Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Complete evolution of post WWII urban design and planning in Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc's communist / socialist countries. Focusing on the large residential estate projects, highlighting the most common things and how they changed.
0:00 Introduction
3:41 Post-war recovery
7:12 Socialist Realism
12:01 Back to modernism
24:30 The largest projects
35:46 Post-modernism
42:00 Talking about the build
You can directly support the channel by becoming a channel member here:
youtube.com/channel/UCMQ3E2ZfpvnUkpUen7iMwHQ/join
Twitter - twitter.com/AkruasStream
Twitch - twitch.tv/akruas
Mod collections: steamcommunity.com/id/akruas/myworkshopfiles/?section=collections&appid=255710
Altengrad is a time-progression Cities: Skylines series where I build a Central European city, located until 1989 in the Eastern Bloc, taking inspiration from Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The series starts around the year 1920 and slowly advances forward in time, which means the city will naturally evolve all the way to modern times. The city is not a recreation of any one real-life city or country, but it takes inspiration from them.
PC specs are in the channel's About page. No, the game doesn't run like this in real time. Cinematics are recorded slow and made faster in editing.
youtube.com/c/Akruas/about
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Information about sources:
My primary sources are in Czech and Slovak, because I understand it and I can easily borrow books, search theses, articles or old TV programmes. This gives me information about Czechoslovakia. After learning or confirming something, I search whether or not it's applicable to also East Germany, Poland and Hungary through online articles or videos, but also sometimes English books that I can see through library access. Although some sources pop up from those other countries first. I don't research the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, since that is not where the series is from. I also don't focus on political theory but rather the reality.
Major sources:
Books and magazines:
(I) "Paneláci 1,2" (Prefabs, parts 1 and 2)
(II) "Když se utopie stane skutečností" (When utopia becomes the reality)
(III) "Architektura ČSR" (Architecture of CSR, issue 16, 1957)
(IV) "Šedesátá léta v architektuře očima pamětníků" (Sixties in architecture through the eyes of the witnesses)
Others:
(V) Evolution of city expansions in Magdeburg (in German) magdeburg.de/media/custom/698_5799_1.PDF?1362085154
(VI) Detailed progress and plans for the Rataje district in Poznan (in Polish)
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_budowy_Rataj_w_Poznaniu
(VII) East German 16 principles of urban design en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixteen_Principles_of_Urban_Design
(VIII) Athen's Charter https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/research_resources/charters/charter04.html
(IX) Archive of the Czech/Czechoslovak TV (various programmes, news clips or shows from relevant periods)
(X) Browsing Google Maps and Streetview
(XI) Visiting museum, exhibitions, lectures, own experience and education in material and civil engineering
(XII) Looking at various historical photos, for example among others from pastvu.com or fortepan.hu
#citiesskylines #altengrad
Complete evolution of post WWII urban design and planning in Central Europe in the Eastern Bloc's communist / socialist countries. Focusing on the large residential estate projects, highlighting the most common things and how they changed.
0:00 Introduction
3:41 Post-war recovery
7:12 Socialist Realism
12:01 Back to modernism
24:30 The largest projects
35:46 Post-modernism
42:00 Talking about the build
You can directly support the channel by becoming a channel member here:
youtube.com/channel/UCMQ3E2ZfpvnUkpUen7iMwHQ/join
Twitter - twitter.com/AkruasStream
Twitch - twitch.tv/akruas
Mod collections: steamcommunity.com/id/akruas/myworkshopfiles/?section=collections&appid=255710
Altengrad is a time-progression Cities: Skylines series where I build a Central European city, located until 1989 in the Eastern Bloc, taking inspiration from Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The series starts around the year 1920 and slowly advances forward in time, which means the city will naturally evolve all the way to modern times. The city is not a recreation of any one real-life city or country, but it takes inspiration from them.
PC specs are in the channel's About page. No, the game doesn't run like this in real time. Cinematics are recorded slow and made faster in editing.
youtube.com/c/Akruas/about
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
Information about sources:
My primary sources are in Czech and Slovak, because I understand it and I can easily borrow books, search theses, articles or old TV programmes. This gives me information about Czechoslovakia. After learning or confirming something, I search whether or not it's applicable to also East Germany, Poland and Hungary through online articles or videos, but also sometimes English books that I can see through library access. Although some sources pop up from those other countries first. I don't research the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, since that is not where the series is from. I also don't focus on political theory but rather the reality.
Major sources:
Books and magazines:
(I) "Paneláci 1,2" (Prefabs, parts 1 and 2)
(II) "Když se utopie stane skutečností" (When utopia becomes the reality)
(III) "Architektura ČSR" (Architecture of CSR, issue 16, 1957)
(IV) "Šedesátá léta v architektuře očima pamětníků" (Sixties in architecture through the eyes of the witnesses)
Others:
(V) Evolution of city expansions in Magdeburg (in German) magdeburg.de/media/custom/698_5799_1.PDF?1362085154
(VI) Detailed progress and plans for the Rataje district in Poznan (in Polish)
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_budowy_Rataj_w_Poznaniu
(VII) East German 16 principles of urban design en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixteen_Principles_of_Urban_Design
(VIII) Athen's Charter https://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/research_resources/charters/charter04.html
(IX) Archive of the Czech/Czechoslovak TV (various programmes, news clips or shows from relevant periods)
(X) Browsing Google Maps and Streetview
(XI) Visiting museum, exhibitions, lectures, own experience and education in material and civil engineering
(XII) Looking at various historical photos, for example among others from pastvu.com or fortepan.hu
#citiesskylines #altengrad
