Large-Scale Housing Estates in Central and East European Cities: Between Residential Preferences and Local Housing Market Differences

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper has been to identify ongoing changes in post-socialist large housing estates and to clarify the main factors underpinning them. The transformations in question were analysed in two dimensions: a social dimension encompassing structural socio-demographic and socio-economic changes among inhabitants, and a spatial dimension relating to socio-spatial, functional and physical (morphological and physiognomic) changes. The main question concerned the ways in which large housing estates built during the communist era have changed under the new socio-demographic, political and economic conditions emerging following the collapse of communism. The study was thus based on a review of the available literature.

Intra-urban residential differentiation in the post-Soviet city: the case of Riga, Latvia

“…The demographic and socio-economic composition of the people living in the housing estates also changes, but these areas still retain medium to high social status and in comparison with the deteriorated pre-war housing stock of the inner-and the outer-city, they off er bett er living conditions. Our results are, thus, very similar to fi ndings published for other cities across the region (Kährik, A. and Tammaru, T. 2010;Temelová, J. et al 2011;Wiest, K. 2011;Kovács, Z. and Herfert, G. 2012).…”

“…More recently particular att ention has been devoted also to the socialist pre-fab housing estates revealing that these neighbourhoods have largely retained a relatively good image and social mix (Kährik, A. and Tammaru, T. 2010;Marcińczak, S. and Sagan, I. 2011;Wiest, K. 2011;Kovács, Z. and Herfert, G. 2012).…”

Wielkie osiedla mieszkaniowe w mieście postsocjalistycznym. Geneza, rozwój, przemiany, percepcja

“…Powszechność tego habitatu sprawia, że zamieszkiwanie w blokowisku nie jest postrzegane jako społecznie degradujące, a miesz-kańcy tych osiedli na ogół deklarują wysoką satysfakcję z zamieszkiwania w nich i niską skłonność do migracji (Borowik 2003, Węcławowicz i in. 2005, Szafrańska 2009, Wiest 2011, Kovács, Herfert 2012, Andráško i in. 2013.…”

“…Również badania dotyczące warunków mieszkaniowych dowodzą, że osiedla o zabudowie blokowej wciąż charakteryzują relatywnie dobre warunki zamieszkania, zwłaszcza w miastach o względnie dużym udziale starych, substandardowych i zaniedbanych zasobów mieszkaniowych (Kaczmarek 1996, Marcińczak 2009. Podobnych wniosków dostarczają badania preferowanych miejsc zamieszkania, które wysoko sytuują osiedla blokowe w strukturze miasta (Groeger 2004, Wiest 2011, Kovács, Herfert 2012, Andráško i in. 2013.…”

The changes in social and demographic structure of large housing estates in post-socialist Poland and their main determinants

“…Recently the discussion of social and physical decay and the outflow of better--off inhabitants has slowed down (Wiest 2011;Gorczyca 2016;Szafrańska 2016) however, the future development of large housing estates still remains a great challenge in many former socialist countries, primarily due to the fact that they constitute the dominant form of urban residential environment.…”