Redefinition of prefabricated large panel building systems - face lifting or disruptive revolution

The notion of “a large panel system (LPS)” means a building system from prefabricated structural elements, concrete slabs, used for the construction of blocks of flats and other buildings. Despite its simple definition, the name evolved over time into an urban, architectural and sociological phenomenon of massive impact changing the character of many European cities for good. It is estimated that nowadays in Europe (excluding the countries of the former Soviet Union) around 41 million inhabitants live in housing estates built from prefabricated panels. The presented elaboration aims to determine a real scale of this issue and provoke a discussion on the basis of undertaken actions - the discussion about the possibilities of stopping the destructive spatial and social processes affecting such areas. On the basis of the above-discussed architectural, urban planning, sociological and technical aspects of the large panel system housing estates and their juxtaposition with competitive contemporary housing estates, an attempt can be made to compare the negative and positive characteristics of these areas. A division into three groups is proposed: 1. Spatial and functional parameters in urban planning, 2. Spatial and functional parameters in architecture, 3. Technical and aesthetic parameters. However, the above-described terms mainly function on the grounds of the downtown (city-centre) building development. Therefore, only by the reference to the revitalization of housing estates do we understand specific areas in degraded housing complexes. Finally, the undertaking of the revitalization actions in the context of large housing developments made with industrial technologies is called ‘the humanization of housing estates’. This term refers to a whole range of works, beginning from the survey of the technical condition, through consultations with the local community, to the selection of solutions in the field of architecture, economics or ecology. On the contrary to the typical modernization, humanization focuses its activities also on the analysis of the collective addressee, their needs and expectations. Humanization of huge housing complexes is coupled with the strive for sustainable development of cities, which has recently become a strategic term in the economies of all developing European countries.