Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Tall order: High-rise apartment complexes create pressure on city infrastructure.

Many countries now discourage very high residential accommodation for psychological and health reasons.

Meaningful discussions on high-rise housing are necessary in the wake of opposition to certain inevitable controls on skyscrapers, such as minimum land area, Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and off-street parking requirements. Such negativism is due to gross misconceptions, coupled with profit motives.

The National Commission on Urbanisation (1988) rightly recommended low-rise, high-density development for Indian conditions. Its chairman, Charles Correa, architect, once opined that the maximum height of buildings in Kerala might be limited to that of the omnipresent and emblematic coconut trees. Laurie Baker, eminent architect, called today’s skyscrapers, shooting up from our palm- fringed landscape, "modern horrors."

While low-rise buildings using cost-reduction techniques cost Rs. 4,000 a sq m (all inclusive), skyscrapers cost Rs. 20,000 and more. High-rise buildings consume more energy and utilise technologies with a relatively low labour component. The tall claim of more safety in tall apartments has been proved a myth. Averments such as generation of more jobs and tackling land scarcity, though appealing, are misleading. So are the claims of mutual help and a better social life.

High-rise, high-density development warrants wider roads, more open spaces around the building, space for movement of firefighters and many other obligatory requisites. The saving in land by going high is marginal unless underhand tactics are adopted for violation of rules.

Even if some land is saved on the site, more is needed off the site for augmenting infrastructure and parking. Thus the savings to promoters may end up in loss to the community.

Moreover, higher densities are possible by low-rise development also through efficient planning and land policies. Significantly, urban densities in Kerala, except perhaps in Kochi, are declining because of increasing peripheral growth, a lower birth rate and diminishing in-migration.

The problems are more crucial in central areas of cities where several accumulated problems, such as traffic hazards, narrow roads difficult to widen and inadequate infrastructure, exist. Yet, promoters prefer to build in these congested environs because of locational advantages and higher demand. Unless infrastructure is augmented, densification of central areas by skyscrapers is fraught with dangers such as pressure on services and escalation of land value.

Traditionally, Keralites, influenced by the prevailing socio-geographical conditions, preferred scattered living closer to ground. But this trend is slowly dwindling and now multi-storey apartments are coming up even on small plots measuring 10 to 12 cents, creating pressure on essential services, such as water, power and sewerage, in the vicinity.

Furthermore, cracks in adjacent buildings while piling, falling debris and environmental pollution are widespread.

To tackle some of these problems, FAR has to be kept low in previously developed areas that are already overcrowded and lack infrastructure.

The present practice of prescribing the same FAR for the whole State or parts of a city is irrational. FAR should depend on factors such as the carrying capacity of access roads, availability of utilities and services.

One solution is to develop new areas exclusively for high-rises and ostentatious houses, thus forestalling most of the problems now encountered. Extra facilities if required for extravagant and exclusive living can be provided at an extra cost. The proposed Smart City at Kochi is an opportunity to have high-rise apartments and posh houses in specially developed areas, preferably on the outskirts.

The undeveloped area beyond the Goshree bridges appears suitable for high-rise, high-density housing. Uncontrolled development and violation of rules, now taking place in areas such as Kakkanad, have to be curtailed to save Kochi from disaster.

If the Vizhinjam project materialises, Thiruvananthapuram will face massive problems in housing, traffic, transportation and other infrastructure, unless a planned development approach is adopted.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail