Elite Living Vs Regular Poland: Can Poles Afford Their Own Country?

Intro [Music] booma what's up people hola JT here welcome to another episode you know I think this place where I am standing right now right here this is the first place that I visited when I came to Poland for the first time in the year 2012 my wife was living right up there and this series of flats that you see are called blocky they're very famous in Poland and precisely this video is about that it's about how polls used to live how polls live but how does the future of Poland look like because you see there is a whole new lifestyle here in Poland that maybe you don't know about and I want to show it to you so on this episode we're going to learn how do polls live but how do polls want to live in the future something like that The famous Polish bloki boom so I don't know exactly what you guys think when you see this blocks of flats you know the the blocky um I used to believe that this was some sort of Soviet influence we have all seen the brutalist art and the brutalist style of architecture that was so predominant during the Soviet Union so it does look Soviet to me but I was very surprised to have found out that it's not the case entirely apparently this started in the year 1933 on board a ship where all of the most powerful influential and avanguard architects in the world were taking part in the fourth International Congress of modern architecture and they finalized something called the Athens Charter where they plan fora and decided how the future of urban planning would look like and it's all the Mastermind of one Swiss French architect named the corbusier the Athens Charter became the most important document in the history of Modern urban planning and it's you know largely to this charer that we owe this this type of flats where you could gather a large amount of people and they could find housing they could find a place to live inside the cities where most of the work was we owe a lot to the Athens Charter because it contained the instructions on how to build and expand modern cities and think about this this is after the first world war you know Europe was destroyed so you had an influx of people moving into the city centers to rebuild them and that posed a problem because in the past maybe you have some you know tens of thousands potentially maybe hundreds of thousands of inhabitants now you have millions and they needed a place to live and that's where this the sign comes into play whether you like it or not whether you think it's ugly whether you think it's outdated it worked and just like this very building and many others around me that's precisely what was needed a place where you could build a community and where people could Thrive so that they could go on and do the work of of course rebuilding Europe even though this urban planning this design of the blocky really worked and still works let's face it it's hundreds of families living around me and there are thousands living in Poland in the same style of of building nowadays it's I don't know considered old outdated the design is just ugly and you have more and more people wanting to upgrade their lives they want to live in a place that looks like it was designed on a TV show in hag and that's exactly where we're going to go next there's a place in wara well known precisely for its urban planning it has some very specific particularities like for example the buildings cannot be taller than 20 M unlike this big blocks of flats follow me to be [Music] Welcome to Wilanów L guys welcome to mastco VU we are here at the heart of mast Vu at the Temple of the Divine Providence and what is this place what is mastco Vu you ask well first of all mastco vov is part of the borrow of villanu it's kind of like situated on the western side of vov and it's just modern residential living but it's upscale residential living this is a very sought-after place this is where people want to live now in Poland they want this they want this westernized modern close Community self-sufficient where their kids can grow ride their bicycles feel safe let's face it it's Poland they're going to be safe anywhere you go so the concept of banov was to build a city within a city The Architects and the firm that developed this actually started the project in the year 20 2002 there are still you know developments happening for example they're building the Vu tram there is a little bit of U you know criticism that the people that live in banov don't need a tram so why all this hoopla but the idea seems to work because whenever you are here as I am right now you can see I'm filming I'm surrounded by all these beautiful buildings which by the way it's not allowed to build any structure taller than 20 M and it's designed like that precisely to avoid the overwhelming oppression that people would feel from the blocky and to get away a little bit from Poland of old and welcome Poland of now modern Poland you know the idea was to build a place that felt different different from what polls already knew and what they were used to they wanted to have this community Vibe here and I got to say if you ask me it does feel like there's a community I don't know if it's the height of the buildings there's a lot of stores the way that it's designed is in a way that on the outside where the main roads are you have a lot of stores different type of stores you have restaurants and on the the inside of the buildings you have Gardens for the residents to enjoy the point is that you can feel like you're living in a special place here in Poland look at it look at my surroundings look at the greenery look at the buildings look at the cleanliness would you would you have guessed that I'm in Poland if I don't tell you that I'm in Poland would you have guessed especially after we came from the blocky Flats not only like I said the buildings cannot be more than 20 M tall they all have this homogeneous look to them not only the design but also the colors the materials so you really do feel like you're living in a city that it's not really really really part of wora it's its own thing tell me in the comments do you like it or not so I have a couple questions as much My questions as I love this place because I I really like it like I said I do wonder if the regular pole will be able to ever afford living in a place like this if you search online if you search online any of those real Real Estate websites you will very quickly find that one of these Flats is going to run you a couple million and I don't know if that's something that a pole Liv in the in a block blocky apartment will be able to afford another question I have is also by multiplying this design and exporting it to other cities are we at risk of losing a little bit of that identity that we have come to recognize when we see the blocking I particularly like what some of the cities are doing with the blocking Apartments like in W you see murals they commission uh this artist polish artist and they paint this really cool looking murals and sometimes they also paint the block of flats with Vivid colors and give it a little bit of a life and I really like that I don't know if maybe tearing that down and moving away from that concept of living into this is the right the right call and the solution I'm conflicted because I do like this I like this new Poland I like Outro it boom that's all guys that's the end of this episode I hope you liked it please let me know in the comment section below let me know first of all have you ever lived in the blocki second of all have you been here to beanu what do you think of this model of residential living do you think that this modern way should be exported to other cities in Poland would you like to see that or you think that hm no this this doesn't have character this needs more Vibe please your voice comment section below I'll see you guys on another episode Papa