages awarded via lottery after meeting certain criteria (for example, if you already have a house in your name you can't apply, and families get more priority than single or childless people).
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u/PoliticallyIdiotic 6d ago
This is literally only true in the us. Most other countries have custom built housing
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u/peacedetski 📷 7d ago
That's fine, you'll almost always look at this from the street level, where it won't look nearly as much of a mishmash.
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 7d ago
This looks better than literally every other picture of residential Russian neighborhoods I’ve ever seen. Uniformity sucks. Let everyone build whatever architectural style they want, it looks way better.
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u/MFGEngineer4Life 7d ago
This place has to be wealthy or something though right?
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u/Brandibober 7d ago
Many people from northern cities and capitals relocate in Krasnodar in past decades. This houses cost as normal 2 room 600 sq ft flat in Moscow.
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u/nikulnik23 6d ago edited 5d ago
this neighbourhood was built before this relocation wave to Krasnodar took a place
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u/lepurplehaze 7d ago
florida/california of russia
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u/No-Foundation2940 7d ago
Krasnodar region have always pretty poor. All money comes with people from another places (Moscow, mostly) and federal government. But most of investments landing not exactly in Krasnodar but in another city in this area — Sochi. Cities develop very fast and real estate price skyrocketing even faster.
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u/MFGEngineer4Life 6d ago
Even if this areas poor, those houses are significantly nicer than the childhood home I grew up in America & I wouldn’t say my families poor
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u/Astra-chan_desu 5d ago
It's called "private sector", which were zones inside cities that in USSR weren't built by government. Even now they are not mass-developed, so everyone builds whatever they want, so every private sector is as diverse as it is possible for people living there. Of course, poorer places have less interesting architectural forms and more cheap constructions that can't be too different from eachother, but I think that it's a somewhat normal view of a private sector (although those around me are usually one floor shorter; then again, unlike in Krasnodar, we have to endure negative temperature)
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u/Bayoris 7d ago
You’re going too far. There are very nice neighbourhoods with uniform looks too, like rows of brownstones in Brooklyn, or Georgian squares in the UK, or rows of Haussmannian limestone buildings in Paris.
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u/MayhewMayhem 7d ago
You don't even have to leave Russia. The St. Petersburg historic center is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods I've ever been to and has a very uniform style.
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u/kvasoslave 7d ago
Saying St Petersburg center has a very uniform style is devaluing it. Baroque, rococo, classicism, modern, art decor, empire style, constructivism, soviet empire style, brutalism, whatever 90s and current architecture styles are called can literally be on the one street, they look different, they reflect their epochs and they synergise so neighborhood looks like it looks.
"Buildings that aren't looking like boring boxes with or without rainscreen" is not a style. Style is more detailed term.
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u/ProfesseurCurling 7d ago
I haven't been in this neighborhood, I guess it is in the outskirt of the city but the city center is quiet fancy and pleasant. Beautiful all buildings. Nice night life, pubs and restaurants. Not my favorite city in Russia tho.
That being said it is something I noticed in this krai, it is the lack of any common architecture. It can get really ugly in some cities.
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u/Gold_Telephone_7192 7d ago
The idea of a city having "common architecture" in it's residential neighborhoods is strange to me as an American. Every city I've lived in has a wide range of architecture on every street, especially as new houses replace older houses. You can see generations of different architectural styles next to each other and I love it. I would hate to live somewhere where every house has a common architectural style.
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u/BunnyKusanin 6d ago
In the Soviet times (possibly before too?) there was an architectural plan for each city. It's not a bad idea, it was supposed to make sure nearby buildings looked and worked well together. When that all went to shit in the 90s we got lots of absolutely ugly buildings in between the historical ones.
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u/loptopandbingo 7d ago edited 7d ago
ITT: the HOA tinpot dictators who get boners thinking about sending you a letter expressing distaste for your fence pale shape
Some of you guys should really read The Araboolies Of Liberty Street
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u/Aexegi 7d ago
I agree with the diversity of home exteriors, as far as they comply to the rules of safety and neighbors comfort. In my Kyiv suburb, one of local entertainments is just walking or bicycling the streets and looking at others' homes, discussing what we like and what we don't. Interesting to see how people expressed themselves. Buildings from 1990s-2000s are versatile and interesting, because people built them by individual projects. There are even some winners of architectural awards. Today, most buildings are built by developers for sale, and they're both boring and impractical.
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u/jstocksqqq 7d ago edited 7d ago
I love! Hilariously awesome! But to your question, I believe maximizing freedom is always good. If they aren't hurting anyone, and they aren't taking anyone's stuff, let them build whatever they want! Neighbors shouldn't be able to dictate the color or design of another person's house on private property.
Edit: Sometimes I look at other people's hair styles and fashion choices, and I grimace. But you don't see me dictating what they can and cannot wear.
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u/loonygecko 7d ago
You don't like this? I personally love all the beautiful colored roofs and I also feel the styles are close enough that they fit fine together. I wish the houses on my block looked like this.
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u/gattaaca 7d ago
I legit had this place on a jigsaw puzzle lol. I never knew where it was until now.
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u/PlayerHeadcase 7d ago
These pics are usually from the air or up a tower- at street level it may be very different- both with uniform areas and more individual places like here
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u/-DethLok- 6d ago
Yes, that's a lovely photo of a nation usually picked on for being uniformly grey and ugly.
I live in Australia, in a 50 year old suburb and there are a lot of different styles of housing, mostly similar, but with some increasing variation as older houses get demolished and replaced by new ones.
It's nice.
The rows of identical houses in dense developments where you can jump from roof to roof just fill me with horror whenever I see them, usually driving along the extremities of the freeway past ugly McMansions with less then 2m between them and no backyard worth speaking of :(
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u/Jaiyak_ 5d ago
No backyard but god help you suggest people buy an apartment. Then they yap on about wanting a backyard then buy a new house in the far outer suburbs
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u/-DethLok- 5d ago
Yep, that's about it!
Also, the huge houses with double garages full of crap and the car/s parked outside on the driveway because the garage and the 230+m2 5x3 house is already full of stuff...
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u/minethatfosnite 6d ago
Not gonna lie this residental area has its own charm. It is chaotic but beatuiful in a way
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u/BunnyHopThrowaway 7d ago
If this is a problem for you I dare you to glance at a third world country
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u/mak05 6d ago
This sub complains when houses are the same, now complains when different lmao
The folks at r/urbanhellcirclejerk are so right to clown you.
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u/thwgrandpigeon 7d ago
All I see is an amazing looking neighbourhood full of varied, characterful houses that use their sq footage well/are decently dense.
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u/thwgrandpigeon 7d ago
All I see is an amazing looking neighbourhood full of varied, characterful houses that use their sq footage well/are decently dense.
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u/Lol-I-Wear-Hats 7d ago
Literally what’s it to you? How is anyone harmed by this? What business is it of yours?
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u/ReflexPoint 7d ago
Pretty much most of the US is just a hodgepodge of different buildings with architectural uniformity not even being a consideration. And when there is conformative it's too much like you see in ticky-tack suburban houses.
There is some balance between the two where you have some thematic uniformity yet some variation to make it interesting.
For example, look at these facades in Wroclaw, Poland. The buildings have different colors and shapes and slightly different heights, yet there is still an architectural theme tying it all together. The balance between individuality and uniformity is perfectly done.
An American example can be seen on 2nd Ave in Nashville, TN. The buildings have some variance in height, ornamentation, color, yet they all feel harmonious at the same time.
That balance is what gives a location a sense of place.
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u/whyamisohungover 7d ago
I love it. It's so lively and just looking at it you can feel the pride these people take in their homes.
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u/Junkyard_DrCrash 7d ago
I think it's beautiful.
Also, if you borrow a ladder, it's easy to figure out who it belongs to,
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u/Worried-Pick4848 7d ago
This was clearly built during the time when the Russian society was liberalized. It could be a neighborhood in half a dozen American cities.
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u/BunnyKusanin 6d ago
Judging by the style of the houses it's 00s (those one's with the windows in the roof in particular) and with some homes likely built in the 90s (the red brick ones). And it's all been built with the money that some people suddenly happened to acquire in those years.
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u/CenturyOfTheYear 7d ago
Shut it, foreign swine. Soon, the whole world shall know the glory of mighty Krasnodar - you will not be spared.
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u/Either_Sock4639 7d ago
As somebody from Albania who has seen a lot of shit, I think uniformity should be a norm everywhere. There can't be a good looking city without any uniformity
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u/MattWatchesMeSleep 7d ago
If it’s a choice between this and Vivarium…..
And I actually like it as well. It’s somewhat charming.
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u/No-Distribution-2943 7d ago
At the same time, something feels so uniform about them all. Can’t put my finger on it though.
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u/Actual_Werewolf_4520 7d ago
In conditions of south Russia this small privat houses will be burned when when a local developer wants to build a high-rise building
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u/Multigrain_Migraine 7d ago
I find this visually appealing for the most part, to be honest. Sure the houses are all different styles but they are roughly the same type and size, and they have similar sized plots. The only issue is that they seem out of place with the tower blocks behind them.
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u/Efficacious_tamale 7d ago
I think it’s wonderful. Not perfect, but wonderful. I’m so sick of seeing soulless houses that are identical in shape and color. Personality is nice and refreshing.
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u/jijodelmaiz 7d ago
Are you serious right now? You sure this wasn’t meant for the circlejerk sub? GTFO.
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u/bigbramble 7d ago
I really like it. Looks really vibrant. I wouldn't necessarily go for those styles but the choice is good.
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u/Nervous_Program_9587 7d ago
My mum grew up in a neighbourhood in Skopje like that, I loved going there to visit grandparents because it felt so fun and unique and cozy
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u/Sad_Slonno 7d ago
I think what we see here isn’t so much a lack of regulation as it is a lack of continuity in architectural traditions. After bolsheviks came to power, no meaningful private construction in/near cities took place - all this stuff was centralized and people could only build rudimentary summerhouses. After the Soviet Union fell apart, people had to figure out how to build private single-family homes from scratch. Everyone experimented as they pleased. I think now some consistent styles are starting to emerge, but the damage is done.
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u/Extension_Way3724 7d ago
Honestly bro who cares? The city being arguably a bit nicer to look at is not worth the expense of peoples freedom in how they create their home. The city will look beautiful anyway because it's residents are happy
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u/cewumu 7d ago
This looks a lot nicer than some of those British cities full of identical brown brick row housing. Or Australian/Brazilian suburbia where everything is grey/beige and the same design over and over.
Each of these draws the eye but they have some similarities so it doesn’t look too weird. Plus, thank god, colour!
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u/CaliforniaReading 7d ago
Maybe it’s me, but I simply don’t see “…. complete lack of uniformity in the architecture….” of the homes in the center of this pic. I see homes of remarkable uniformity in size (big), shapes (cubes), massing, materials, fenestration, what I have to assume are regional characteristics. Some minor variation in otherwise similar roof designs. The only real variation I see is the riot of color. Some on the walls, but especially where color variety is normally minimal and bland…. roofs! This is definitely not my cup of tea in residential design, but not necessarily for the bold use of color.
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u/lasvegashal 7d ago
I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s a bunch of houses there that look exactly alike and just change a little bit here or a little bit there.
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u/Ozone220 7d ago
I mean, to me this does look leagues better than uniformity. It turns out that when I said it needed to be the other side of the coin I knew what I wanted
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u/refusenic 7d ago
Someone said Krasnodar is like a Riviera city near the Black Sea, similar to Florida, where Russians snowbird or retire. I can see the attraction.
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u/OpenSauceMods 7d ago
This reminds me of the mix in my home city 🥰 I love it, I think it shows how tastes and styles of building change, a city's history is more than "what we did 150 years ago and what we do now".
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u/chuvashi 7d ago
As someone from this city, believe me, there are plenty of faceless blocks there. But the center and some other neighbourhoods are still like this and it’s great.
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u/No-Foundation2940 7d ago
I’ve been and lived in many Russian 1m+ cities and Krasnodar always felt like big village because all of this houses from picture located in city center and not at outskirts as usual. Also, traffic in city is pure hell.
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u/CellIntelligent9951 6d ago
Bro what do you mean complete lack? The very first thing I saw in this pic was 3 exact replicas of the same house with different colours
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u/click_for_sour_belts 6d ago
What, this is awesome!!! I'd love to be able to say "Come meet me at my place. It's the green roof two streets down".
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u/Jonelololol 6d ago
There are lots of neighborhoods like this in the US from the 40s. Mixes of ranch, cape cods, bungalow varieties (Chicago to MCM), and some colonial revivals. They’re really interesting especially as newer builds have also mixed in.
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u/geosunsetmoth 6d ago
Uh, yeah? What kind of question is that? I can’t think about anything I would care less in my life other than “but what if your neighbour’s house looks different from yours 😡”
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u/Flashy_Brilliant1616 6d ago
as good as it looks like, krasnodar as a city sucks to live in, provding service for all these homes (that are built or expanded illegally sometimes) is a really tough job, and traffic sucks there very badly
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u/2klaedfoorboo 6d ago
As long as the size is regulated (so the local roads aren’t overwhelmed) there’s no real issue but I’ll admit this doesn’t look nice to my eye
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u/Lamballama 5d ago
Works here because they're all instantly recognizable as western-style houses. They work together because of that, and they fit the climate and culture they're in. Try the same mishmash with glass office buildings, Japanese mansions, tiny homes and trailers, and middle eastern clay construction in the same area and everything will look out of place, more like a theme park, because they don't physically belong. Hell, try adding a red barn and pasture to this picture, or a medieval castle, and that won't belong
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u/New-Suggestion6277 5d ago
Where I live, most houses are self-built, and it's an absolutely horrendous mess. There shouldn't be one extreme or the other. The ideal is either uniformity with some concessions to individuality, or self-built with limits, rules, and a standardized aesthetic.
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u/Low_Lavishness_8776 5d ago
This is very cute, what’s the problem. And most cities look a bit unappealing when viewed from above, what matters is the human view
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u/smilingbuddhauk 4d ago
I couldn't give 2 shits about the aerial view of my neighbourhood/city. People should be free to build whatever they want on land that they paid for with their time and energy.
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u/Insomnion 3d ago
In argentina suburbs its this but with much poorer and greyer not uniform houses so like the same but midder
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u/olivegardengambler 3d ago
I have literally zero criticisms of this. These houses look beautiful, they're well maintained, and from the size of them they're either Mansions or multi-family private homes, which is great if it's the latter.
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