A city within a city in Kyiv, whose design was inspired by Legos | Hacker News Reader

A city within a city in Kyiv, whose design was inspired by Legos

architecturaldigest.com

70 pointsjonbaer62 comments

It is built on the site of former USSR rubber factory. If you ever been to a USSR rubber factory ... The project started in 2009, so i'd be wondering how well the developer cleaned up the site in Ukraine in the years of crisis.

Not surprisingly the son of the Kyiv mayor at the time is the major stakeholder in the project.

The reviews frequently mention very thin, not sound-proof walls as well as a railway very close-by with no promised noise-protection wall. As it is customary there is no garages, no covered parking. Only street parking. There is no typical setback (the absence of the setback saves land and provides for that Lego European look), so street parking facing windows on the lower floors can't be really open because of smell/fumes (add not all the cars in Ukraine are fuel injected nor have catalytic converters) and opening windows on say a hot day/night is pretty customary, and as you can see from the photographs most don't have AC.

Are there new cars being sold in Ukraine without catalytic converters/FI? Or just some old cars that lack those? We have pre-1975 cars in the US without converters (and somewhat newer carbureted cars), but by normal turnover and retirement of cars, they’re pretty uncommon and extremely rare as daily drivers.

As far as i see the cut-off was something like 2003, and the law is really not that enforced, and most of the cars are used European with many having their converter removed for scrap, either by thieves or by the owner.

Looks more like Monopoly houses, than "Legos".

I lived in Kyiv and can assure you most people detest the USSR except for the older generations.

There is a strong desire to separate its image from its past.

This is also changing tho, especially for younger intellectuals. Crisis after crisis people look at the CCCP experience with different eyes, and I am not just talking about babushkas.

Back in the 90s, an American socialist tried to tell me that the Berlin Wall was constructed to keep the westerners out. I told him is BS wouldn't work on me because I've seen the Wall myself in 1969, went through it, and toured East Berlin.

It's a shame the Berliners tore down the Wall so fast, though I totally understand why. I would have kept the section on Bernauerstrasse as a reminder for the revisionists.

Setting all bloviation aside, you can judge a country simply by does it have walls to keep people in, or walls to keep people out.

It's easier to condition a population to abuse if they're isolated from the rest of civil society. This is just as true of abusive interpersonal relationships. Keeping outsiders out is just as important to authoritarian states as keeping people in because outsiders make it difficult to control the narrative.

I've seen the Wall in its heyday. The defenses all pointed to the East, not the West. It's unmistakable.

BTW, not a single person was shot trying to "escape" to the East. At least, I've never heard of one. AFAIK, nobody even tried.

Got to say the parent should get a prize for finding anyone that thought the wall was to keep people out East Berlin. In the 50's East Germany lost a couple of million people who were done with the East Germans Police State.

What's to like, the thing was basically run by ex-Prussian, ex-Nazi, now Communist dickheads. I think was it Willy Brandt who said something along the lines of not being unhappy with Prussia being on the other side of the line.

I get it and believe me I was not trying to underplay the brutality of East German government under the Soviets or the risks people are willing to take to escape authoritarian countries.

there's more then enough evidence, and places where all the defense lines are marked and labeled. Best thing you can do is take a bike tour along the Mauerweg.

Of course, like with all historical evidence, it doesn't help those who don't _want_ to see

A curious thing about this is during my family's visit in 1969 to Berlin, my father took many pictures. In color. But if you browse the souvenir shops, the picture books about that time are all black and white.

Wikipedia has a truly epic article on the fortifications of the border between two Germanys, which really hammers home the sheer extent to which the DDR had to go to keep people from escaping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_the_inner_Ge...

> Back in the 90s, an American socialist tried to tell me that the Berlin Wall was constructed to keep the westerners out.

And yet nobody tried to "Escape" East, not even this socialist...

If Cuba wasn't an island, I doubt the current regime would have lasted more than 10 years.

American policy towards Cuba kept Castro in power. Castro had a very convenient excuse for all of Cuba's problems - the American embargo! Just blame America. It worked great for Castro.

> This is also changing tho, especially for younger intellectuals.

I live in Kyiv don't know any young people that are into USSR or communism. Some may have left-leaning inclinations, but they imagine it more like Nordic countries, not the Soviet Union. Are you from some eastern city (or country) perhaps?

> Crisis after crisis people look at the CCCP experience with different eyes, and I am not just talking about babushkas.

I'm from last generation that remembers USSR and don't know anyone in my age group that would like to "go back". Maybe we are not a true intellectuals though.

In my experience it’s only young americans who romanticize communism.

It’s truly bizarre, Ukrainian people idolize the US but if only they fully comprehended the boneheaded thoughts going on in the US they may change their minds.

Have we always wasted so much space for parking? I get that they serve an entire block, but they’re just cars - doing nothing 23h of the day.

Not to mention that the parking looks horribly designed. How will you get to your car, if it’s parked in the middle of the road in the middle of the block? You’ll first have to pass on the other side without cars paying much attention to you, and then also drive on the street, with the view being potentially blocked by a larger car (for you and the drivers on the street)

I agree about the waste of space and the seemingly bad design, but there's one thing I like about this: drivers have to use the crosswalk to get to their car, on (I suppose) busy streets. That's something far too uncommon (at least here in France) because car owners are always put first, and could raise much needed awareness. I want drivers to feel the insecurity surrounding cars so they might have a more responsible driving.

Well, parking in Kyiv is absolutely horrendous. I've talked with developers who plan new houses in Kyiv, and they just don't plan for parking space, because it's not worth it. More profitable to build extra living space.

People really do park in 3 levels there, and put their phone number at the windshield. Granted, those who parked last, try to leave early, to unblock others.

I hope that problem will lead to development of new transportation systems. Like personal metro, or self-driving parking cars.

Wow. To be honest, my first thought is: (over)compensating for many decades of Soviet-style greyness?

Exactly - and painting is a fairly cheap way to make the buildings more “cheerful”. Quite common in the late 90’s and 00’s

Yeah, it's gaudy. If you want cheery that everyone agrees on except architects and city planners, you go with detailed neoclassical-ish brick buildings. Beautiful, homey, charming, relaxing. Natural materials and colors with time tested shapes. There's not a person in the world who sees a picture of Edinburgh and doesn't say aww. But it's expensive, so screw it!

While unconventional, once you read that it was a converted industrial block I think it adds a certain level of quaintness to it.

It'll be interesting to see what this town looks like in 20 years as residents have a chance to add their unique style and the strong colors fade a bit.

Modern paints don't really fade that much though. They get dirty, but that's it.

Reds will always fade.

"Lego" or "Lego blocks", never "Legos" (the title of the article gets it right)

Absolutely correct. But trying to enforce this is a kind of persecution of people who grew up saying "Legos" because they didn't know any better.

You are completely right, and I can't stand "Legos", but there's nothing we can do about it.

"Help, help, I'm being oppressed!"

You sound like the people who insist it's Kyiv not Kiev

No insistence, just mentioning that the only official (and therefore correct) transliteration from Ukrainian to English is "Kyiv".

Nonsense, there is no legitimate way another language can tell English (or another language FWIW) what its name for a place must be.

Examples:

Deutchland - Germany, Allemagne, Doitsu

Nederland - Niederland, Pays-Bas, Netherlands

Zhōngguó - China,

Nippon - Japan, Iapana

Munchen - Munich, Monaco

I can go on, but this phenomenon of prescribing the English word for a proper noun is very recent, and disrespectful of the long, native English (and very much world-wide) culture.

English is not common property any more than Persian is.

So, no: its Kiev [ and Ayers Rock :) ] when speaking English- that's if other people's cultures matter.

> when speaking English

I guess, when not speaking English, you speak Russian, "tovarisch major".

Coincidentally I was just reading that the variation in other language's names for Germany is because the country originally federated a bunch of nation-states together, and its neighbors simply called the new country the name of whoever they had been dealing with prior

In any case it seems more respectful IMO to call a place the name by which it would be most recognized by that place's inhabitants. Practically, however, I learned the word 'Kiev' first, and 'Kyiv' just now, so Kiev it is.

Framing the differences here as disrespecting other people's culture is a bit of a stretch, though.

> Framing the differences here as disrespecting other people's culture is a bit of a stretch, though.

What would you call the insulting hysteria that occurs when an English speaker doesn't change his language and culture to use some foreign-language word for a place?

You'll notice no one goes around demanding a billion Chinese change from 'Měiguó' to the 'USA'. Hell, even the Germans get away with calling 'Beijing' Peking.

Its just the poor, down-drodden Anglos. :)

We do it all the time in the USA too... "This is America! Here we speak English!"

There is no "poor Anglos", we are cultural assholes too

> Munchen - Munich, Monaco

As a french, this one caught me off guard. Didn't help that you used the french word as second alternative on first ones, but til that in italian Munich is called "Monaco di Baviera". Now I wonder what's in common between those two cities..

This is mostly but not entirely coincidental. The name München is derived from the word for monk, which would be "monaco" in Italian. Both "monaco" (monk) and "Monaco" (city) ultimately descend from μόνος (Greek for "solitary").

Former is the proper name, latter is from the Soviet toponimics and is not relevant anymore.

Yes, yes, trademarks are properly adjectives, so you also don't "google" or "use Google", you "search with the Google(tm) search engine".

And you've never used a Kleenex - you've used a Kleenex(tm) tissue.

Used to be the same for aspirin, trampoline, escalator, dumpster, etc., but those darn people kept using the names wrong, and now everyone agrees they are generic (except Dumpster).

Or you can accept that human languages evolve and adopt new words that may be used in ways not approved of by corporate lawyers.

Maybe get a passport and visit another country you inbred American fuck.

Someone's H1B got denied I suppose...

I'd like three water bottles. I'd like three waters.

I'd like three Lego bricks. I'd like three Legos.

I'd like three sheep fleeces. I'd like three sheep.

Aren't plurals interesting?

More photos and renders here:

https://www.archilovers.com/projects/239203/comfort-town.htm...

https://archimatika.com/en/projects/comfort-town

https://comforttown.com.ua/

Oh, I have done a flyover recently. It really looks that stunning from the skies: https://www.instagram.com/p/CT1bG2uNdm_/

The district however is not that good. See, there is no parking space at all in Comfort Town and people have to leave their cars on every empty piece of the road inside. In winter time this prevents snow from being removed hence reducing available street space even more. People park in two, three and even four rows, leaving phone numbers under the windshield.

The reason why there is no parking space? Nobody is paying for parking. There is no economic reason for developers to build one. People are comfortable saving considerable amount of money on the estate while committing to an eternal PITA with their cars.

> completely flat exteriors.

Having a bit of an overhang or shade over the windows lets the sunlight in in the winter and shades the window in the summer.

Overhangs also keep the water off the window frames, meaning they'll last a lot longer.

>Having a bit of an overhang or shade over the windows lets the sunlight in in the winter

Wouldn't more sunlight get in without the overhang? Or are you saying the negative effect is small?

in the winter, the sun is lower in the sky for most of the day, so the overhangs have much less effect than they do in the summer.

but no, of course they don't let in more light than a window without an overhang.

The sun is lower in the sky in the winter, bypassing the overhang, when more heat is welcome.

What is wrong with balconies?

They mess up the clean look in the renders.

And in real life. Having a bit of outdoor space is a huge quality of life improvement, hence their ubiquity in modern residential blocks (and I certainly don't begrudge them), but they ruin the look of a tower.

Watching a nearby business district becoming increasingly residential over recent years has been like seeing it catch some sort of fungal infection as balconies sprout everywhere.

Should the residents be concerned with how the building looks from afar? As you said, it is quality of life for them.

That's entirely up to them. I didn't say, or mean to imply, that my aesthetic experience of their building should matter to its residents at all. I think it should matter to its architects and to city planners, but I don't think that implies such things shouldn't be built. It's a trade-off, and as I said I don't begrudge anybody their outside space.

it depends on the climate. In Russia, for example, balconies in old panel buildings are either used for storage, or converted to an unheated exra room, with wood and glass railings, which are different for every apartment. This makes the house look like a vertical favela.

(off-topic question: do you come from Murmansk, by any chance? That username sounds familiar :)

nah, just been there as a tourist a couple of times...

> it depends on the climate.

There are quite generous balconies in Tromsø.

I suppose they add up costs. they article said some luxury was scrubbed. That could have included balconies.

Painting multistore appartment blocks in bright colors doesn't make them less disgusting to live in.

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