Answer
No garden for the self.
Not being able to stop heat loss to higher up apartments, as there is no loft to insulate.
Noise from neighbours, including toilet flushing.
Risk of being trapped by fire caused by a neighbour.
Risk of being flooded by someone outside your family (ie. upstairs).
Drains being blocked by neighbours.
Rubbish/trash left in stairways.
Other people leaving access door wedged open, so compromising security.
People urinating in stairways, lifts and corridors.
Not having the simple luxury of being able to go upstairs to bed.
Constant untidy communal rubbish/trash area, which attracts vermin.
Not being able to collect rainwater.
Not being able to install a small wind turbine which could power all the lighting so save money.
Not able to have a real indoor fire to heat the place.
Not able to store grey-water to water the garden which does not exist.
High crime and drug/alcohol rates associated with apartment blocks.
Being classed as scum by many people because you live in a poor area.
It is sometimes harder to find employment when you live in an area of tower blocks, due to bad publicity of said areas.
High risk of being a victim of gang crime.
Lack of personal space.
Lack of nature when leaving the building.
Difficulty of feeding birds and other animals, or just watching them from the window.
Many apartments have coin operated electric meters, which can be so annoying trying to find the change to prevent a power cut.
They are totally unacceptable places to raise children.
Children raised in apartments have a high risk of being involved in crime, gangs and substance abuse. They also grow up not knowing a better way to live, so often raise their own kids in similar places.
In response to an email received from the questioner, about accommodation for a rising human population:
I'm not really sure if I would be a good subject matter as I no longer live in an apartment. I now live in a tent most of the year, occasionally at peoples houses when I am helping them convert to alternative energy and lifestyles.
I will answer what you asked in your message to me as though I am still in an apartment. It was 7 years ago, in Preston, UK, just outside the city center in an area known as Avenham. The apartment, we call them flats, was high rise of about 20 floors, and 16 flats on each floor. There were about 15 of these high rise buildings, all the flats the same size and layout. It had 1 bedroom, 1 living/dining room, small kitchen bathroom and inter-joining hallway. the living room/bedroom both measured no more than 12 foot square, kitchen a quarter of that. Space for moving comfortably was a problem. The main problems I gave in my answer, anything else are really minor matters.
Am I to assume that as part of your uni project you are to design multi-person building accommodation? If you let me know what your project is, I might be able to help further. Let me know. I hope this is of some use to you.
The problem which appears to be the problem is the lack of space part. We do not have a lack of space, only a lack of ideas on how to use the space that we have. We know that social problems exist in association with apartment blocks, so we need to think about either eliminating those problems or different building styles.
I am going to assume that you have watched the film, "the lord of the rings", which showed hobbits living in the hillside. The houses they lived in would have been heat retentive and could be large, at the same time using land that we would normally consider unsuitable for building on. The problem with making accommodation such as these would be the cost, but they could be built relatively cheaply, if only we would make a tunnelling machine that had pivoted tracks so that it could manoeuvre on the hillside which would re-enforce the "tunnels" as it digs. One hill that was only suitable for twenty sheep, could easily be converted into spacious living accommodation for over 100 families, each of them have a garden, by using the stagger and tier systems.
Again, if we look at another possibility, would could easily have whole communities of people living in woodland tree houses, rent free, in exchange for managing the forests.
However, the social problems associated with apartments, are not solely because of the apartments, more of the case being that many people with problems end up in such places.
Some people would also prefer to live outside of today's society lifestyle, and these could be used to help upkeep and manage the wilderness.
There is also the possibility of people living on barges on canals, giving them the ability to move their house literally to where work was needed.
There are plenty of ideas already out there, it is us, as society on the whole, that just needs to accept that these things are not necessarily "backwards" and in many cases, are a step forwards in the standards of living.
Just think, if you lived in a hillside, in a wide tunnel shaped house that you did not need to heat often and could easily grow much of you food on it's soil "roof". Do you think you would be better or worse off for doing so?
We don't need to stuff people to live on each others toes, we just need to think differently from what we currently accept to be normal. The crazy thing is, this normal that we now live, is not really good for our world, it's environment, the animals, or us. Society on the whole could easily be alike a god, in that it can do almost anything if it wanted to. The question is, do we as individuals want to live in concrete city, separated from nature, or with it? We can do either, but only one will allow us to be truly happy and at peace with the world. Smart thinking is all it takes...
Apologies to all for it being so long...
No garden for the self.
Not being able to stop heat loss to higher up apartments, as there is no loft to insulate.
Noise from neighbours, including toilet flushing.
Risk of being trapped by fire caused by a neighbour.
Risk of being flooded by someone outside your family (ie. upstairs).
Drains being blocked by neighbours.
Rubbish/trash left in stairways.
Other people leaving access door wedged open, so compromising security.
People urinating in stairways, lifts and corridors.
Not having the simple luxury of being able to go upstairs to bed.
Constant untidy communal rubbish/trash area, which attracts vermin.
Not being able to collect rainwater.
Not being able to install a small wind turbine which could power all the lighting so save money.
Not able to have a real indoor fire to heat the place.
Not able to store grey-water to water the garden which does not exist.
High crime and drug/alcohol rates associated with apartment blocks.
Being classed as scum by many people because you live in a poor area.
It is sometimes harder to find employment when you live in an area of tower blocks, due to bad publicity of said areas.
High risk of being a victim of gang crime.
Lack of personal space.
Lack of nature when leaving the building.
Difficulty of feeding birds and other animals, or just watching them from the window.
Many apartments have coin operated electric meters, which can be so annoying trying to find the change to prevent a power cut.
They are totally unacceptable places to raise children.
Children raised in apartments have a high risk of being involved in crime, gangs and substance abuse. They also grow up not knowing a better way to live, so often raise their own kids in similar places.
In response to an email received from the questioner, about accommodation for a rising human population:
I'm not really sure if I would be a good subject matter as I no longer live in an apartment. I now live in a tent most of the year, occasionally at peoples houses when I am helping them convert to alternative energy and lifestyles.
I will answer what you asked in your message to me as though I am still in an apartment. It was 7 years ago, in Preston, UK, just outside the city center in an area known as Avenham. The apartment, we call them flats, was high rise of about 20 floors, and 16 flats on each floor. There were about 15 of these high rise buildings, all the flats the same size and layout. It had 1 bedroom, 1 living/dining room, small kitchen bathroom and inter-joining hallway. the living room/bedroom both measured no more than 12 foot square, kitchen a quarter of that. Space for moving comfortably was a problem. The main problems I gave in my answer, anything else are really minor matters.
Am I to assume that as part of your uni project you are to design multi-person building accommodation? If you let me know what your project is, I might be able to help further. Let me know. I hope this is of some use to you.
The problem which appears to be the problem is the lack of space part. We do not have a lack of space, only a lack of ideas on how to use the space that we have. We know that social problems exist in association with apartment blocks, so we need to think about either eliminating those problems or different building styles.
I am going to assume that you have watched the film, "the lord of the rings", which showed hobbits living in the hillside. The houses they lived in would have been heat retentive and could be large, at the same time using land that we would normally consider unsuitable for building on. The problem with making accommodation such as these would be the cost, but they could be built relatively cheaply, if only we would make a tunnelling machine that had pivoted tracks so that it could manoeuvre on the hillside which would re-enforce the "tunnels" as it digs. One hill that was only suitable for twenty sheep, could easily be converted into spacious living accommodation for over 100 families, each of them have a garden, by using the stagger and tier systems.
Again, if we look at another possibility, would could easily have whole communities of people living in woodland tree houses, rent free, in exchange for managing the forests.
However, the social problems associated with apartments, are not solely because of the apartments, more of the case being that many people with problems end up in such places.
Some people would also prefer to live outside of today's society lifestyle, and these could be used to help upkeep and manage the wilderness.
There is also the possibility of people living on barges on canals, giving them the ability to move their house literally to where work was needed.
There are plenty of ideas already out there, it is us, as society on the whole, that just needs to accept that these things are not necessarily "backwards" and in many cases, are a step forwards in the standards of living.
Just think, if you lived in a hillside, in a wide tunnel shaped house that you did not need to heat often and could easily grow much of you food on it's soil "roof". Do you think you would be better or worse off for doing so?
We don't need to stuff people to live on each others toes, we just need to think differently from what we currently accept to be normal. The crazy thing is, this normal that we now live, is not really good for our world, it's environment, the animals, or us. Society on the whole could easily be alike a god, in that it can do almost anything if it wanted to. The question is, do we as individuals want to live in concrete city, separated from nature, or with it? We can do either, but only one will allow us to be truly happy and at peace with the world. Smart thinking is all it takes...
Apologies to all for it being so long...
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