Physical environment, planning and human behaviour

Sociologists and urban planners differ in their evaluation of the effects of housing conditions on the social behaviour and well-being of the occupants. While investigators agree on the harm of excessive housing density, they find that a reasonable degree of proximity among neighbours is socially beneficial. Overcrowding of living quarters, such as in slum areas, is found to be directly correlated with social evils and health deterioration. On the other hand, life in modern high-rise buildings is apt to lead to psychological difficulties due to limitations on privacy, isolationism, excessive control of children, loneliness of the elderly and the so-called “institution syndrome”.Although a great bulk of evidence exists on the influence of man-made physical environment on human behaviour, more comprehensive study than hitherto made is needed of the very complex interrelationship among the various factors involved in order to offer guidance to urban planners.