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Liveability in high rise apartments through open spaces

Article in International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology · May 2017

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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 8, Issue 5, May 2017, pp. 1295–1301, Article ID: IJCIET_08_05_137
Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJCIET?Volume=8&Issue=5
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

LIVEABILITY IN HIGH RISE APARTMENTS

THROUGH OPEN SPACES
Jaskiran kaur
th
B.Arch 4 year, Student, LSAD, LPU, India.

Ar.Nagendra Narayan
Associate Professor LSAD, LPU ,India.

ABSTRACT
Recently in our country, there has been rapid growth in the residential sector,
leading to the increase in the demand of land. Also due to urbanisation, there is
overpopulation in the cities and it has cause the acute shortage of land. Non-
availability of land and high prices of land has lead to the promotion of high rise
apartments in many cities of India.
Rising income level and improved lifestyles in many cities has promoted
development of high rise apartments for better and convenient living. High rise
apartments are now developed to end the issue of housing shortage and provide a
better standard of living to all the people of the society. These apartments have helped
to provide home to many on a single piece of land and provide good high standard
lifestyles. But the apartments lack to provide liveability to the residents. There is lack
of open spaces in the high rise apartments. Due to the busy lifestyle, People are not
being able to interact with each other. So open spaces are the only places in the
apartment complex where people can interact with each other. Open spaces are the
mandatory places for providing liveability in high rise apartments.
Key words: Open Spaces, High Rise Apartments, Liveability, Social Interaction
Cite this Article: Jaskiran kaur and Ar.Nagendra Narayan Liveability in High Rise
Apartments Through Open Spaces. International Journal of Civil Engineering and
Technology, 8(5), 2017, pp. 1295–1301.
http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJCIET?Volume=8&Issue=5

1. INTRODUCTION
Liveability of a place is justified by the habitable and comfortable environment of the place.
The factors that classifies the liveability of a place are built and natural environment, social
stability and cultural, recreational and entertainment opportunities. More the liveability of a
place, more will the quality of living in that community. As the high rise apartments are
increasing day by day in most of the cities, but their ability to provide liveability in the life’s
of people are decreasing. Unlike the row houses, the people don’t interact with each other in

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 Liveability in High Rise Apartments Through Open Spaces

high rise apartments. The reason is that they don’t have a common place to socialize. The
buildings that relate the people culturally and socially increase the liveability of that place.
So, the open spaces are the best solution to make the apartments more habitable and liveable.
The open areas provide a pleasing environment around the buildings and give the residents a
healthy environment and a liveable place to live in. Liveability and open spaces are very
strongly connected to each other and go hand in hand. Open spaces are the spaces where
people go, where they meet, where they relax, where they enjoy, where they interact with
nature and people and with this they can make a boring concrete built up mass to a liveable
environment, Communal spaces are used for the social interaction between the people within
the community. These spaces can provide the desirable level of liveability for the residents.
The apartments will be considered to be liveable by its occupants, if it satisfies them with
cultural and social interaction.

2. WHAT IS AN OPEN SPACE?

Open space is an open to sky area which is free from any type of superstructure and is
accessible to the occupants. It provides recreational area for the residents and helps to
enhance the beauty and environmental quality of the surroundings. According to national
building code 2005, Open space is an area, forming an integral part of the plot, left open to
the sky.

3. TYPOLOGY OF OPEN SPACE

Open spaces can be sub-divided into the following categories:
1. Parks and gardens: It is a piece of land which is maintained, constructed, designed and
managed as a public park and garden. These include urban parks, formal gardens and country
parks, depending upon their location and size. The primary function of these open spaces are
informal recreation or for relaxation, social and community events. These are also used for
sport facilities and children’s play area.
2. Amenity green space: These are the landscaped areas which are managed and maintained but
are not designated for a specific use by people. They are used for providing visual comfort,
separation of different blocks and for informal activities close to home or work. They are
mostly found in housing areas and include informal recreation green spaces and village
greens.
3. Children playground: These are the designated and maintained open spaces for the
children’s play, most commonly connected to housing areas. These provide safe and
accessible opportunities for children and include play equipment such as slides and swings.
The primary function of these spaces is to provide a safe place for children to play under the
supervision of nearby houses.
4. Outdoor Sport facilities: These are the flat grasslands or artificially designed areas for sport
facilities. The primary function of these spaces is to cater practice, training and events for
specific outdoor sports. These include outdoor sports pitches and playing fields.
5. Green corridors: These are the routes connecting the different cities or towns to the
surrounding regional parks. The primary function of these corridors is to provide a safe, green
and environment friendly movement. These include pathways along water bodies and
cycleway.
6. Civic spaces: These include civic squares, plazas and pedestrian streets. The primary function
of these open areas is to provide setting for public events.
7. Indoor sport and recreation: These provide opportunities for indoor sports and recreation.
For e.g. - sports hall, swimming pools, indoor tennis, etc.

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 Jaskiran kaur and Ar.Nagendra Narayan

4. OPEN SPACES IN HIGH RISE APARTMENTS

Out of the above typology of open spaces, not all the spaces are found in high rise
apartments. Some of the open spaces that are found in high rise apartments are:

4.1. Community open spaces

In high rise apartments, the spaces that are managed, designed and maintained for the use of
all the residents are known as the community open spaces. These include parks, bicycle paths,
greenways, jogging paths and the left over open areas between the blocks. Community open
spaces act as an image or character of those apartments. Open spaces are the basic need of
the community. Apart from providing space for recreation, this space gives a unique identity
to the apartment complex. Community open space acts as a buffer between the built area and
communities as it provides the green gap in the concrete built up forms.
Communal outdoor spaces are used for social interaction by the occupants in high rise
apartments. Liveability depends upon how the occupants are using the outdoor spaces. The
quality of the communal outdoor spaces has profound effects on the social interaction among
the occupants. The common areas between the buildings that afford the social activities are
the most important features of the society. Most of the researches indicate that the decline of
social life in the apartments is caused due to the design of communal outdoor spaces. It is the
spatial arrangement of the blocks that reduce the chance of social interaction among the
occupants and influence the activity pattern .The lack of the communal spaces can lead to
deterioration of social cohesiveness, which can proceed to the damage of neighbourhood
relations and tensions flared among the occupants. Some of the communal outdoor spaces can
be turned to rubbish and garbage due to Vandalism and lack of maintenance.
In a high rise apartment, the communal outdoor space can enhance social interaction.
People go to outdoor spaces on the daily basis. These are the places for chance encounters
and possible interactions. They also provide spaces for visual contacts and non-verbal
communications. In large apartment buildings, people socialize in common outdoor spaces
because recreation activities are also provided outside the home.

4.2. Playgrounds
Nowadays, the children and their roles are considered in all the aspects of life. As the
residential environment is the platform for the development of children, so the open spaces
should be designed according to the children’s demands and needs. In high rise apartments,
playgrounds are the open spaces that are designed for the recreation and sport facilities of the
children. Small or large playgrounds are made inside the apartment complex so that children
need not to go outside the complex to play.
When a child starts spending time in playgrounds, then he started interacting with the
adults. This provides an effectual condition for playing and recreation activities which helps
in their physical, mental, social and psychological growth and forms their personality. The
open spaces help children to learn, gain knowledge and interact with others. The whole
environment acts as an instructor and helps children in their mental growth.
Playgrounds in high rise apartments are the most important for children in the terms of
psychological and behavioural meaning. For the children, playground in high rise apartments
is a place for interaction and communication which is easily accessible by them. By attracting
the children, they can create respond to the basic needs of the children. So the playgrounds
are the main keys for the liveability of children in high rise apartments.

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 Liveability in High Rise Apartments Through Open Spaces

4.3. Roof top gardens

Due to the shortage of land, some of the open spaces are designed inside the block only such
as the roof top gardens. As suggested from the name only, a roof garden is a garden on the
roof of a building i.e. gardens in the sky. In high rise apartments, it becomes inconvenient for
the people residing at 15th floor to go at the ground floor for recreation. So roof top gardens
are the best place for that people to interact.
As the apartments are going on taller and taller, so it becomes a challenge for planners to
provide small-scale green areas near to the residents. So rooftop gardens become a new
strategic solution to this problem. It provides opportunities to provide greenery beyond
ground level. Nature can be blended with resting places, jogging and cycle tracks. As land is
becoming expensive day by day, so roof top garden will help to connect to nature and adds on
liveability in the high rise apartments.
The key aspect of roof top gardens is the greening of building surfaces and roofs. Sky
bridges, overhead pedestrian bridges, retaining walls and other concrete structures can be
covered with creepers and climbers. The main motive of the roof to gardens is not only
providing green spaces, but also to move greenery vertically upwards to rooftops or terraces
and closer to the individuals homes in the high rise apartment blocks.
This helps to facilitate the usage of the unused flat roof as roof garden. Sky bridges, sky
terraces and communal open pavilions in roof gardens also add liveability to the high rise
concrete blocks.

5. ROLE OF OPEN SPACE IN ACHIEVING LIVEABILITY IN HIGH

RISE APARTMENTS
Open spaces are playing a vital role in the structure of high rise apartments in order to
achieve liveability goals. The benefits of open spaces that lead to the liveability in high rise
apartments are described below:

5.1. Social interaction

In high rise apartments, open spaces gives a feeling of social place, allows people to gain
social involvement, intensify the feelings of family kinship and to motivate others, and
provide a chance to contemplate on individual and social values. In inclusion, open spaces
nurture spiritual growth and basically permit people to feel free and encouraging friendly
environment.
Open spaces benefits the residents by providing solace from their stressful lives, lead to
the expedite recovery from diseases or illness and stimulate active living. These all issues
increase the liveability of the high rise apartments and helps people to interact with each
other.

5.2. Health and well-being

Trees and greenery succour to ameliorate the health and well-being of the individuals living
in the high rise apartments as well as reinvigorate their souls by providing and maintaining
open spaces, recreational and park facilities. They can diminish stress measurably and support
recuperation.
Trees can shade people from damaging UV radiation and gives spaces for exercise and
activities that increase vigour by providing a verdant gym. When the people will stay healthy
and fit in high rise apartments, then automatically the place will become more liveable.

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 Jaskiran kaur and Ar.Nagendra Narayan

5.3. Environmental
In high rise apartments, open spaces make pragmatic contributions to human health and well-
being and they led to a vital contribution to human thermal comfort in exterior spaces. An
environmentally comfortable place is considered to be a liveable place.

5.4. Recreation
In high rise apartments, recreational open space provides opportunities for more passive
diversions such as walking, playing, sitting and public relaxing. The main types of
recreational open spaces found in high rise apartments are parks, pleasant space within
housing areas, natural/informal open spaces, decorative gardens, turf sitting out areas.
Natural features in the open spaces act as a community image and provide distinctive
character to the apartment complex. Open spaces can shape the land use patterns of the site to
encourage more dense, efficient-to-service development. They enhance the healthy lifestyles
by facilitating enhancements in physical fitness through exercise, and also by facilitating
positive psychic, cerebral and social experiences. All these benefits play a major role in
making the high rise apartments a liveable place to live.

5.5. Economic benefits

People are attracted more towards the high rise apartments with large open areas. The reason
may be because with the changing scenario people wanted to be moved towards large
pollution free green environment so as to have relaxing environment while at home. So
apartments with open spaces are selling easier and faster with good economic profits.
Park facing or other open spaces facing apartments yield higher profits for the developers
as they are sold at higher prices than other apartments. More charges are added to the rent of
the apartments which have amenity facing balconies or entrances. Additional cost varies with
change in floor in the building. Lower floors got maximum benefits and charged more than
others as they are close to the communal open areas.
Open spaces such as parks and recreation areas have a beneficial effect on nearby
dwelling property values. The lucrative effect open spaces have on dwelling prices depend on
how far the dwelling is from open space and the size of the open space. It also ameliorates
their quality of life along with admiration of their properties and increased the liveability of
high rise apartments.

6. PLANNING AND DESIGN OPEN SPACES FOR LIVEABILITY WITHIN

APARTMENT COMPLEX
Open spaces that are left as such as they are, not well-maintained or well-designed will led to
the degradation of liveability in the high rise apartments. To increase the liveability, some
design parameters need to be followed while designing the open spaces in high rise
apartments. The open spaces should satisfy all the residents of the high rise apartments
equally. The design parameters need to be considered while planning of community open
spaces in high rise apartments are:

6.1. Social elements

Presence of children at home, annual income and socio-economic status are the social
elements that affect the social interaction. Similarity between the residents leads to the strong
social bond. The people with homogenous, like-minds are seemed to be interacting more than
people with heterogeneous thinking.

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 Liveability in High Rise Apartments Through Open Spaces

The communal open spaces should be designed keeping in mind all these social elements,
so that every individual can equally enjoy the liveability through community open space.

6.2. Physical elements

6.2.1. Layout pattern
Refers to the spatial arrangement of the blocks within the site. The layout plan of blocks can
contribute to interact among occupants within the apartments and turn the interaction into a
social relationship. Long duration activities in apartments occur in semiprivate zones known
as the soft edges (e.g. gardens).Placement of blocks should be such that more no. Of open
spaces should be created.

6.2.2. Site plan

If the open spaces are fragmented into smaller parts and distributed all over the site, then it
stimulates people more for spontaneous activities.

6.2.3. Physical features

A high quality of open space can enhance social interaction. More time the people spent
outdoor, more will be the social interaction. Visual appearance of common outdoor spaces is
important for social relations.
Physical features are the efficient design elements in outdoor spaces. They can attract
people to stay in for longer time and activate their conversations. The presence of interesting
objects such as the water bodies, arranged seating areas encourages people’s satisfaction and
use of the communal outdoor spaces.
The existence of greenery in apartments increases the opportunities for social activity and
enhances the social bonding between the occupants. Playgrounds containing the recreational
activities attract the children on large scale.

7. CONCLUSION
This study clearly indicated direct relation between open spaces and their effect on liveability
in high rise apartments. Open spaces in high rise apartments have an impact on interaction
between the occupants and recreational opportunities within the apartment complex. Apart
from physical and environmental benefits, open spaces have a positive effect on
psychological development of occupants living in the high rise apartments. It also improved
their quality of life along with appreciation of their properties. Open space play a vital role in
order to achieve a liveable place in high rise apartments.

REFERENCES
[1] Rosemary Kennedy (2015). The impact of private and shared open space on liveability in
sub-tropical apartment buildings. Associate professor, centre for tropical design.
[2] Shu-Chun Lucy Huang (2005). A study of outdoor interactional spaces in high-rise
housing. Department of Tourism, Shih-Hsin University, Taiwan.
[3] Anju Kakkar and Ms. Supriya (2014). Socio-economic Benefits of Open Spaces: Towards
Sustainable Housing. University of Delhi.
[4] Anupam Rajmani, Prof Priyabrata Guha Analysis of Wind & Earthquake Load For
Different Shapes of High Rise Building. International Journal of Civil Engineering and
Technology, 6(2), 2015, pp. 38–45.

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 Jaskiran kaur and Ar.Nagendra Narayan

[5] Angrist, S. S. (1974). Dimensions of well-being in public housing families. Environment

and Behavior, 6, 495-516.
[6] Cappon, D. (1971). Mental Health in the High rise. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 62.

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