Plattenbau ABG Ratio 3,5Mp Asset Pack

This asset pack is RICO only!

Today I proudly present to you a pack with 26 Plattenbau Assets of the "Ratio Magdeburg 3,5Mp" series, produced and constructed by the BKL (Baukombinat Leipzig) construction combine.

Buildings of this type have been erected all over the Leipzig region, including the city itself (mainly Leipzig-Thekla). This pack however aims to resemble the ones built in infamous Altenburg-Nord, representing my ongoing effort to recreate this now decimated and unrecognizable part of my hometown and let it rise to its former completeness and glory again. Virtually at least.

IRL, most of the buildings depicted in this pack are already long gone. Although some have been refurbished over the years and thus saved from demolition, no original ones remain.

Nowadays even refurbished blocks of flats are beeing torn down in Altenburg-Nord. Things are not looking good. Thats the reason I am doing this 😉

Disclaimer: Most of these photos are by NovaPhotography

Included are 26 assets (25 buildings and one filler asset for 35-degree corners).
Only having old very old photos and blurry satellite images, I tried to recreate as many variations as I could, but not all of them, as there are just way too many.
So I’ve decided on the following ones.

6 storeys:
SKB – "Sonderlösung Kopfbau", point shaped building with 1 entrance (end segment, also used solitary or doubled)

5 storeys
2B – block with 4 entrances and 2 rows of double balconies
3B – block with 4 entrances and 3 rows of balconies
V – block with 4 entrances and straight connector ("Verbinder")
VL – "Verbinder links", block with 3 entrances and left corner connector
VLK – "Verbinder links kurz", short version of the VL with 1 entrance
VR – "Verbinder rechts", block with 4 entrances and right corner connector
VRK – "Verbinder rechts kurz", short version of the VR with 1 entrance
Filler – used to connect buildings in a 35-degree angle. place manually between 2 buildings

All buildings come with different colour variants:

The SKB has 4 variations:
No.1: standard, beige grey colour scheme.
No.2: additional decorative white patches of paint next to the windows
No.3: like standard but with some, lesser red-brown elements
No.4: more of the red-brown elements

All other ones, except for the filler piece, each have 3 variants:
No.1: standard, beige-grey colour scheme, blue-white balconies
No.2: additional decorative white patches of paint next to most/all windows, blue and white balcony colours swapped
No.3: colour mapped balconies, some additional red-brown elements.

Colour maps include the 4 standard colours: red, dark green, orange and blue. However, you can use the Repaint Mod to change the colour of the balconies to your liking!

Essentials:
Ploppable RICO is needed to use my assets ingame as residentials. Without it, they’ll only appear as unique landmarks.
Move It! is also essential to allign the buildings as intended, as they are not flush with the plot.
Loading screen mod should also be used to cut down on file size as all assets share the same 1024×1024 texture.

Recommendations for realism:
See further below for some original plans as illustration and inspiration!

A common rule for nearly every socialist housing estate is the concept of placing buildings next to footpaths, parking and/or very tiny local streets. There are 3 ways to achieve this:
– using standard zonable ped paths (not very beautiful, but reliable)
– using Zoning Adjuster to zone each and every possible ped path ingame
– also with the same mod, increase lot setback and place the buildings next to any street you like. The increased distance though allows for manually adding paths (or even just decals). I always use the 2m and 4m ones from This concrete ped path pack, because they look pretty close to the real concrete tiles.

For perfection, place These DDR Street lights along your paths. Voilà!

With this pack, Street/pedestrian acces is only to the rear of the building, which should generally be pointing northwards, to maximize sunlight for the "front" sides where most living rooms and the balconies are.

Mostly these buildings are arranged in courtyards or meandering shapes. The 6 storey Kopfbau is either used as a solitary building, bunched together as a couple (gable to gable) or as an end section, concluding a longer row of 5 storey blocks.

Tags:
ddr, gdr, socialist, brutalist, concrete, high rise, highrise, prefab, plattenbau, leipzig, altenburg, halle, germany, deutschland, europa, europe, magdeburg, gera, dresden, berlin