Abstract. The article analyzes the main reasons for the development of high-rise building construction the most important of which-is a limitation of the urban areas and, consequently, the high price of land reserved for construction. New engineering and compositional solutions for the creation of new types of buildings are considered -complex technical designs of a large number of storeys completely meet the new requirements for safety and comfort. Some peculiarities of designing high-rise buildings and searching for optimal architectural and planning solutions are revealed since, with external architectural simplicity, high-rise buildings have complex structural and technological and space-planning solutions. We consider the specific features of a high-rise housing in various countries around the world, including Russia, such as the layout of the multi-storey residential buildings, depending on the climatic characteristics of the regions, assessment of the geological risk of the construction site, the choice of parameters and functional purpose of the sections of the territory of highrise construction, location of the town-planning object for substantiating the overall dimensions of the building, assessment of changes aeration and engineering and hydrological conditions of the site. A special place in the article on the problems of improvement of the territory, the device of courtyards, landscaping, the device of playing and sports grounds. The main conclusion in the article is the following problem -when developing highrise housing construction, the development of high-rise housing, and an increase in the population density in the territory of large cities of Russia, necessary to create a comfortable and safe level of residents living and not a decrease, but an improvement in the quality of the urban environment.

The question of building a comfortable for living in it architectural space has gained a popularity because of the expansive growth of new dormitory towns in big Russian cities. Connection between the quality of surroundings and mental health of the residents, their ability to navigate in space and to react to the external stimuli is obvious. In this research the analysis of different typologies of urban architectural spaces was carried out in order to determine the quantitative parameters of these visual areas. According to the results of this research a strong tendency of the facades silhouettes simplification and a decrease of morphological informativeness of the visual environment were noticed. Comparing to other types of architectural environment, visual medium of new urban dormitory towns provides its observers with rather poor material to analyze and get important information from the surroundings. The whole spectrum of deviations from normal perceptive process can be influenced by this new environment, including difficulties with orientation in space, learning how to navigate (especially for kids who have lived in such conditions since being born), decrease concentration of attention and narrowing of the field of vision.