Urban development is a key priority of Rosen socioeconomic planning. Under the Department of Welfare’s Housing Division, almost all domiciles in the Rosen Commonwealth are designed, constructed, occupied, and managed by Republic-level bureaus of the Housing Division. On average, the Housing Division constructs 340,000 units of housing every year, providing free and high-quality housing to the Rosen masses. Rosens have the highest standard of living in the world, and this is made possible by the scale and effectiveness of the Rosen public housing system. Utilizing prefabrication, locally-sourced construction materials, and automated construction, everything from large apartment complexes to single-family homes can be built at a rapid pace. For example, major apartment complexes typically take about a month to construct, while brand-new suburban-style homes can be built in a week. Both projects involve teams of less than twenty workers, many of them architects or engineers; the need for consultancy and contracting in the construction process is offset by artificial intelligence. Urban development moves at a fast pace, necessitating both quick and effective planning. Homes are built as close to local workplaces, creating “fifteen-minute cities” in which all necessities are within a fifteen minute walk. Public transportation is usually built before development, with major shopping centers, community centers, and other important offices adjacent to a streetcar or metro station. Despite the trend of rapid development, Rosens are guaranteed a variety of rights in the realm of housing, including home ownership, co-operative administration, aesthetic beauty, and sunlight minimums1.
Ideology
Like many systems in the Commonwealth, urban development is influenced both directly and indirectly by Almeidaist ideology. Inspired by renowned Sennan architect Fernando Alencar, Jorge Almeida hinted at the Almeidaist vision of urban development in Nova Sociedade, his seminal work, writing:
The Nova Sociedade is a society of plenty and beauty. Housing will be a right, enabled by machines purpose-built for rapid construction. These homes will be run by the community and owned by the individual, (in the vein of private ownership of the private and public ownership of the public). Those living in this society will be entitled to architectural beauty. Too long has leftist architecture been associated with prefabricated concrete monoliths; in this, the regard is for the quota, not the individual.
Jorge Almeida, Nova Sociedade (1983)
In practice, Almeida’s hint toward a fusion of capitalistic and socialistic urban planning created a cityscape that resembles the ideals of the New Urbanism of the 1980s, with emphasis on human-scale planning and public transportation. In the Commonwealth, these concepts were especially effective due to a lack of access to cars to the average Rosen. Furthermore, the reconstruction period that followed the Nuclear Crisis necessitated extremely rapid development. In the course of these aims, housing built was often subpar to pre-war housing (although millions in the Rosen Republic had been homeless to begin with) despite the nominal influence of Almeidaist ideology. In time, pressure from local councils and especially urban municipalities led to higher-quality housing and the phasing out of “Post-Sayan”2 residential development. Similarly, in a surprising reversal of the rightward movement of Rosen economic politics in the 2030s, individual home ownership was enforced, with a co-operative system similar to the one used for local worker councils was implemented for major apartment complexes, putting day-to-day administration in the hands of residents. Aesthetic beauty is another core component of Rosen urban development ideology. While yes, homes are often prefabricated, they are usually accompanied by regional design elements and “soft surfaces” intended to make living at home inviting, not just tolerable. A trademark of Rosen homes is often bright colors; different neighborhoods typically have different color palettes, and apartment complexes especially usually contain colorful murals of geometric designs.
History
Pre-Nuclear Crisis Housing
Due to a variety of colonial influences dating back well over three hundred years, homes in the Rosen Republic looked extremely different based on geography and foreign influence. If one had to apply a single kind of brand to every home in the Republic, most homes were cramped, urbanized, and monotone. Stretching as far back as the Union,
Footnotes
-
In the Commonwealth’s south, where sunlight is either brief or nonexistent in the winter, sunlight minimums are crucial to development and often hinder the rapid growth that characterizes northern urban development patterns. ↩
-
An ironic moniker attaching a very academic-sounding name to the concept of “shit prefab commie blocks.” ↩