This article is part of our weekly series “Plattenbau stories”, introducing the topic of plattenbau districts in Europe and the world. ONE ARCHITECTURE WEEK 2016 will be held in Trakiya, a plattenbau districts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from September 30th until October 9th. The main focus of the festival is the topic of “citizen participation in the creation of the urban environment”.

An article in Capital, for the full version click here. (only in Bulgarian)

The panelki become often the subject of emotional conversations. People discuss at length whether they are ugly, uncomfortable, demeaning to their inhabitants, a symbol of a totalitarian state, a bad dream, etc. Given the fact that a substantial amount of Bulgarians call the panelki their home it is not surprising that the prefab structures have become part of the urban folklore.

It is rare though, to encounter more pragmatic research, be it in the sociological, the technical or the economic fields. An attempt in this direction has been made by Nikolay Neychev from the Capital newspaper. In his article “Does it make sense to invest in a panelka” he compares tendencies in the real estate prices of two building typologies: the panelki and more recent constructions. His conclusions are rather interesting!