Save the Danchi

Large residential developments like the Japanese 'Danchi' passed through an enormous international boom particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. They provided modern, affordable, accommodation for rapidly growing populations. The banlieues in Paris and the Markisches Viertel area in Berlin - prefabricated, large-scale, socialist developments - are remnants of that period. Mikan, a Japanese-French team of architects criticise this neglect as misled and wasteful. They propose an inexhaustible range of ideas for how to convert and re-use such buildings and demonstrate how easily they can be adapted to modern needs and ecological standards.