Due to it’s quick financial returns,British firms and investors are building ghettos and apartment blocks in Romania that would not receive Planning Permission in United Kingdom.
The history of multi-storey concrete blocks goes all the way back to Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture.
He succeeded to change urban planning by trying to find a more economical way to build housing,using concrete instead of traditional materials.
At the end of the Second World War,when architects and builders were trying to build cheap housing in a Europe devastated by war and in a dire need for new homes, the solution provided by Le Corbusier was adopted not only by Britain but also by the Soviet Union and it’s satellite communist countries where they have imposed their military and ideological might on countries like Poland and Romania, deserted by the US and UK in order to please Stalin.
What could go wrong ?
Grenfell Tower. foto: Click Romania
Britain has started to build concrete towers,promising people that they will have indoor toilets and demolishing slums damaged by the Blitz instead of repairing them. About 50 years later,they realised that instead of getting rid of poverty ghettos, they have reinvented them and started to demolish them.
On 4th March 1977 at 21.22 in the evening, Bucharest experienced an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale that lasted for almost a minute,with considerable damage to old buildings in what was once called the Paris of the East. Over 1500 people died,including the most popular comedian of the time, Toma Caragiu.
Nicolae Ceausescu used the opportunity to demolish and rebuild the Romanian capital following his own vision, including the infamous People’s Palace, the monstruous building that is second only to the American Pentagon in size.
In Romania, living in a concrete high rise started a Hip-Hop movement . B.U.G. Mafia – Dupa Blocuri.Behind the high rises (Dupa Blocuri) is the fifth studio album by Romanian hip hop group B.U.G. Mafia, released on January 18, 2000
In Russia, people are being evacuated by force in order to rebuild the same concrete blocks, for which the old residents have to pay a premium.
British companies,like the Grenfell Tower builders,have managed to secure the Planning Permission needed to build whatever they want in Romania.
SoHo Unirii ,New Residence, Argo Group, London Partners, etc – are busy as a bee building where even Ceausescu and the Soviets have partially failed. Building ghettos is much cheaper than building proper housing,when you calculate the cost per square meter.
Romania’s Planning Permission department has not yet learned from the past,unless corruption is the reason for it.
1 Comment
why does the ro gov let’s them