Higher population density reduces travel distance, allowing more walking and cycling, and provides a larger customer base for public transport.

The article Green Manhattan[1] makes a case for very large buildings and densely populated cities, such as Manhattan, being a far more sustainable form of settlement than low-density suburbia.

Affordability

In theory, higher housing density can be cheaper, and allow for cheaper provision of services and public transport. Higher density housing in the form of apartments and terrace housing also has the potential to have lower heating and cooling requirements (an advantage for both sustainability and housing affordability). Local regulations often work against this however, for example density caps, height limits and requirements for housing setback. Some of these do have good reasons, but could arguably be solved in other ways with less restriction on density, thus less restriction on housing supply, and potentially/theoretically lower housing costs.

A paradox is that large cities where high densities are found are generally less affordable - this is hard to analyze, as a large city with low density is also generally very expensive. However by having high densities they occupy less space for the same population, and make it more achievable to have affordable housing within close reach of the center by public transport or cycling.

Transport

In a compact city, travel distances are shorter, making journeys by walking, bike and public transport more appealing, with benefits for public health (physical and mental) sustainability, while reducing costs for commuters.

Benefits of building size

The environmental economies of scale mean that large buildings and large cities can be much more efficient[1] Unfortunately this is not always the case - some apartments have a higher energy usage than houses, due to poor design and reliance on clothes driers rather than clotheslines for drying clothes.[verification needed]

Living environment

There are complexities of course - higher density housing does not make open green space a bad thing. However, higher densities in buildings mean more space left over for parks, etc. We can have more usable public space, yet still have higher density overall.

See also

Interwiki links

External Links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Green Manhattan - Why New York is the greenest city in the U.S. By David Owen, The New Yorker, 18 Oct 2004.

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