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On March 18, the Urban Expansion program hosted its first session of the Anatomy of Density webinar series. After a short video explaining the Anatomy of Density methodology, the panelists held a discussion followed by Q&A. When discussing density thresholds and tradeoffs, Director of Urban Expansion, Solly Angel, said:
I don’t think a threshold exists for urban density as a whole, but when you start to talk about factors, you get an idea of what the tradeoffs are. So, for example, if you are talking about overcrowding, and some people in Dhaka living with two square meters per person, we can say, this is not enough. ...
If you are looking at the urban villages in China, and you are looking at these “handshake buildings” that are as far apart as two people from two windows being able to shake hands, you are saying, ok this is fine, it has a very high density but it comes at a cost of light and air, so you are trading light and air, especially in the lower floors, by allowing plot coverage which is very high. ...
When you build high, there is cost to that too. I’ve seen, for example, some high-rise public housing in Panama City where the elevators have been vandalized. They don’t have the capacity to maintain elevators. ...
When the occupancy rate is too high, the vacancy rate is too low, you don’t have a well-functioning real estate market. There is not enough product in the market. ...
To get at these thresholds, you have to understand the tradeoffs of the different factors of density. And, just to have one big number, it doesn’t allow us to see these tradeoffs one-by-one.