Michenzani Plattenbau (Zanzibar Town)

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Apartment blocks in Stone Town, once the pride of East German development cooperation with Zanzibar, have turned into an area of urban decay.

In the 1970s, some Plattenbauten were built here in Zanzibar New Town.

Plattenbau is the German word for a building whose structure is constructed of large, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of Platte (here: panel) and Bau (building). Although Plattenbauten are often considered to be typical of East Germany, the prefabricated construction method was used extensively in West Germany and elsewhere, particularly in public housing .

Prefabrication was pioneered in the Netherlands following World War I, based on construction methods developed in the United States. The first German use of Plattenbau construction is what is now known as the Splanemann-Siedlung in Berlin's Lichtenberg district, constructed in 1926-1930. These two- and three-story apartment houses were assembled of locally cast slabs, inspired by the Dutch Betondorp in Watergraafsmeer, a suburb of Amsterdam.

In East Germany, virtually all new residential buildings since the 1960s were built in this style, as it was a quick and relatively cheap way to solve the country's severe housing shortage. There were several common Plattenbau designs. The most common series was the P2, followed by the WBS 70. The designs were flexible and could be built as towers or rows of apartments of various heights.