Panelák
Template:Short description Template:More citations needed
PanelákTemplate:Efn is a colloquial term in Czech and Slovak for a large panel system panel building constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, such as those extant in the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic & Slovakia) and elsewhere in the world. Paneláks are usually grouped together, creating a housing estate (Template:Langx, Template:Langx).
Template:Lang (plural: Template:Lang) is derived from the standard Template:Lang Template:In lang or Template:Lang Template:In lang meaning, literally, "panel house / prefabricated-sections house". The term panelák is used mainly for the elongated blocks with more sections with separate entrances – simple panel tower blocks are called Template:Lang (tower house) or colloquially Template:Lang Template:In lang. The buildings remain a towering, highly visible reminder of the Communist era. The term panelák refers specifically to buildings in the former Czechoslovakia; however, similar buildings were a common feature of urban planning in communist countries and even in the West.
History
Interwar Czechoslovakia saw many constructivist architects in the country, such as Vladimír Karfík and František Lydie Gahura, many of whom would maintain prominence following the establishment of the Czechoslovak People's Republic in 1948.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the years following 1948, the Czechoslovakian architectural scene favored Stalinist architecture over more modern architecture.<ref name=":0" /> However, a 1954 speech by Nikita Khrushchev encouraging the construction of panel buildings, coupled with post-war housing shortages faced throughout both Eastern and Western Europe, encouraged the country's architects to construct simple, modernist buildings.<ref name=":0" /> Template:Citation needed span Throughout the mid 1950s, the country's designers applied a modernist aesthetic known as the Brussels Style, named after the international attention it attracted during the 1958 World's Fair held in Brussels.<ref name=":0" /> By the late 1960s, the country's paneláks often reached up to 16 stories in height.<ref name=":0" />
Between 1959 and 1995, paneláks containing 1.17 million flats were built in what is now the Czech Republic.Template:Citation needed Template:As of, they housed about 3.5 million people, or about one-third of the country's population.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In Prague and other large cities, most paneláks were built in a type of housing estate known as a Template:Lang Template:In lang or Template:Lang Template:In lang. Such housing developments now dominate large parts of Prague, Bratislava, and other cities and towns. The first such housing development built in Prague was Petřiny in the 1950s;Template:Citation needed the largest in Prague is Jižní Město (about 100,000 inhabitants), with 200 buildings and 30,000 flats built since the 1970s.<ref name=":1" /> The Slovak Petržalka however, is the largest such housing development in Central Europe, with its population exceeding 110,000.Template:Citation needed
Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, there was widespread speculation that the country's paneláks would fall out of favor, due to their simplicity and small size.<ref name=":0" /> The Czech and Slovak government sold individual panelák apartments to their tenants for cheap prices, furthering speculation that the apartments would be undesirable.<ref name=":0" /> However, these fears have not materialized.<ref name=":0" />
Records
The tallest prefabricated house in the Czech Republic was built in 1980 in Jižní Město in Prague, currently called the Kupa hostel. The Template:Convert high building with 23 floors is a unique bridge connection on the top floors. One of the longest prefabricated houses is located in Bohnice, Prague, on Zelenohorská Street. The twelve-story building from 1973–1974 with 612 apartments and about 1,500 residents is Template:Convert long and has 18 entrances.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has the longest corridor, water distribution, and heating of a prefabricated house in the country.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An even longer prefabricated house is located in Ruprechtice, Liberecké. It is a curved prefabricated house nicknamed Template:Lang (Hockey Stick) because of its shape. It has 24 entrances, 11 floors, and 693 apartments.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
However, the longest panel house (continuous panel house complex) in the Czech Republic is located in Ostrava on Horní Street (it also extends into Cholevova and Mitušova Streets), it has a total of 28 entrances (of which 26 are in one line), 6–13 floors, 841 apartments and a total length of Template:Convert (of which Template:Convert are in one line).<ref>LIPTÁK, Marián; PŘENDÍK, Petr. Městský obvod Ostrava-Jih: včera a dnes. 1.. vyd. Ostrava: MONTANEX, 2018. 224 s. Template:ISBN. Retrieved 2025-03-12.</ref>
Characteristics
A typical panelák apartment has a foyer, bathroom, kitchen, a living room (also used for dining), and a bedroom.<ref name=":0" /> All paneláks in the Czech Republic were constructed to follow one of sixteen design patterns.<ref name=":1" />
Paneláks have been criticized for their simplistic design, poor-quality building materials, and overcrowding.<ref name=":0" /> In 1990, Václav Havel, who was then the president of Czechoslovakia, called paneláks "undignified rabbit pens, slated for liquidation".<ref name=":1" /> Panelák housing estates as a whole are said by some to be mere bedroom communities with few conveniences and even less character.Template:Citation needed
However, paneláks have also been praised by many. Upon their introduction, paneláks offered more reliable heating, hot water, and plumbing than existing buildings, especially those in rural locations.<ref name=":0" /> The buildings typically offered large amounts of natural light, compared to their older counterparts.<ref name=":0" />
Today
Paneláks remain commonplace today, and have attracted a wide diversity of social classes.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Fears that paneláks would become undesirable and be subject to middle class flight, commonplace following the Velvet Revolution, have not materialized.<ref name=":0" /> Panelák apartments have risen in value more than brick apartments, have been praised for housing people from a wide variety of incomes, and have been subject to several positive cultural depictions, including magazines and TV shows.<ref name=":0" />
Areas with high shares of its population living in paneláks include the city of Karviná (where approximately 97% of people live in them),<ref name=":1" /> Petržalka,Template:Citation needed and the city of Most (approx. 80%).Template:Citation needed Most's historical city was largely torn down due to the spread of coal mining and the majority of its population was moved into paneláks.Template:Citation needed
Amenities
Renovations
In March 2005, the director of the Czech Ministry of Regional Development expressed concerns that the country's paneláks were near the end of their lifespan, citing an increasing number of structural incidents.<ref name=":1" /> He estimated that his agency would need 400 billion Czech koruna to modernize paneláks in the Czech Republic, and 1.5 trillion to tear them down entirely.<ref name=":1" />
In recent years, many paneláks have been repainted, renovated, and repaired if needed, with funding mainly from the government, partially thanks to funds from the European Union (EU).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> A sizable renovation market has formed in recent years, and even a home magazine, Panel Plus, exists to give renovators ideas.<ref name=":0" />
Ownership
Following the Velvet Revolution, most panelák apartments were sold to their tenants at low costs.<ref name=":0" /> Many panelák flats are now the property of their inhabitants, though they are also rented out through real estate agents and private landlords, Template:Citation needed span The buildings and surrounding areas are often owned and managed by the government, administrative divisions, housing cooperatives, authorities, self-governing (non-profit) organizations, owners of apartments (individual blocks), and/or through public–private partnerships and such, or a combination thereof.Template:Citation needed
Other countries
Buildings similar to paneláks were also built in other communist countries, and they are a common feature of cityscapes across Central and Eastern Europe, and to some degree Northern Europe.
In Bulgaria, buildings similar to paneláks are colloquially known as Template:Lang, and are the predominant type of en masse housing throughout the country.Template:Citation needed In Hungary, similar buildings are called Template:Lang.<ref name=":0" /> In Poland, they are called Template:Lang (blocks),Template:Citation needed or Template:Lang (the great panel).<ref name=":0" /> In Germany, they are known as Template:Lang.<ref name=":0" /> Most buildings in Soviet-era microdistricts are panel buildings.Template:Citation needed
In the EU, among former communist countries, a majority of the population lives in flats in Latvia (64.4%), Estonia (60.6%), Lithuania (59.5%), Czech Republic (50.9%), Bulgaria (46.7%), Slovakia (45.3%) and Poland (41.4%) (Template:As of, data from Eurostat).<ref>"Housing statistics - Source data for tables and figures". ec.europa.eu. Eurostat</ref> However, not all flat dwellers in Eastern Europe live in Communist era blocks of flats; many live in buildings constructed after the fall of communism, and some in buildings surviving from the era before communism.
In the United States, some housing estates have buildings that are similar to paneláks or are built from the same or similar material.Template:Citation needed One of such estates was Pruitt-Igoe.
Popular culture
- The movie Panelstory from Věra Chytilová shows the life of several inhabitants in a real, unfinished, communist-bloc apartment. Awarded a Great Prize in San Remo in 1980.
- Béla Tarr's film Panelkapcsolat tells a doomed love story set in a similar housing estate in Hungary. Special Mention at the 1982 Locarno Film Festival.
- Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's celebrated Dekalog series is set in a Template:Lang housing estate in Warsaw, Poland.
- The long-running Slovak soap opera Panelák focused on the residents of a single block in Bratislava.
- Other popular TV series set largely within the confines of a panelák include the long-running sitcom Susedia (Neighbours), focusing on the relationships between the ethnically Slovak and Slovak-Hungarian families living within the building, as well as some episodes of the stop-motion animation series Pat & Mat.
- The Czech horror game Panelak released in 2024 is set in an old socialist-era building where strange things happen.
See also
- Sídlisko
- Khrushchevka & Brezhnevka (former Soviet Union)
- Panelház (Hungary)
- Bloc (Romania)
- LPS (Germany)
- HLM (France)
- Million Programme (Sweden)
- Ugsarmal bair (Mongolia)
- Brutalist architecture
- Housing estate
- Affordable housing
- Subsidized housing
- Public housing
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Stankova, Jaroslava, et al. (1992) Prague: Eleven Centuries of Architecture. Prague: PAV. Template:ISBN.
- Zarecor, Kimberly Elman (2011) Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Template:ISBN.
- Chánov case study
External links
Template:Czech Republic topics Template:Slovakia topics Template:Panel buildings Template:Authority control