Romancing the high-rise in Singapore

Since the 1960s, Singapore has continually built high-rise buildings to house its growing population. While many other developing cities are faced with a housing shortage, the greater proportion of the Singapore resident population is living in and owning accommodation in high-rise buildings. Drawing on interviews conducted with public housing families in their homes, this paper seeks to discuss and provide a perspective of the Singapore residents' attitude to high-rise living. Although the discussion is focused on the Singapore resident perspective, high-rise living experience is not unique to Singapore. If international building and urbanization trends are any indication, more and more urban residents will have the opportunity to live in high-rise housing. A widening number of cities, including London, are building 50-story housing as the latest answer to their country's housing shortages. Given the extensive high-rise living in Singapore, the findings of this paper stand to offer important implications to cities considering high-rise housing. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.