
City of Ruins - doh
http://www.behance.net/gallery/City-of-Ruins/4066411
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run4yourlives
What's really sad is how the city was rebuilt afterwards. The absolute last
people you want rebuilding a grand city are Soviet engineers.

If you've never been to Poland, land in Warsaw, spend a day or two, then head
south to Kraków. The amazing disparity between a city leveled in WWII and
rebuilt by communists and a city untouched by the Nazis (and therefore the
Soviets) is heartbreaking.

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kiiski
Was it rebuilt badly due to bad engineers, or just because the soviets had a
lot to rebuild?

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planetguy
It wasn't the engineers, it was the architects.

Communist architecture followed the principles of communist architecture.
Diversion from what the state thought was a good idea was highly un-
recommended. The principles of communist architecture started off from a lot
of high-minded platitudes about equality and national purpose, but in practice
always translated to a monstrous block of filthy grey concrete with tiny
windows that looks awful from a distance and only gets worse as you get
closer.

It wasn't confined to the eastern bloc either, you can find plenty of horrible
examples of a similar style dreamed up by western architects infected by
similar principles; pretty much anything ugly, grey, concrete, and mid-
century. They continue to blight our cities and (especially) our university
campuses. But reconstruct a whole city in the same milieu, and you'll have
Warsaw.

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Dove
I didn't know that, but googling around to learn about communist architecture
took me here . . .

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konigsberg_Castle>

. . . where they replaced a pretty castle with something like you describe.

~~~
planetguy
One of the most visually offensive things about a lot of communist
architecture is top-heaviness. It's not just a grey block of filthy concrete,
it's a grey block of filthy concrete that looks like it's about to crush you.

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GigabyteCoin
As a person of polish descent, I was heartbroken to visit Warsaw and see
beside ~90% of the most beautiful buildings a little plaque and statement
basically reading "this is a reproduction, the original was bombed to hell in
WWII and here is a picture of the ruins".

~~~
jwr
As a Pole raised in Warsaw I can give you a different perspective: it's
actually surprising for children to see things which were _not_ destroyed and
are original.

I still remember my younger brother, as a 10-year old, visiting one of the
French Loire castles and asking my parents: "so, all this was rebuilt after
the war, right?".

We should all learn. Never again.

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peterb
My father fought in the Warsaw uprising when he was 16 years old. He spend the
next year as a prison of war in a forced labor camp. This video has brought
tears to my eyes. Thank you for posting it.

~~~
zbyszek
The Warsaw Uprising museum (<http://www.1944.pl/>) is well worth a visit. For
a long time this history was suppressed as it didn't fit in with the
prevailing orthodoxy that the Red Army did all the liberating. The existence
of the museum is the culmination of many years of work by people like my
grandmother, who also took part in the uprising, in preserving the history and
pushing for its recognition.

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Dove
I am struck by the relative peace, prosperity, and safety of our time. It is a
costly gift from those of my grandfather's generation. I feel compelled not to
waste it.

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jwr
This is exactly why I (being Polish) go to vote in every election.

I feel I do not have the right to say "nah, I don't really care" — I haven't
earned it. I owe a debt to our grandfathers, who ran around with guns,
fighting for our freedom, as well as to my parents' generation, who managed to
break out from under communist (Soviet) rule. People who did run around with
guns have earned the right not to go and vote — I did not.

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jscheel
Wow, Platige Image has really knocked it out of the park with this. Kinda
reminds me of the awesome work they did on their short film "The Cathedral". I
still remember being in awe of that when it was at siggraph years ago.

It would be incredible to see this done to Dresden as well, another city that
was absolutely decimated by the war.

~~~
mietek
Have you seen the Witcher 2 intro they made? Incredible:

<http://www.platige.com/frontend/project/the_witcher_2_intro>

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itomek
whats also sad is how the Russians took advantage of the situation and
instilled communist rule for the next ~50 years.

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suprgeek
Awesome imagery here...when I first read the title though it made me think
this was going to be about Detroit again. The levels of destruction and
abandonment there even today have to be seen to be believed.

~~~
planetguy
Once again, in action, the unnamed law that decrees that any article about
anything happening in any country in the world inevitably turns into a thread
about much worse things are in the US.

~~~
mc32
The interesting part about Detroit, amongst others, is that Detroit's "ruins"
are due to an exodus of industry and followed by population. That's to say,
it's not exactly due to gov't mismanagement or some kind of systemic failure.
The failure is more individual --for example, company goes bankrupt --leaves
building. But no one comes in to rent the building out. In other cases, it's
due to buildings reaching their useful life --and not getting torn down
properly (in this case, too costly for the gov't since no one is willing to
build, as they would in other cities). All this is aggravated by the flight
form the city to the suburbs and elsewhere. To put it succinctly, this is more
organic, than artificial.

So, for example, you could be in a nice building and look across the street
and look at a dilapidated building in disrepair. It's a weird juxtaposition
but one shaped by economics and demographics.

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scottshea
Um... wow... words are not enough...

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planetguy
Actually I think words are sufficient. As in "Oh man, those three and a half
seconds of actual video of the reconstruction were awesome, it'd be nice if
there were more of that"

edit: I found the full video! <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrlE99I_Q9A>

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fibertbh
What technology is being used to create this?

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pwny
From their job application forms, it seems like they use a lot of Autodesk 3D
modeling tools along with Adobe creative processing/finishing software too.
I'd also really like to know what software packages were used exactly.

