High-rise Condominium Research Articles

An investigation of the open spaces and their impact on child interaction in high-rise urban environments: a case of the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT Most contemporary research on child psychology has studied the importance of child interactions and personality development. However, minimal research has been done to understand the blend between child psychology, natural environment, and placemaking. This study investigates how open spaces in high-rise condominiums promote child interactions and what open space characteristics catalyse such interactions by using a child-centered multiple method approach. The results depict that open spaces can act as a room for connecting children with their family and friends, natural environment and wider neighbourhoods while enhancing opportunities for self-actualization and routines. The study reveals that children’s usability and interactions are encouraged by natural elements equipped with play items and a strong sense of privacy and security. Supporting the assemblage theory, the assemblage of all the elements, such as buildings, greenery, seating, and walking paths, supports positive interactions among children. The study recommends that planners design spaces assembled as a functional sub-system of the main system to assist early child development competencies.

Impact of Physical Environmental Factors on Mental Wellbeing of Condominium Dwellers

This paper attempts to reveal the outcomes of the empirical research investigating how the physical environments of the residential high-rises, known as condominiums, including the urban and community contexts, impact mental wellbeing of the dwellers since the emergence of condominiums in Bangkok’s real estate market has continued to proliferate. The principal objectives of the research are to determine the assumption that the high-density urban environment and unique structure of condominiums are the significant determinants affecting occupants’ mental status. Based on the quantitative research approach, the two-stage stratified sampling technique and a cross-sectional survey were performed to engage 1,206 participants from eighteen high-rise condominiums in Bangkok. The interdisciplinary research instruments applied in this study are a Physical-Environmental (PE) Assessment for evaluating the physical environment and surroundings of the condominiums and a Personal and Psychological (PP) Questionnaire for collecting respondents’ attributes and their psychological status quo: safety concerns, privacy satisfaction, and a sense of community at the time of their dwelling in condominiums. At the analytical stage, three inferential statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, independent sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance, were applied at the p-value ≤ 0.05. The results endorsed three urban factors: geographical zoning, land use zoning, and density of population as significant dominants of safety concerns, including the sense of community of condominiums’ dwellers, whereas community and architectural factors appeared to have distinctive effects on all three psychological variables.

Evaluation of the impact of urban redevelopment projects with high-rise condominiums on the formation of compact cities in railway station areas

Evaluation of the impact of urban redevelopment projects with high-rise condominiums on the formation of compact cities in railway station areas

개발밀도와 아파트 가격의 비선형적 관계 탐색

This study aimed to investigate the association between development density and housing prices in Seoul, utilizing a machine learning driven hedonic price model. The model employed actual transaction data of high-rise condominiums (apartments) spanning from January 2019 to December 2021. The study employed CatBoost algorithm and eXplainable AI techniques (SHAP) to explore the non-linear relationships between floor area ratio(FAR) and housing prices. The findings revealed that overall FAR had a negative relationship with housing prices for both general apartments and mixed-use development. However, the negative impact of FAR was relatively small in large-scale development. Furthermore, the negative impact of FAR may not be significant in some high-end mixed-use development. These findings imply the importance of proposing appropriate site plans to ensure a desirable residential environment when high-density development is necessary.

Meeting urban GHG reduction goals with waste diversion: multi-residential buildings

Waste diversion targets are a common characteristic of municipal climate change mitigation plans because about two-thirds of residential waste sent to landfills is degradable and thus contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper focuses on the challenge of achieving waste diversion targets in multi-residential buildings because their diversion rates are much lower than those for single-family homes. A case study of 15 high-rise condominium and cooperative housing buildings compares modes of governance by the City of Toronto and by multi-residential buildings to address waste diversion challenges. City responses to the challenges included mandatory building standards making waste diversion as convenient as garbage disposal, voluntary standards for in-suite storage of recyclables and organics, phase-in of organics collection and pay-as-you-throw collection fees, and delivery of promotion and education programs. For buildings, the responses were fines for poor-quality sorting, conversion of the garbage chute to an organics chute, the delivery of education material to residents, and monitoring bin capacity. Despite these initiatives, Toronto is very unlikely to meet its target of diverting 70% of residential waste away from disposal in landfill by 2030. Seven actions are recommended to increase the rate of diversion. <em><strong>Policy relevance</strong></em> Recommended actions for Toronto and other municipalities facing similar waste diversion deficits in the multi-residential sector include: studying the potential for converting garbage chutes to organic chutes, assessing the effectiveness of different chute systems, modifying waste collection service agreements or city bylaws to incorporate obligations for promotion and education around waste diversion, revising building standards to require more space for diversion facilities inside buildings, adopting voluntary building standards for building operations, and advocating with higher levels of government to regulate packaging complexity.

Rise Overrun: Condoization, Gentrification, and the Changing Political Economy of Renting in Toronto

Privately owned high-rise condominiums have been increasing as a proportion of all housing units built in the Greater Toronto Area for many decades. This has inspired a growing literature theorizing both “condoism” as an emergent planning-development regime and the implications of “condoization” and “condofication” for urban governance and everyday life in cities like Toronto. Building on this literature, this article assesses the implications of Toronto’s increasing reliance on (mainly vertical) condominium development for the socio-spatial transformation of the housing market, particularly for renters. Analyzing time-series data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Census of Canada to quantify the effects of the city’s condoization, we answer three key questions: How important is condominium development for understanding the restructuring of Toronto’s economy? How has condoization contributed to the ongoing gentrification of Toronto’s inner city? How is condoization restructuring Toronto’s rental market? Building on previous research categorizing and mapping the gentrification of Toronto’s inner city, we find that condoization is an increasingly defining element restructuring the city’s rental market, while this restructuring also plays a central role in the advancing gentrification of the city’s core.

Procedural Effects on Controlling Natural Disasters (Landslides and Flash Floods) Based on Environmental Degradation from Development in Malaysia

In recent years, Malaysia's growing population and accelerating economic conditions have resulted in the construction of high-rise condominiums and the expansion of settlements and lifelines across hilly areas. Natural disasters are always happening in Malaysia, with landslides and flash floods as the main problems and common natural disasters. This problem occurs annually due to rising numbers of development in Malaysia involving land clearance and rapid construction, especially in hilly areas. Under such circumstances, research was conducted on landslide and flash flood incidences in Malaysia from 2020 until 2022. The assessment in this research was done using the matrix method commonly used in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The results gained by using those method shows that both landslides and flash flood naturally happen in the last quarter of a year, which are in December and January for both landslides and flash flood disaster. The highest score for landslide incidences was in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur with 8.4; in contrast, 9.2, the highest average score recorded for flash floods, happened in Selangor, Pahang, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, and Terengganu. Both of these incidents occurred in December 2021. This situation shows that both natural and man-made affect the occurrence of the tragedy in Malaysia. Heavy rainfall and rapid development lead to this problem. Compliance with general guidelines from contractors, developers and agencies may reduce the number of these disasters in the future. Hence, it will help to prevent soil erosion and slope failure that frequently occurs in Malaysia.

The value of land redevelopment in different types of properties: Considering the effect of hold-out problems on the development probability

Housing price combines the building value and land value of real estate, in which the building value can be measured using its reconstruction cost minus its depreciation. For land value, the future redevelopment value of the land should be considered in addition its present use value. However, the uncertainty of land redevelopment is often high because the development probability is influenced by the benefit of redevelopment and whether an agreement can be reached between landowners. If the influence of these two factors on the likelihood of redevelopment is incorrectly assessed, the land value may be overestimated or underestimated. Hence, this study adopts a real option model to solve the endogenous value of land with redevelopment opportunities. Furthermore, by considering the conflicts of interest between landowners, this study infers that the prices of different types of properties may reflect the land redevelopment value differently. Our inference is that landowners with solely owned houses can redevelop their land at the optimal time without interference from exogenous factors; hence, their land prices should include the redevelopment value calculated based on real options. In contrast, when land ownership is distributed among multiple individuals; hold-out problems emerge, landowners may choose not to undertake redevelopment, and forfeit of the land redevelopment value is plausible. Accordingly, the land value of such real estate can only be estimated based on the cash flow in the current condition. To verify the inferences of this study, in the empirical part of the paper, we use transaction samples from Taipei occurring between 2015 and 2020, which include three types of housing—townhouses (sole ownership of land), apartments (land ownership shared among a few individuals), and high-rise condominium units (land ownership shared among numerous individuals). Using these three types of housing for estimation reveals whether the land redevelopment value of houses is included in their corresponding housing prices, under various ownership concentrations. Subsequently, by using a threshold regression model, the study demonstrates that the likelihood of the existence of land redevelopment value increases with ownership concentration, which contributes to higher housing prices of older houses over time.

Residential preferences based on life stage groups of residents and factors related to types of intentions to continue living in or relocating from super-high-rise condominiums

ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the residential preference characteristics of super-high-rise condominium residents in Kawasaki, Japan, and their intentions to continue living in the super-high-rise condominiums or relocating based on their life stage groups, of which there are eight types. We analysed the factors related to their intentions to stay or relocate. We determined the reasons and motivations behind the selection of their current homes in high-rise buildings, and found that more residents chose their homes because of their preference for redevelopment areas to high-rise condominiums. Approximately 70% of the residents intended to continue living in their current homes for more than 20 years, while 18% of them intended to continue living in the same area following relocation, because of the attractiveness of the area. After establishing the types of relocation and analysing the influencing factors, it was found that the important influencing factors were the age group, space of the residential area, emphasis on the townscape and topicality, and emphasis on commercial facilities. Particularly in the younger generation, there were various reasons for relocation depending on the emphasis of the local environment.

Seismic Response of a Typical Shear-Wall Dominated High-Rise Condominium Building during the January 7, 2020, Mw6.4 Indios, Puerto Rico Earthquake

AbstractSeismic response records were retrieved from the monitored 21-story (53.26-m-tall) typical Puerto Rican reinforced-concrete shear-wall dominated El Castillo Building in Mayaguez, 50 km from...

A win-win situation? Urban regeneration and the paradox of homeowner displacement

This paper examines urban regeneration outcomes for homeowners through a mixed-methods analysis of population change in six redevelopment sites. Israel's national urban regeneration policy presents itself as a ‘win-win’ mechanism, claiming that it mitigates displacement. This claim is tested and discussed through the theoretical lens of state-led gentrification and displacement. The Israeli program relies on contractual agreements between private homeowners and developers and provides homeowners with newly built high-rise condominium units. Consequently, homeowners can choose how to capitalize on their new property – whether to inhabit, let or sell. We argue that their choice reflects the preferences and varied capabilities of owners. While homeowners are relatively protected from direct displacement, the variance in owner capabilities may lead to economic pressures that chiefly impact vulnerable low-income owners. We suggest that the Israeli model of sharing the benefits from housing commodification glosses over the capability gap and frames potential displacement pressures as market choice features.

Strategic Adaptive Leadership and Emerging Approaches to Online Marketing of a US Small Business Real Estate Firm in Response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business dynamics for many organizations globally. This paper examines the demonstration of adaptable strategic leadership and marketing towards online and digital marketing approaches of a newly developed waterfront high rise condominium complex. As a result of COVID-19, business sales projections are off by 85%. This paper explores organizational development intervention practitioner-based applied qualitative action research that makes recommendations on the most resourceful options in which small businesses can attract customers and boost sales even with the pandemic. For this case study, the name Moreso, a fictitious name, will be used to respect the organization that provided the data used and approved the ability to publish these findings' privacy and intellectual capital. This research approach's value in this instance is built on the reality that many similar small businesses in the real estate industry experience these same dynamics because of COVID-19 but have no starting framework on how to respond.

Perceptions of thermal conditions in contemporary high-rise apartment buildings under different temperature control strategies

While occupancy-based control and other demand management control strategies have demonstrated potential, little is known about how these changes in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) control impacts occupants’ perception of the thermal conditions in their home. In this paper, occupants’ thermal comfort perceptions and use of thermostat overrides under three different control strategies (programmable thermostat operation, occupancy-reactive control, and pre-cooling/pre-heating for load-shifting) are analyzed. Thermal comfort data were collected through six occupant surveys administered to 54 participants in the summer and winter months in two high-rise condominium buildings in Toronto, Canada. Minor changes to reported thermal sensation scores were observed in both the occupancy-based and load shifting control scenarios, however, overall reported thermal sensation scores remained neutral. Occupants’ use of overrides did not change significantly during occupancy-based control periods, however, during load shifting control, occupants frequently overrode strategy temperature set-points – which indicates that many participants likely experienced thermal discomfort beyond their tolerance level. Occupants’ use of strategy overrides during load shifting control strategy operation in the cooling season significantly reduced strategy efficacy. Reducing the maximum temperature setback during load shifting control to 3 °C during the cooling season was recommended to reduce occupant override and improve realized peak-period load reductions.

Questionnaire survey of the occupants of high-rise residential buildings in Sapporo after the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake

ABSTRACT In this study, a resident questionnaire survey was conducted for three reinforced-concrete high-rise condominium buildings in Sapporo. All three were subjected to the 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi Earthquake. Resident experiences of shaking and damage due to the earthquake, the seismic measures taken before and after the earthquake, and conditions during the long-term blackout were evaluated by the survey. Resident anxiety and their difficulty in taking actions due to the shaking were relatively small, because the ground motions input to the buildings were not very large. The long-term power outage due to the earthquake had a great impact on the occupants. Particularly, the inability to use elevators caused a great inconvenience to the residents of higher floors, making it difficult for them to leave their dwelling units. Each of the three buildings was equipped with an emergency power supply; however, differences in the operation methods of these supplies affected the convenience of the occupants during the power outage. The inconvenience and anxiety caused by the shaking and the power outage left a strong impression on the residents. This may have resulted in motivation to make further earthquake preparations, such as stockpiling of flashlights, lanterns, food, and water, after the complex disaster.

A Study on Strengthening of Disaster prevention organization system and Local cooperation in Super high-rise Condominiums

A Study on Strengthening of Disaster prevention organization system and Local cooperation in Super high-rise Condominiums

Transit boundaries: race and the paradox of immobility within mobile systems

ABSTRACT The central city is once again hot. Many city areas where poor minorities were left behind during the decades-long suburban growth are experiencing a revival. New high-rise condominiums and other developments are drawing tens of thousands back to city spaces that were once considered undesirable. These ‘return to the city’ trends are supported in part by growth machine engines, such as Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts, often to the detriment of lower-income minority residents, who still find themselves trapped within the boundaries of spatial inequalities in the city. Drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, I show how public transportation is used to buttress the city’s growth machine, while simultaneously maintaining the boundaries of spatial and other types of inequalities. In doing so, I highlight how public transit is used to create and support growth along race (and class) lines. Specifically, I show how mobility and growth for Whites and predominantly White spaces in the city are proactively shaped through favorable new public transit development and revitalization initiatives such as TOD and TIF. At the same time, in predominantly Black and Latinx spaces, where intracommunity public transportation usage is high, new transit related development is below sparse or completely lacking, further fortifying transit and other spatial boundaries.

Managing thermal comfort in contemporary high-rise residential buildings: Using smart thermostats and surveys to identify energy efficiency and comfort opportunities

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) operation is the largest contributor to residential building energy use and can significantly influence occupant thermal comfort and behaviours. Despite the boom in high-rise residential building construction, little is known about the relationship between occupant comfort and behaviors and HVAC operation in these contemporary buildings. In this study, connected thermostat data and occupant surveys from 55 participants across two contemporary high-rise condominium buildings were used to characterize this relationship to reveal opportunities for improved comfort and energy efficiency. Survey data indicated that occupant thermal discomfort was prevalent across both buildings in the heating and cooling seasons (48% and 53% reporting discomfort in heating and cooling seasons, respectively). The measured data corroborated the survey findings showing that over-conditioning of suites is a chronic issue across seasons. However, investigation into the temperatures of suites located in different parts of the buildings indicated that the overheating was influenced by wind, solar radiation and winter stack effect, but not in the ways suggested by building physics (e.g. air moving in opposite direction of predicted stack effect). This supports our hypothesis that the MAU operational characteristics and incorrect balancing of air duct networks are likely causing over-conditioning but further investigation is ongoing to confirm this. Analysis of suite HVAC unit runtimes also revealed low runtimes in heating season, which may limit the effectiveness of improved (e.g. occupant-based) in-suite HVAC controls, given the minimal space conditioning energy consumption in these particular suites. This study demonstrates the potential for using connected thermostat data as a diagnostic tool to identify opportunities for energy savings in the building.

Rent-seeking middle classes and the short-term rental business in inner-city Lima

Between 2007 and 2017, Lima experienced an unprecedented growth of the construction sector and an increase in high-rise condominiums. Urban land as a strategic resource has altered the spatial configuration of Lima’s central districts. This paper presents the results of a case study of Barranco, a central and emblematic district of Lima that underwent an intense real estate boom. In our assessment, we connect the recent touristification and gentrification debates to develop a new pattern of Latin American gentrification. We argue that Barranco’s consolidation as a tourist destination, along with the relaxation of local construction policies, has led to the development of one-bedroom apartments in high-rise condominiums destined mainly to be rented out to tourists and other types of floating population. This urban restructuring model has created new business opportunities for what we call a rent-seeking middle class, keen to invest in real estate as an alternative means to increase their income. By way of discussion, we argue that the case of Barranco exemplifies a new trend in Latin American gentrification which is not characterised by an influx of the urban middle class into central areas, nor by a massive physical displacement of lower-income residents, but by the growing purchasing power of a wealthier middle-class group investing in the short-term rental business in combination with other enabling factors.

Mapping the hot and cold spots of spatial change in Tokyo following the bubble economy period

Abstract. After the bubble economy collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, the government’s deregulation policies accelerated urban development in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. This resulted in increased trade in real estate and accelerated population growth in downtown Tokyo. However, that trend was not observed in all areas: instead, it exacerbated the spatial differentiation that was already apparent in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Hirayama (2005, 2006, 2011) found that government policy to promote housing supply and increase urban redevelopment split urban space into hot spots, with new investments, and redeveloped districts and cold spots, with stagnant and depopulated districts. However, the precise locations of such spots are not obvious, as those studies did not map them.This study identified and mapped hot and cold spots in Tokyo with the use of spatial analysis with GIS. To this end, we employed grid square population statistics for 1985, 1995, and 2005, which encompasses the entire period of the bubble economy and its aftermath. The analysis of hot spots using the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic was performed on data for population change in 23 wards of Tokyo in this period. Then, we explored the detailed composition of the population and the background of the changes in a consideration of the socio-economic shift of Tokyo during this period.The results of the analysis indicated that hot and cold spots coexisted in central Tokyo, and their spatial distribution changed drastically following the collapse of the bubble economy at the beginning of the 1990s. Between 1985 and 1995, populations show a concentric pattern of change: cold spots are observed in areas close to the city center and hot spots appear on the outskirts of the study area. This pattern is a result of population outflows due to soaring land prices during the period of the bubble economy.However, population changes between 1995 and 2005 indicated a different pattern and the resulting distribution of hot and cold spots was dispersed. Specifically, hot spots appeared in the south and east parts of central Tokyo, where highrise condominiums were being built on the sites of former factories or warehouses in the coastal areas of Tokyo Bay. In these districts, a marked increase of white-collar workers was observed, an indicator of gentrification. By contrast, cold spots are noted on the northern side of central Tokyo, where large public housing estates are located and their population has declined and aged. The contrast between the north and the south of Tokyo became obvious after the bubble economy collapsed.

Basements On The Beach: Overcoming South Florida's Shoreline Excavation Challenges

The South Florida beachfront is awash with an ever-increasing number of high-rise condominiums. As land becomes scarcer and increasingly expensive, and building regulations change to require above-grade floors to be commercial or residential units, developers must locate parking below grade. However, given a subsurface profile consisting of highly porous limestone, together with a shallow groundwater table, maintaining a dry excavation for underground basement construction is a significant challenge.