I LANDSCAPE INSIGHT
By: Tina Heers Landscape Architect, InSite
How activating public spaces between the urban forms can create a community identity
The bright city lights, the hustle and bustle, the endless opportunities, the glitz and the glam – these can be some of the reasons that people choose big city living. What comes along with this is the ease of living in an apartment, everything is at your doorstep and often just a quick walk to the metro station, connecting occupants to the rest of the metropolis. Those that reside in the UAE or even visiting could assume that a large percentage of the city’s population have taken up apartment living. This conclusion could be made as one looks around as you travel down any of the main highways of
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the country such as Sheikh Zayed Road. In spite of this density of urbanization, apartment living is often quite isolating, as everyone retreats into their own abode. Most interactions occur when neighbours encounter one another in the elevator once every few days prompting a smile. Apartment dwellers have little choice but to retreat into their units at the end of the day since there are a lack of communal spaces to socialise and instead end up bounded within a space where the same air circulates from blasting air conditioning.
