Think beyond basics in new high-rise apartment developments

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As land prices in premium urban areas approach the absurd and premium housing prices breach the million-dollar price tag, new developments are literally aiming for the sky. Sky-high apartment blocks towering high above our wildest imagination are slowly munching up space in places previously reserved for bungalows.

Where pristine vegetation once hugged inconspicuously designed structures blending into the environment, now monstrous towers defying the natural environment are taking prominence. Unfortunately, the gigantic structures growing out of our desperation for housing in crowded cities seem to cater for only one aspect of our needs. While housing is a basic need, the full compendium of human needs is far more complex and diverse. As high-rise monstrosities resembling each other like a mass of stalagmites racing to suck minerals from the ground emerge, they not only rob our neighbourhoods of beauty; they suck out many functionalities. For one, social amenities that made our neighbourhoods whole and easy to live in are disappearing.