High-Rise Apartments and Urban Mental Health—Historical and Contemporary Views

Abstract

High-rise apartment buildings have long been associated with the poor mental health of their residents. The aims of this paper are to examine whether this connection is necessarily so, by reviewing the evidence relating to the relationships between high-rise living and social wellbeing, occupant’s stress levels, and the influence they have on mental health. From selected literature, psychological stress and poor mental health outcomes of the populations that live in high-rise apartments are indeed apparent, and this is particularly so for apartments in poor neighbourhoods. Yet many apartments in developed cities are in affluent areas (particularly those with views of green/blue space), where residences on higher floors are more expensive. Either way, high-rise living and mental health outcomes are a social justice issue. Our review allows us to propose two models relating to high-rise living relevant today, based on these differences.

Emotional and behavioural responses to the 19 September 2017 earthquake: the case of the occupants of three multi-storey buildings

“…In relation to the former , the results have highlighted that fear to the 19 September earthquake was the emotion that was associated significantly with women occupants of six and 11-storey buildings (Figure 1). Similar findings have been found by Lacombe et al (2019) and Deng et al (2015). Overall, the results have highlighted that women are more fearful to earthquakes than men, which makes them more vulnerable (more on this below).…”

“…High-rising buildings have been one of the solutions, among other, to the problem (Cheung et al , 2005; Gifford, 2007). However, as buildings are getting taller, the concern for the safety and well-being of the occupants grows (Kayvani, 2015; Larcombe et al , 2019; Ng, 2017). Even with the most advanced technologies employed in the design and construction of such buildings, one factor that may be regarded as the most difficult to “control” is the human behaviour during an emergency (Zmud, 2008).…”

Developing a measurement scale for sustainable high-rise building in city of Erbil

“…The high-rise building design possesses some characteristics and features that makes them distinctive and impressive compared to other buildings. While the optimistic approach to high living standards was successful, it is related to a range of issues (Yuen, 2011;Larcombe et al, 2019). Moreover, it is important to detect the issues that contribute to encouraging cultural, social, and environmentally sustainable practices that can improve high-rises living conditions.…”

Domestic Environmental Experience Design

“…Due to socioeconomic restrictions, most lower-middle and middle-middle income families are living in small or congested dwelling spaces or apartments not only in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but also globally, where physical design components in the architectural design practice are the primary consideration of today's local housing sectors [4]. These small living conditions may create clumsiness leading to the deterioration of indoor environmental quality (i.e., less or no privacy) and indoor air quality (i.e., heavy CO 2 concentration and PM 2.5 ) [32]. Thus, the situations may affect occupants' mental wellbeing in their domestic environments [32].…”

“…These small living conditions may create clumsiness leading to the deterioration of indoor environmental quality (i.e., less or no privacy) and indoor air quality (i.e., heavy CO 2 concentration and PM 2.5 ) [32]. Thus, the situations may affect occupants' mental wellbeing in their domestic environments [32]. Occupants' mental wellbeing can be enhanced by changing or modifying their domestic living environments that are related to household experiences in addition to the existing physical environments of buildings (Figure 7) [5].…”