High-rise Neighborhoods Research Articles

Warszawskie Jelonki – od wsi folwarcznej, przez miasto ogród do wielkomiejskiego osiedla mieszkaniowego

The Jelonki neighbourhood in Warsaw is a part of the capital’s Bemowo district. It is primarily a residential area, but it is characterized by mixed development, consisting of single-family and multi-family houses, blocks of flats, as well as contemporary, modern apartment blocks and gated estates. The specific urban layout of Jelonki has been shaped over the last hundred years. The successive stages of the formation of space in this part of Warsaw illustrate the changing architectural and social standards. From the pre-war garden city, through the “Przyjaźń” (“Friendship”) settlement subordinated to the socio-political conditions of Stalinist Poland and the prefabricated high-rise neighbourhoods of Jelonki, Lazurowa and Górczewska, built in the construction boom of the seventies and eighties, to the new housing projects of the free market economy post 1989.

Warszawskie Jelonki – od wsi folwarcznej, przez miasto ogród do wielkomiejskiego osiedla mieszkaniowego

The Jelonki neighbourhood in Warsaw is a part of the capital’s Bemowo district. It is primarily a residential area, but it is characterized by mixed development, consisting of single-family and multi-family houses, blocks of flats, as well as contemporary, modern apartment blocks and gated estates. The specific urban layout of Jelonki has been shaped over the last hundred years. The successive stages of the formation of space in this part of Warsaw illustrate the changing architectural and social standards. From the pre-war garden city, through the “Przyjaźń” (“Friendship”) settlement subordinated to the socio-political conditions of Stalinist Poland and the prefabricated high-rise neighbourhoods of Jelonki, Lazurowa and Górczewska, built in the construction boom of the seventies and eighties, to the new housing projects of the free market economy post 1989.

Comparing the Impact of Urban Park Landscape Design Parameters on the Thermal Environment of Surrounding Low-Rise and High-Rise Neighborhoods

Scientific and reasonable planning of urban forests is crucial to mitigate the UHI effect and create a comfortable local climate. This study focused on maximizing the synergistic effect of landscape design parameters (i.e., Landscape Shape Index (LSI), Percentage of Green Area (PGA), Park Area (PA), and Percentage of Water Area (PWA)) through orthogonal experimental design and numerical simulation to improve the regulation of the thermal environment of urban parks in the surrounding blocks. For the neighborhood of low-rise buildings, the influence of PGA was the most significant in the morning with a contribution rate of 50.43%, while PWA was the most influential during midday and evening, with contribution rates of 73.02% and 52.30%, respectively. In contrast, PA was the most influential in the morning with a contribution rate of 62.11% for the high-rise building neighborhood, while the impact of PWA was the most significant in the midday with a contribution rate of 43.99%. In addition, the contribution of PA and PWA played vital roles at night. This study proposed combinations of landscape design parameters for urban parks that met the requirements of two types of neighborhoods, which would help guide the planning and construction of urban forests.

Fostering intergenerational interactions in high-rise residential neighbourhoods: towards culturally-informed interventions?

Previous studies have investigated the impacts of high-rise living on neighbourhood social interactions, yet this body of literature does not focus explicitly on intergenerational interactions, which are associated with distinctive benefits for older and younger generations. This qualitative study investigated how younger and older people interact in high-rise neighbourhoods, and identified the factors that hinder intergenerational interactions, through in-depth interviews with 23 young adults and 26 older people in Hong Kong. The findings revealed that the two generations rarely interact, partly due to generational differences in the use of public spaces, and partly due to socio-cultural factors, especially the pervasive culture of digital communication among younger people, and aversion to small talk in public spaces. The findings also highlighted the potential of new forms of interdependency-oriented interventions in enhancing intergenerational support, while respecting residents’ desire for privacy. These findings highlight the need for culturally-sensitive interventions, in order to foster meaningful intergenerational interactions in high-rise neighbourhoods across different cultural contexts.

Reciclando, cuidando e conversando na Food Bike: Participação cidadã em um experimento de gestão de resíduos em Hengelo, na Holanda.

Abstract The food bike (voedselfiets) project in the city of Hengelo (Netherlands) was designed to stimulate citizens to separate organic from residual waste. The food bikes take standard routes with designated stops to collect food waste from residents in high-rise neighbourhoods, which lack space to separate organic waste in garbage containers. Data were collected by a mix of qualitative research methods, which allowed to develop a holistic and contextualized view of the reasons why citizens joined this environmental initiative. The from literature well-known factors of idealism and self-interest can partly explain participation in the food bike project, but we have found that a habitus of not wasting food and social needs are also important reasons for people to participate. Especially older people take part in the project because the food bikes suit their habitus of frugality. The social interaction -behaving in a desirable way in the eyes of neighbours, and chatting at the bikes- stand in marked contrast to collection of waste by garbage trucks, in which contact is avoided as much as possible. The social aspect was reinforced during the Corona crisis, when indoor social contact was discouraged by the Dutch government. As it is, municipal efforts to promote pro-environmental behaviour build on the idealism and perceived self-interest of citizens, but could also make use of the social and emotional considerations of prospective participants and their attachment to the neighbourhood.

Residential satisfaction and quality of urban life: examining diverse housing environments

PurposeAs an important indicator of the quality of life of individuals, residential environments are continuing to evolve, due to the rapidly changing production–consumption relations. However, in this evolving process, the effect of the differentiated residential environments on the individuals' residential satisfaction remains unclear. This paper aims to measure the effects of the varying residential environments on the overall quality of urban life (QoUL) in Kayseri, one of the most developed cities in Central Anatolia.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on empirical data on the quality of life in the different residential environments of Kayseri. The research method used stratified purposeful sampling, and the household survey data were analyzed using factor analysis, multiple regression and ANOVA statistical methods.FindingsThe most influential factors on the overall QoUL of individuals living in different Kayseri residential neighborhoods were satisfaction with neighborhood and city-level urban services, neighborhood relations and belonging factor groups. The critical finding obtained in this study is that residential satisfaction in low-rise and compact form housing areas in Kayseri is higher compared to residential satisfaction in high-rise neighborhoods. This result reveals that the high-rise building typology that is dominant in Turkey's big cities should be seriously questioned, and urban development policies should be re-evaluated.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was designed to produce baseline data so that future changes in residential conditions as perceived by the residents of Kayseri could be monitored to support decisions for residential areas.Originality/valueComparative case studies, particularly on low-rise versus high-rise environments, are scarce. As a result, this research contributes to the field of comparative studies on residential environments.

Planning and the High-Rise Neighbourhood: Debates on Vertical Cities

This editorial introduces the thematic issue on “Vertical Cities: The Development of High-Rise Neighbourhoods.” It outlines the lack of understanding about high-rise development in cities around the world and argues for a continued need to further interrogate concepts of verticality beyond single towers and towards a finer grain examination of high-rise neighbourhoods. The editorial introduces four interconnected themes that begin to address this phenomenon—socio-demographic challenges, planning discourses, high-rise legacies, and alternative conceptions of verticality—and highlights how the various articles in this thematic issue explore these critical areas of enquiry. It concludes with a call for future research to delve deeper into the planning challenges presented by high-rise neighbourhoods in the 21st-century city and, critically, the contribution that high-rise urban form makes to urban sustainability.

Planning and Architecture as Determining Influences on the Housing Market: Budapest–Csepel’s Post–War Housing Estates

In Hungary, post-war housing estates can be categorised according to the time of their construction. Thanks to the development of construction technologies and urban planning, these so-called generations of housing estates demonstrate different features with regard to their physical layout and socio-economic characteristics. Socio-economic transformation that took place after the change of regime (1989) was widely affected by the physical parameters of these neighbourhoods and their dwelling stock. Our results show that different generations of housing estates have followed distinct trajectories in the housing market; thus, in addition to their geographical location within the city, planning, architecture, design, and the dwelling stock play a significant role in the market positions of these generations of housing estates. House prices have risen rapidly in Budapest since 2014 up until the pandemic in 2020, and housing estates became popular segments of the housing market. The main aim of this article is to investigate the role of urban planning, architecture and the built environment in this real estate process. The research is based on empirical real estate investigations, statistical house price analyses, and fieldwork undertaken on housing estates. The case study area is Csepel, a former industrial town which became the administrative district 21 of Budapest in 1950. All types of post-war generations of housing estates co-exist, and the majority of the population lives in such neighbourhoods. This special geographical context makes it possible to explore the influential role of the built environment in the housing market. Empirical results from these low- and mid-rise housing estates can make a major contribution to the more effective and successful development of high-rise neighbourhoods.

Negotiating Vertical Urbanization at the Public–Private Nexus: On the Institutional Embeddedness of Planning Committees

<p>While the planning and development of dense and high-rise neighborhoods are commonly perceived as primarily technical procedures, the past several decades have highlighted the growing social complexity of these processes. Neighborhood initiatives opposing development, as well as an increasing variety of public and private stakeholders involved in these processes, have led to the continual emergence of organizations that facilitate the production of urban density and verticality. Committees are founded to operate at the nexus of public and private development, while simultaneously promoting urban growth and public interests. Although they often are not formally recognized as political entities, they are constituted by political acts and hence influence planning processes. However, despite all the research into dense and high-rise neighborhood developments, academic interest has so far neglected the role of committees in these processes. This article aims to fill this gap by presenting an analysis of 23 committees engaging with high-rise housing and neighborhood developments in the three German-speaking countries of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. First, it reveals the heterogeneity of committees, delineating four components for the institutionalization of committees. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of two committees in Austria and Switzerland, to demonstrate how these structural components influence the development of neighborhoods.</p>

Standardizing thermal contrast among local climate zones at a continental scale: Implications for cool neighborhoods

The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification system provides a standardized framework to differentiate neighborhoods for intra-city heat island studies. Yet the thermal contrast of air temperatures over different LCZs has not been examined at a continental scale. Using ground-based meteorological observations in 2016, here we investigated the seasonal thermal behaviors of various LCZs over China. Measured air temperatures over studied LCZs are found to have strong relations with latitude, altitude, and the distance to coastline. Thermal contrasts reduce to less than 1 °C in all seasons after removing the signal of background mean air temperature determined by geographical conditions. Despite the air temperature variation within individual LCZs, results reveal consistent characteristic air temperature regimes of LCZs exist at a continental scale. The warmth of built type LCZs is more evident at night, with an annual mean air temperature difference of 0.51 °C compared to the low plant LCZ. Among the studied LCZs, compact mid-rise neighborhoods have consistently high air temperatures throughout the year. Comparative analysis suggests that open high-rise neighborhoods are preferred over compact mid-rise and low-rise neighborhoods for sustainable city development. Our results provide useful guidance for landscape design and planning to create cool cities and neighborhoods.

Children’s independent mobility licence and its association with the built and social environment: a study across neighbourhood typologies in Kolkata

ABSTRACT Narratives on children’s independent mobility (CIM) from developing countries remain limited and under-researched. This is the first paper from India that examines CIM across three urban neighbourhood typologies, taking a case of Kolkata. The study reports from the comparative analysis of the data provided by 384 parents of children aged 7–12 years from four schools on their CIM licence scores and neighbourhood perception. Logistic regression was employed to examine the association of CIM with the built environment (BE) and social environment (SE) variables of the neighbourhood. The results reveal that older children (10–12 years) were found to enjoy higher CIM licences irrespective of their gender. Low-rise neighbourhood inheriting an organic spatial growth fosters higher CIM than planned mid-rise or high-rise neighbourhoods. When all variables were taken together, the influence of neighbourhood social cohesion and safety on CIM was found to override the influence of BE variables.

Where do People Interact in High-rise Apartment Buildings? Exploring the Influence of Personal and Neighborhood Characteristics.

Early studies conclude that high-rise apartment buildings present challenges for people’s quality of life, resulting in social isolation, social annoyance and anonymity for residents. Nevertheless, empirical research into factors supporting social interaction in high-rise apartment buildings is still scarce. This study aims to investigate how often and where people in high-rise neighborhoods interact, and how this is affected by personal and neighborhoods characteristics. A mixture of both quantitative and qualitative methods was used including social interaction diaries and questionnaires among 274 residents, in-depth interviews with 45 residents and objective measurement of the physical environments in four high-rise apartment buildings for low in-income people in Hanoi, Vietnam. Results demonstrate that social interaction is influenced by a number of personal and neighborhood characteristics. Furthermore, most social interactions—also gathering and accompanying playing children—take place in the circulation areas of the apartment buildings. However, the use of these spaces for different purposes of interaction is found to have negative impact on people’s privacy, the feeling of safety and cleanliness of the shared spaces. The findings of this study provide information for planners and designers on how to design and improve high-rise apartment buildings that support social interaction.

From learning to labour to custody for the precariat

The globally reported riots in the poor high-rise suburbs of Sweden’s metropolitan districts in 2013 were stark manifestations of the increased social and economic inequality of the past 30 years. Large groups of young adults acted out their unarticulated claims for social justice. In the light of the riots, it is relevant to ask whether any trace of resistance or protest can be found in the compulsory school where the young people from these neighbourhoods spend their days. The ethnography sampled for the article comes from two public schools in two poor, multi-ethnic, high-rise neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gothenburg. The article argues that the theoretical and methodological concepts and perspectives developed by Willis still is of crucial importance to any investigation aimed at understanding the presence or absence of resistance in contemporary Swedish schools.

Window View and the Brain: Effects of Floor Level and Green Cover on the Alpha and Beta Rhythms in a Passive Exposure EEG Experiment.

With the growing interest among researchers, practitioners, and urban decision makers in the influence of the built environment on peoples’ health, there is increasing emphasis on using scientific knowledge to inform urban design, including methods of neuroscience. As window views are the most immediate medium of visual connection with one’s neighbourhood, we surmised that the quality of this view would have an impact on the mental health and well-being of urban dwellers. Accordingly, we investigated how window views taken from different floors of a high-rise block with varying extents of green cover affected 29 healthy residents in an exploratory electroencephalography (EEG) experiment. The results showed that the amount of green cover within the view captured at different floor levels can cause an important interaction effect on the frontal alpha and temporal beta brain oscillations while participants view photographs. These results suggest that the brainwave patterns commonly associated with positive emotional states, motivation, and visual attention mechanisms may be increased by the extent of green cover within the view. This phenomenon seems more pronounced on the higher than lower floors. The observed findings at this stage cannot confirm major effects between floor level, green cover, and brainwaves, however, they emphasize the importance of considering the quality of window views in the planning and design of urban high-rise neighbourhoods. Having a green window view can potentially contribute to the mental health and well-being of urban dwellers.

Improving the quality of life with CPTED methodology: high-rise housing in Widzew, Łódź

Purpose The social context in Polish high-rise neighbourhoods varies from one in Western Europe. This typology is not associated with social housing and the ownership of the dwellings mixed. Moreover, nearly half of the population of Poland lives in this type of real estates. Sociological research shows that the subjective quality of life is decent. Nevertheless, the dwellings are still considered a rather poor place to live and there are various aspects that need to be improved. Widzew is a typical example of the 1970s and 80s concrete high-rise housing area. Many similar developments have been built during the communist era in Eastern Europe. There are many degenerated buildings, while new developments intrude the existing environment, obstructing social and urban structure. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this environment and investigate the social problems and the urban context. Design/methodology/approach The authors have conducted sociological surveys and field observations to measure the subjective quality of life. After analysing the data, several problems appeared, such as lack of maintenance, poor quality of public space, the sense of insecurity and lack of social cohesion. The main scientific question is if and how the crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) method can address those issues. This paper wants to address major problems found in the social research by using a combination of CPTED solutions. Findings The necessity to apply the CPTED analysis in the quasi-public space is clearly noticeable. It is this space that is often perceived by the inhabitants as dangerous. It appears that it can be easily assessed via four criteria – visibility, accessibility, territoriality and attractiveness. Originality/value The novel idea was to compare the findings of a sociological survey on quality of life with the results of space analysis based on the CPTED method. This study might bring general recommendations for high-rise neighbourhoods in Eastern Europe.

High-rise in trouble? Learning from Europe

Purpose All over the world, millions of people live in buildings and neighbourhoods that follow the principles of Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) and Le Corbusier: high-rise “residential machines” in parks reminiscent of green seas. Some of these have become very successful living environments, but in Europe and the USA, several neighbourhoods featuring this architectural design dream have become a social nightmare. Residents who were able to moved to more desirable neighbourhoods. This led to a high level of vacancy and crime and fear of crime have flourished, resulting in a stigma that is often long-lasting and difficult to repair. The pupose of this study is to learn from these experiences. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, two high-rise neighbourhoods, built in a Corbusier-like fashion and situated on the outskirts of major cities, are put under the evaluation spotlight: Bijlmermeer: located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with an abundance of landscaping, shrubbery, green fields and one high-density neighbourhood; and Bellvitge: located in Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain, looking less like a park and more like a city with open-air parking on ground level, and many small shops, bars and restaurants. Findings Both neighbourhoods faced enormous problems from crime, incivilities, disorder and drug abuse. Fear of crime and feelings of insecurity were high. Both governments reacted by investing huge sums of money. In Bellvitge, the investment was mainly in public transport, the public domain and new approaches in policing while keeping the high-rise buildings intact. In Bijlmermeer, a large regeneration project supported the demolition of two-thirds of all apartments and the neighbourhood was rebuilt in a low-rise fashion. Research limitations/implications This paper outlines the history of both neighbourhoods and describes the solutions that were implemented. Important lessons can be learned regarding current high-rise neighbourhoods and about the learning capacity of urban designers and planners regarding urban management. Practical implications The paper suggests that urban planners, designers and managers are slow in learning from earlier mistakes. The hypothesis is that there is no clear method available to evaluate new urban planning designs by incorporating lessons from the success or failure of previous cases. This paper focuses on density, ownership and design to identify possible approaches to evaluate new high-rise estate plans. Originality/value The Western high-rise “wave” has faded away but nowadays has become a high-rise “tsunami” in Asia. Learning from European experience may be beneficial.

Perceived social disorder in suburban housing estates in the Helsinki region: a contextual analysis

Deindustrialisation has severely hit Finnish suburban housing estates of the 1960s and 1970s, and socio-economic differences between neighbourhoods have increased. The social disorganisation theory suggests that neighbourhood disadvantage is a risk factor for problems related to social order. This article compares perceptions of social disorder in suburban housing estates compared to other kinds of neighbourhood. Perceived social disorder appears to be most common in the suburban housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s, somewhat less common in other high-rise neighbourhoods, and clearly least common in low-rise areas. Neighbourhood disadvantage predicts perceived social disorder, which partly explains these differences.

Tower Neighborhood Revitalization in Toronto and Canadian Environmental Justice Politics

Abstract In 2008, Toronto's City Council agreed to support the Tower Renewal Project, an ambitious proposal to renew over 1,000 aging concrete high-rise apartment buildings constructed largely between the 1960s and 1980s in socially and economically marginalized areas across Toronto, Canada. Over 500,000 residents live in these comparatively affordable high-rise buildings. These structures now require significant environmental upgrades to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. In addition to proposing structural retrofits, the Tower Renewal Project is concerned with addressing environmental justice issues in high-rise neighborhoods such as the spatial organization of inequalities, transportation concerns, health inequalities, problems with existing zoning bylaws, and public participation. Despite the challenges to naming, framing, and applying the concept of environmental justice in Canada, this article argues that the Tower Renewal Project addresses environmental justice concerns and politics uniqu...