Many organic, dense neighbourhoods – judged as unhealthy and socially problematic – disappeared in the second half of the 20th century globally, to be replaced by modern prefabricated housing estates. It is difficult to judge objectively from the distance of several decades, whether these drastic transformations of the urban tissue brought the positive changes hoped for at the time of their construction, or not. The article addresses this question on a case study, using the quantitative methods of space syntax combined with on-site observations and the analysis of contemporary newspapers.