The Socialist Prefabs after Utopia

This short essay introduces three articles about Socialist prefabricated apartment buildings in the Czech Republic and Poland. The essay begins by noting the impossibility of replacing the apartment blocks of the Communist bloc after 1989, despite their clear connotation with the undesirable gray uniformity of the old regime, and asks what their legacy has been for their inhabitants in the twenty years since. Based on summaries of the three articles by My Svensson, Adrienne Harris, and Kimberly Zarecor that follow, it draws some conclusions about the prefab neighborhoods. While the first two authors, who consider filmic and literary depiction of life in the blocks, tend to focus on the despair and entrapment people feel there, Zarecor, who notes the pre-socialist origins of prefabricated apartment buildings, uses contemporary surveys and other sources to demonstrate ways that they have proven adaptable to post-socialist life. All three articles suggest that the blocks of the former Communist bloc may be more similar to the “projects” of the West than formerly thought. It seems that the buildings’ gray uniformity has meant that they can serve both as the backdrop for slums and degradation, or, if refurbished and repainted, as an adequate post-socialist living space.