plattenbau!

I don't think there can be a town in Europe which doesn't have large blocks of "cheap" flats that are destined to be seen as "social housing".
Here they are now either renovated to a high standard and much desired or they have been or will be demolished.
Leipzig is full of houses built before WW1 and which are under a conservation order. They were mostly built in long terraces which cut off the view into their gardens, so this block opposite our zoo with the zoo carpark in front of it makes a pleasant open space.
What is irritating is that the other half of Germans often assume that we have only such blocks of flats and that they are all awful.