| dc.description.abstract | High-rise living had been universally accepted as
a sustainable solution to the housing problem by the end of
the 20th century. However, it invariably results in the
separation of people from nature, a fact that is especially
true of users occupying the upper floors of high-rise
apartments. Consequently, such a lifestyle has long been
associated with the poor mental and physical health of their
users. Sustainable high-rise buildings are, therefore, not
merely about responsivity to environmental, technical and
economic issues, but also about the improvement of high rise dwellers’ quality of living. Such concerns become even
more important in the context of the high-rise’s evolution as
a holistically sustainable urban dwelling of the future, due
to rising real estate prices in urban areas. It is a foregone
conclusion, therefore, that the aforementioned negative
influences would also occur in the Sri Lankan context,
especially since high-rise living has yet to become
entrenched in the collective conscious of her people as a
viable lifestyle choice.
This paper demonstrates how the outdoor natural
environment affects the mental wellbeing of high-rise
dwellers. Responses of dwellers of three different high-rise
apartments in Colombo, Sri Lanka, regarding their
phenomenological experiences of how the outdoor natural
environment affected their mental wellbeing, were collected
and qualitatively analysed. The results show how the
presence of visual connections to the natural environment
contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of high-rise
dwellers. These findings have relevance to the way user friendly high-rise apartments would be designed in the
foreseeable future | en_US |
