Judged by sheer numbers, the large housing estate is the most successful building typology of all times. All over the globe, millions of city dwellers call a standardized block in a modern estate their home. At the same time few urban forms have roused as much controversy. Large housing estates have been hailed as generators of a new man or a better civilization and scorned as the source of deprivation, crime and destitution. They have been praised, despised, neglected and often demolished. At the same time there are significant differences between individual countries and geographical regions. While on the surface the modernist apartment block appears universal, it is in fact diverse in its significance and connotations as its many different cultural contexts. The lecture will discuss success and failure of large housing estates in different European countries, focusing, among others, on Germany, Poland, Great Britain and Spain.