Environmental Effects Of High-Rise Apartments In Singapore

Introduction

There is substantial research focused on the economic and environmental effects of high-rise apartments in Singapore. However, there is a lack of studies showing the social effects of these apartments. These social effects directly affect the mental health of its occupants. The social, economic, environmental effects of high-rise apartments in other countries are also relevant to this paper. Hence, the existing literatures on the environmental, social and economic effects of high-rise apartments of various countries are reviewed in this paper.

Advantages of high-rise apartments

There are considerable benefits in building high-rise apartments. The high density living space promises economic and environmental benefits such as reduced land use and increased transport efficiency (Barter 2000) as well as social benefits such as improved access to facilities (Kaido 2005) as well as improving the sense of community by creating shared social spaces (Lim 2011). It also gives a sense of privacy while offering perception of visual contact with society, nature and space (Wassenberg 2013) and there are health benefits in living on upper floors, such as the reduced likelihood of dying of heart or lung disease (Hagan 2013). When built near the town center, apartments can provide its occupants with a high profile location with branding and image value as well as regenerate the spatial program of the locale (Lora 2002). High-rise apartments are continually built in a myriad of countries as a solution to the urgent need for housing and the lack of land.

High-rise apartments in Singapore

In Singapore, high-rise buildings are seen as the new vernacular, and there is general acceptance of high-rise apartments as a regular typology of ...

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...-rise apartments became the main housing typology. Moreover it also showed that people living on upper floors of high-rise apartments are 60% more likely to commit suicide by jumping (Hagan 2013). However, this study does not compare between people living in terrace houses or other forms of row houses. Therefore, a clear relation between high-rise living and mental health cannot be drawn.

In conclusion, there is a need for a study on the relation with mental health and high-rise apartment living in today’s society as there is a rise in stress levels in Singapore, causing a mixture of issues such as the lack of graciousness and the hindrance of creative thinking amongst students. Although Singapore’s rising population density dictates that high-rise apartments are the fastest way to house the population, its effect on the lives of these people are important as well.