The author makes it sound like this is the rule. Yes, there's even one shaped like a boat - at the back of a building. Otherwise... A quick look around Kyiv will show that the vast majority are...
a bespoke balcony becoming a local status symbol.
The author makes it sound like this is the rule. Yes, there's even one shaped like a boat - at the back of a building. Otherwise...
A quick look around Kyiv will show that the vast majority are just iron-framed glass, and some with insulated PVC windows (one, two, three). The fact of the matter is that "closing" one's balcony is primarily utilitarian: the concrete walls offer poor thermal isolation, and the extra layer of glass (even the simple iron framed ones) add some comfort against either excessive cold in winter or heat in summer.
In this place in Bucharest, Romania you can see how the sense of individuality (nothing more than each person doing their own changes) has been "lost" after the block was refurbished uniformly (change the view from 2009 to 2012+).
It is also interesting to note that Bucharest and Sofia (and Kyiv) have more such buildings than the rest. This has to do with Romania and Bulgaria being less industrialized before the communist regimes came along; large numbers of people were moved to the cities and a lot of housing had to be provided in a short time. Quality and internal area were sacrificed, so the balconies came to be repurposed, mostly as storage space, sometimes as kitchens (freeing the original kitchen for an extra bedroom), and yes, sometimes the fresh city dwellers would keep poultry in them, as they used to back home.
But castles in the clouds they were not, except for the occasional mad hatter. I may not know much about Kyiv directly, but neither the substance of the article, nor street view, make me think it's in any way different to the rest of Eastern Europe.
The author makes it sound like this is the rule. Yes, there's even one shaped like a boat - at the back of a building. Otherwise...
A quick look around Kyiv will show that the vast majority are just iron-framed glass, and some with insulated PVC windows (one, two, three). The fact of the matter is that "closing" one's balcony is primarily utilitarian: the concrete walls offer poor thermal isolation, and the extra layer of glass (even the simple iron framed ones) add some comfort against either excessive cold in winter or heat in summer.
They look much the same as their counterparts in Sofia, Bulgaria, Budapest, Hungary, Bratislava, Slovakia, Warsaw, Poland, fewer and less obvious in Prague, Czechia, or East Berlin.
In this place in Bucharest, Romania you can see how the sense of individuality (nothing more than each person doing their own changes) has been "lost" after the block was refurbished uniformly (change the view from 2009 to 2012+).
It is also interesting to note that Bucharest and Sofia (and Kyiv) have more such buildings than the rest. This has to do with Romania and Bulgaria being less industrialized before the communist regimes came along; large numbers of people were moved to the cities and a lot of housing had to be provided in a short time. Quality and internal area were sacrificed, so the balconies came to be repurposed, mostly as storage space, sometimes as kitchens (freeing the original kitchen for an extra bedroom), and yes, sometimes the fresh city dwellers would keep poultry in them, as they used to back home.
But castles in the clouds they were not, except for the occasional mad hatter. I may not know much about Kyiv directly, but neither the substance of the article, nor street view, make me think it's in any way different to the rest of Eastern Europe.