vi var alla unga, mer eller mindre begåvade och vi var vackra

09/04/2010

JULIA # 54 - Bloki

I love buildings like these. In Polish, they are called bloki. For me a blok represtents a building full of life, behind every door there is a family, with a story and several parallel lives heading in all directions.


My childhood had a bloki-patterned background and I've heard that when the wind blows, the people that live on the very top can feel their appartments moving.


I've also heard that the bloki are not grey because of the pollution, but due to a decision made by the leaders in the communist regime that figured that the colour of a blok would fade away soon enough, thus one could just as well paint them grey from the start.


In recent years, the grey bloki have become childishly colourful. That is nice too.


And I always thought that original bloki was something that was typical for all Polish cities. But when I search for pictures, all the interesting ones are from Gdansk, where I was born. Maybe I could ask Liv for help and we could make a Gdansk City Safari?

One stop that has to be included in a Gdansk city Safari is the 850 meters long 'Falowiec' that has over 6000 occupants. When you pass the building by bus, it takes three bus stops from the beginning to the end.


I think this one too, is full of stories.
Political and dreamy


And then I stumbled upon these sweet pictures. These liebelings are made by a Berlin based street artist, EVOL, who seems to share my love for bloki.





2 comments:

  1. DU ER EN HENT! EN STJERNE!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree!

    Oh Julia this post is amazing!! I LOVE PLATTENBAUTEN since ever and I also took a lot of pictures of them in all the eastern coutry I visited, my master piece being in sofia. Those mini plattenbauten are soooooo cute, I want one!!!!

    so all this to say: YES to a Gdansk city safari! When do we start???

    ReplyDelete