High-Density, High-Rise Residential Development and its Psycho-social effects

School of Planning and Architecture UD Research Paper- 2016/17

High-Density, High-Rise Residential Development and its psycho-social effects Divya Chand Advisor- Ms. Tina Bali

AbstractHigh density high rise urban housing environments are analyzed in terms of the social and psychological effects they have on the residents who live there.

What aspects of the spaces lead to distress, why and how they can be combatted is researched through secondary studies, experiments and research papers.

While they may have many severe ill-effects, ways of making high density residential buildings more people friendly are suggested.

Cities are hosts to great numbers of people who work and live here. Global population is accelerating at a rapid pace and with it urbanization. Urban areas have been struggling to accommodate these large and diverse populations. Apart from air, water and food, one of the essential needs of these people is shelter, which is a primary objective in the design of cities. The demand for housing is at an all-time high and will only increase in the coming future.

There are two typical ways in which cities of the world are meeting this demand. One is horizontal expansion and the other vertical. Much like Delhi, cities expand onto their peripheries consuming agrarian lands and neighboring villages as well as towns. Such horizontal expansion has its drawbacks, in that it increases transit distances, hence, time and leads to clogged traffic networks. This leads to increased pollution and hence, is not feasible with the current state of the environment. It is also extremely challenging in situations where the regional context is not favorable, like in Mumbai.

Hence development tends to boom in the third dimension. Dense, high rise development is now seen all across the world. India has also joined the trend with developers building dense residential complexes, accommodating maximum units of housing in small parcels of land to gain maximum

profits. The public authorities also have to resort to the same strategy. 30 projects for re-densification have been planned for city centers in Delhi with a lot of work underway.

In such high-rise developments, thousands of people live in close proximity to each other. Spaces that surround individual housing units are exposed to general view, perceived and used by the public.

Multiple apartments on each floor share common lobby spaces. Each residential tower tends to have close to a hundred apartment units who share the same elevators and staircases. Multiple towers of this kind cluster together to form a residential society. Here, several people in the neighborhood share common spaces, resources and facilities. In such an environment it is humanly impossible to know thy neighbor let alone love them.

The issue with high density: Urban design is defined as the process of shaping the setting (or public realm) for life in cities, towns and villages. With the high degree of anonymity that discussed situations generate, the public realm seems to begin at the first step out one’s door.

Families are in constant interaction with countless number of people, most of whom they don’t know personally. Such high density environments affect the lifestyles of people living within. A large number of researches in different disciplines confirm that the multiple components of housing units and outdoor areas have the potential to contribute effectively to physical health and social and mental well-being of the residents. (Chatterjee, 2009) Studies on the specific effects of high density urban environments have been carried out since the mid-20th century in western nations. The findings bring to notice alarming yet relatable observations.

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Figure 1: #residensity Photographs of rows of densely populated housing estates, home to many of the lower to middle class population in Hong Kong provided by the government, have recently become trendy and visually powerful on social media platforms. They provide a grave picture of the cityscape lined with arrayed shoebox apartments. (Google Images, 2016) In contrast to low-rise, sprawl typology dwellings, high-rise apartment residents saw the building as a dangerous conglomerate of alien spaces and mainly threatening people. (McCarthy and Saegert,1978) Most people who live in these houses have no social bonds to their neighbours prior to moving in. There is a random assignment of apartments. The foreign environment with dearth of nature and open spaces leads to alienation, detachment and lack of satisfaction amongst the residents. These buildings have often been accused for causing many unpleasant consequences, namely, fear, dissatisfaction, stress, behavioral problems, suicide, poor social relations, reduced helpfulness, and hindered child development (Cappon, 1972; Angrist, 1974; Conway and Adams, 1977). Due to their large numbers, there is a lack of discrimination of fellow residents from intruders. Their unpredictable, uncontrollable and possibly interfering nature leads to a fear and mistrust of neighbors instead of the traditional feelings of communality. High-density environments lead to high-intensity spatial structures where the ratio of resource to users is very less. In many high-rise buildings, particularly for low-income families, insufficient resources are allotted to spaces that afford the development and maintenance of social networks. Parents of young children in large multiple-dwelling units often cope with the paucity of nearby play spaces by keeping children inside their apartments. Such restrictions heighten interfamilial conflict, minimize play

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opportunities with others, and remove a primary avenue for parents to get to know their neighbors.

(Evans, 2003) Lobbies, lounges, community halls, open sitting areas, garden patches, playgrounds and other small-group spaces are absent or located too far from residences or in public areas that afford insufficient residential control and feelings of ownership. Such high intensity spaces of congestion, lead to the perceptions of crowding aroused by the feeling of a violation of personal space. Excessive social encounters and information lead to a cognitive overload. This combined with the already busy lifestyles of people in cities leads to social withdrawals amongst the residents. They feel powerlessness and a detachment from the residential project as a whole.

Need for good design: While it is acknowledged that crowding is a psychological state affected as much by social and mental status as by spaces, the role architecture and design plays cannot be denied. Territoriality, the ability to monitor and regulate use of space, is related to the physical environment. Tall, large structures, long interior corridors, lack of small group spaces, and poor visual surveillance capability (e.g., inability to monitor entrances, places for concealment) interfere with territorial control and feelings of ownership, and are associated with both actual crime levels and fear of crime. (Evans, 2003) There are three degrees of territoriality that people

School of Planning and Architecture UD Research Paper- 2016/17

Figure 2: High-density high-rise residential development in Indirapuram near Delhi (Photo by author, 2016) display. Individual group territoriality is one’s private space, in this case, a housing unit. Primary group territoriality is a community space one fees a part of, with emotional and psychological connect.

Secondary group territoriality is communality in a space with no emotional connect as such, but a sense of ownership. City dwellers, like others, create and sustain personal networks that lend emotional and social support and provide stakes in conformity.

With the current lifestyles and prevalence of social media and the internet, these networks are generally maintained with co-workers or those with common interests and rarely with people in physical proximity, i.e. neighbors. As the facilities for selfdependence increase, the occurrence of proximity based residential groupings decrease. This can have negative effects such as no response in case physical help is needed especially in emergencies.

Jane Jacobs has highlighted the positive aspects of naturally forming social networks. Seemly design of residential environments can facilitate this. Though residents tend to feel a sense of secondary

territoriality to spaces around their homes, the imminent challenge is to transform these spaces so that they breed primary territoriality. The responsibilities of the promoters and builders should not be restricted only in providing accommodation to people in high rise apartments but at the same time they must ensure proper environmental facilities to the dwellers so that they may live comfortably and peacefully without anxieties and apprehensions. (Chatterjee, 2009) The challenge is to create cognitively manageable physical units of space for manageable sub-groups of residents to avoid sensory and social overload. Physical environments have the potential to facilitate casual contact with personal identification of others and provide opportunities for social interaction.

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Figure 3&4: High-density experimental housing complexes i.e. The Interlace apartments by OMA and 8house by BIG. They have innovative sharing of utilities and provision of multiple open spaces on different levels (Source: ArchDaily, 2016) The way ahead: Working within the realities of paucity of land and exploding population increases, the building of high density high-rise development is certainly the best way forward. However, unlike the conventional bulk of development, more innovative solutions could be strived for. Good architectural design can be utilized to make individuals more comfortable and reduce the experience of crowding in such cases. It is appropriate to point out that these changes can be made without increasing the space available to individuals. The procedures are rather simple but the research suggests that the effects on the psychological state of the individual may be profound. (Worchel, 1978) The ‘third space’ can be designed so as to regulate permeability of different natures of users. The common spaces in residential colonies should be treated with as much care as the public realm is in effective urban design.

Depth is defined as the number of spaces one must pass through to go from one place to the next.

(Evans, Lepore, & Schroeder, 1996) Distress due to high density can be prevented in residential areas by increased architectural depth to reach one’s house.

The ease of controlling social interaction reduces social withdrawal. There is a need to activate sidewalks and streets on the ground floor and also vertical circulation and lobby and corridor spaces on the higher floors. This will instigate neighborhood interaction and through this public spaces convert into semi-private ones (secondary to primary territoriality). Design elements other than nature have the potential to enhance restorative processes within settings. Architectural features that support fascination, curiosity, or involuntary attention ought to enhance recovery from mental fatigue. Views of nature, fireplaces, fountains, aquariums, and animals

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(e.g., an aviary) as well as paintings of landscapes and other coherent, tranquil scenes are among the design elements with the potential to afford restoration. Spaces where people can briefly get away and be in a small group may buffer some of the harmful effects of residential crowding. For this, multiple outdoor spaces on different levels are needed. Private outdoor spaces that look into public outdoor spaces are ideal as they give a certain extent of surveillance that makes people confident to send their children to play there. It extends the sense of belonging, stability, predictability and security beyond individual units into the semiprivate zone. Fry and Willis (1971) found that adults do not react negatively to violation of their personal space by children under eight years old. An adult closely bordered by children will be less likely to feel crowded than one bordered by adults in the same amount of space. Hence, children are the best users to activate common spaces. Not only does this help in their psychological and physical healthiness but adults connect and interact through their offspring and this gives rise to formation of communities. The (semi-)public realm needs to be dealt with carefully.

The third place encourages human connections through serendipitous interaction. This can be done by providing outdoor seating, board games, sculpture and art displays, OATs and staircases as viewpoints etc. It is important to keep in mind the human scale in designing these spaces. An evening stroll is something that people in Indian society hold dear and hence a continuous pedestrian loop of apt length and comfortable width can be provided. A walk in the neighborhood helps people connect with it, watch those around, be watched and chat with co-residents.

School of Planning and Architecture UD Research Paper- 2016/17

While high density building is the way ahead, congestion and crowding can be easily avoided through sensitive design and equitable distribution of resources. The benefits of high rise development like the great views, fresh air and quietness should be tapped at all levels and to everyone’s benefit.

References Misconceptions about Man-Made Space: In Partial Defense of High Density Housing Author(s): Robert E. Mitchell Source: The Family Coordinator, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 51-56 Reducing Crowding without Increasing Space: Some Applications of an Attributional Theory of Crowding Author(s): Stephen Worchel Source: Journal of Population, Vol. 1, No. 3, Crowding: Theoretical & Research Implications for Population-Environment Psychology (Fall, 1978), pp.

216-230

List of illustrations Figure 1: #residensity Photographs of rows of densely populated housing estates, home to many of the lower to middle class population in Hong Kong provided by the government, have recently become trendy and visually powerful on social media platforms. They provide a grave picture of the cityscape lined with arrayed shoebox apartments.

(Google Images, 2016) <https://www.google.co.in/search?q=%23residensit y&oq=%23residensity&aqs=chrome..69i57.10628j0j7 &sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8> Figure 2: High-density high-rise residential development in Indirapuram near Delhi (Photo by author, 2016) Figure 3&4: High-density experimental housing complexes i.e. The Interlace apartments by OMA and 8house by BIG. They have innovative sharing of utilities and provision of multiple open spaces on different levels (Source: ArchDaily, 2016)

Milgram, 1970. The experience of living in cities.

Science, 167, 1461-1464 Lofland (1989).Social life in the public realm.

Journal of Contemporary Ethography, 17, 453-482 Evans, Lepore, & Schroeder (1996) JPSP, 70, 41-46 The role of interior design elements in human response to Crowding Mohua Chatterjee, Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, October 2009, Vol. 35, Special Issue, 85-92. Perception of Housing Environment among High Rise Dwellers Gary W. Evans, Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine Vol. 80, No. 4, December 2003The Built Environment and Mental Health Author(s): Dennis McCarthy and Susan Saegert Source: Human Ecology, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Sep., 1978), pp. 253-272 Residential Density, Social Overload, and Social Withdrawal

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