Pros and Cons of High Density Housing

While land remains a valuable resource in the urban setting as more people flood into cities, improving density by coming up with high rise house building solution is encouraged.

These thus embrace high rise apartments, condominiums, and clustered housing including the following advantages and the following disadvantage with the residents.

Even though they assist to absorb increasing numbers of individuals and can improve comfort sometimes, they have their own problems.

Here then are the advantages as well as the disadvantages of living in areas with high density housing.

Pros: Increased Access to Amenities

Convenience and Proximity

Most hi-rise apartments are found in areas that are central and or close to industrial areas, therefore making the basic needs, business and eating joints easily reachable.

Being near facilities means that there will be little or no need for transportation; it provides ease to human beings dwelling in the area.

A significant number of high density housing developments also have facilities like gyms and pools, parks, or even shops within the compound, so life is easier.

Especially, it is important for young working population, students, and families who prefer living in the area with close proximity to service and recreational facilities.

Pros: Better Public Transportation Access

Easy and Time Effective Travels and Lesser Usage of Cars

People living in high density housing occupy areas close to bus, rail, or metro stations, and these commuters seldom use cars.

This harness on public means not only minimizes traffic density on the roads but also the general costs of transport for the people.

Employees who do not own a car can easily afford to commute from a high density housing area to their place of work.

Increased public transport use also has a positive effect on changing the inhabitants’ life patterns for the better as it reduces the CO2 emission.

Pros: Enhanced Social Interaction and Community Building

Potential for Public Participation

Living in high density housing also makes most residents share structures like parks, play-fields and recreation rooms, and recreation areas.

Such designs offer chances for residents to interact in that they do not require the coordination of functions to produce the chances of encounter, thereby enhancing social relations.

Since people live in groups, there is widespread fellowship, interpolated friendship, and formation of citizenship networks in a neighborhood.

As applied to families with children, it may offer the conditions that parents need so that children can feel welcome and safe to play with one another.

Pro: Environmental Sustainability

Reduced Land Use and Lower Carbon Footprint

High density housing is also seen to slow down development of urban sprawl because more people are housed in compact buildings hence occupying less space.

It allows to save green territories, preserve the natural environment, which is essential for environmental responsibility.

High density housing developments also involve compact unit sizes and therefore less energy per household is used.

In the same ways, greater numbers of people relying on public transportation and fewer individuals in cars contributes to the fact that small-focused areas overall can produce less customer carbon footprint toward city-wide goals and combating climate change.

Cons: Higher Risk of Health Issues in Crowded Environments

Potential for Faster Spread of Illnesses

Staying in contact with a greater number of people augments the probability of spreading diseases in corridors, lifts, gymnasiums and foyers.

Flu or respiratory infections are easily passed around in high density housing because of the close proximity usually and shared spaces.

In other words, during the time of an outbreak, densely populated places may add on extras difficulty to the task of keeping a physical distance from other people.

This may result into increased stress levels and health risks to individuals with one or multiple risky health characteristics.

Cons: Noise and Privacy Concerns

Increased Noise Levels

Noise is the most evident disadvantage you will come across with high density housing developments.

Since the number of residents has increased, it is easy for there to be loud noise from other residents or from neighboring units or the clubhouse.

Some problems can be solved with soundproofing, although it does not make complete isolation from noise.

People in the neighbours rooms might listened to the foot traffic, conversations or television from the other rooms.

High density housing also affects privacy because people meet more often since there are many users of common spaces, large windows of high rise buildings might face another’s window, thus less privacy.

Cons: Limited Space and Higher Costs per Square Foot

Smaller Living Areas

Mainly because of high density, the unit space per household in high-density developments is comparatively small than in low; density housing without or with limited area of open spaces such as private garden or yard.

This can be very hard for families or single person who really appreciate privacy and space.

Furthermore, the cost per unit area in large area density can also be higher than the suburban or rural area densities.

What this means is that, although the residents might save largely on transport costs, they end up losing big on the space they need.

So if people are eager for more space or those who prefer to be alone with their thoughts, high density housing will appear oppressive.

Conclusion

Density in houses has been widely embraced in most imageries, and this comes with obvious merits and demerits of the housing structures.

As a pro, the units make it easy to avoid vehicle use by always being in walking distance to buses or trains, there are strong neighborhood bonds that lack in apartment living, young professionals’ families or anyone who wish to be independently not reliant on a car find the opportunity of having their units strategic an added advantage.

Moreover, some of the problems such as noise, privacy and space constraints may be an undesirable feature for those who prefer to live in low density structures.

Since the population of the city continues to grow and there is little space left where houses can be built, high density house is the perfect way to house more people, efficiently.

However, when managing shared spaces, these common disadvantages need to be considered and solved, for example, sound insulation, proper design of the shared territory, availability of cheap rooms.

What works for high-density developments will need to be weighed against what does not for cities to effectively build and provide high-density structures that are comfortable to live in for all individuals of society.

Also read: High Density Housing: A Solution for Urban Living