Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The French architect Le Corbusier did as much as anyone to popularize the concept of urban high-rise apartments. His style was to build tall buildings surrounded by small swaths of open space, which became known as "towers in the park." Many of the buildings designed in this style became isolating for their residents, and as such they became undesirable places to live and become populated mainly by poor people. Projects such as Cabrini-Green in Chicago and Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis were built in this style.
Was high rise apartments a Europe thing that spread to Asia and other countries after? What city planner promoted high rise apartments? I hear in East Europe there are lots of high rise apartments but less common in west Europe.
I also hear France has more high rise apartment now it seems but is not that common in the UK. But I hear city planner promoted high rise apartments over the older idea of living above the store being really bad thing.
The UK was very heavy into row houses and town houses that Canada inspired from the UK and started building it there but less common in the US out side of New York and Philly.
The US style of 2 to 6 story apartments for low income in some places never caught on in Canada for some strange reason. No idea what city planners they where. It could be the US government was subsidizing the community of low income in more suburb framework and it was cheaper for the Canadian government to put them in a high rise apartments when it came to sewages, drainage, road maintenance, water and power so on.
I hear in case of USSR and China people where dirt poor and it was cheaper for the government to house them in an apartment than a house. No idea why they did not build low or mid rise apartments and opt to go with high rise apartments.
But high rise apartments seem to be Europe or Asia thing and no idea what country it came from first and who promoted it.
The US promoted low rise apartments in some areas 2 to 6 story apartments but some mid rise 6 to 10 story apartments in Canada in the 50s that city planners are no longer looking at them for inspiration and going with high rise over mid rise or low rise apartments or condos like in Canada. I hear in US is building more low and mid rise apartments in more urban areas of the city now.
But I don’t know where high rise apartments came from and at the time what city planners promoted it like did it started in France or the USSR than spread to other countries after?
WHY is it the UK for the most part said no to high rise apartments unlike France or the USSR?
The UK does have apartments, although these are mainly in large cities, however many of the ugly 60's and 70's type estates have been torn down and replaced with a mixture of more desirable town houses and apartments.
Similarly terrace houses, which were often the result of Victorian industrialisation are declining, as swathes of such houses in many former industrial areas are replaced.
Was it the huge immigration at the time to New York and Chicago may be even Boston at time as to why they built so dense? At the time did city planners plan how city will look in 50 or 100 years in the future with future growth and so built dense. Where city planners at time oppose to car centric cities and plan the city building being very dense and urban?
Why where New York, Chicago may be even Boston and the rust belt cities more dense and urban than the south, midwest and west coast that was more suburb like?
Old cities are built densely because the only means of transportation for the vast majority of people was walking. Is this a real question?
"City planners" had nothing to do with the development of tall buildings. Ever since people have been building in cities, they've had multistory buildings. About 6 stories or so was more or less the practical limit until Otis invented the safety elevator in which a failure of the lift cables did not result in a full speed plunge to the bottom and the deaths of everyone in the elevator. I think that's around 1870 or so. That was the first thing that enabled taller buildings and the next major development was the introduction of steel framing for tall buildings as masonry construction sufficiently strong for tall buildings ends up having to be so thick that it materially impinges on floor space.
City planners had nothing to do with it. It was the requirements of people needing to put more people within easy walking distance, intersecting with the efforts of inventors and engineers. Like most advances.
Was it the huge immigration at the time to New York and Chicago may be even Boston at time as to why they built so dense? At the time did city planners plan how city will look in 50 or 100 years in the future with future growth and so built dense..
Do you REALLY think there were "city planners" dictating how buildings to house poor immigrants were built, in 1850?
It mostly started with Otis and the steel framed building, as I just said.
The OP is specifically talking about public housing/commie blocks that are extremely prevalent in communist/post communist countries. The OP is not talking about skyscrapers.
The OP is specifically talking about public housing/commie blocks that are extremely prevalent in communist/post communist countries. The OP is not talking about skyscrapers.
Even though he talks about low-income housing in his middle paragraphs, he was not that specific at either the beginning or the end.
Besides, those Municipal Flatblock 18A towers didn't originate in the Soviet Union. The OP was asking who first promoted the idea of housing people in high-rise towers, period; the nature or socioeconomic characteristics of the tenants didn't matter. We could trace this either to the first developers of elevator apartment buildings (for providing the technology that made them practical for housing people) or to the architect who first floated the idea of a city comprised of nothing but such towers (Le Corbusier's Ville radieuse ("Radiant City")).
Even though he talks about low-income housing in his middle paragraphs, he was not that specific at either the beginning or the end.
Besides, those Municipal Flatblock 18A towers didn't originate in the Soviet Union. The OP was asking who first promoted the idea of housing people in high-rise towers, period; the nature or socioeconomic characteristics of the tenants didn't matter. We could trace this either to the first developers of elevator apartment buildings (for providing the technology that made them practical for housing people) or to the architect who first floated the idea of a city comprised of nothing but such towers (Le Corbusier's Ville radieuse ("Radiant City")).
A lot of ancient cities had multi floor apartments, it’s not a novel idea, steal frame buildings just allowed us to build higher, along side with elevators.
A good example of this is Shibam, Yemen which has apartments as high as 11 floors, and is known as the Manhattan of the desert.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
