Some people believe that it is better to live and work in a vertical city with multiple tall buildings, as compared to a horizontal city with fewer tall buildings. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.Iel

Some people believe that it is better to live and work in a vertical city with multiple tall buildings, as compared to a horizontal city with fewer tall buildings. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

 

Ielts Essay - Vertical or Horizontal Cities? 

As urban town planners struggle to discover ways to resolve issues facing modern cities - in terms of accommodating population and sustenance of environment, the society stands divided in two partisan groups: ones supporting life in cities with horizontal development, and others vouching for urban areas that have grown vertically.

Most urbanites prefer residence and employment in metros that have a plenty of high-rise buildings. Such locations are quite compact and self-sufficient in almost all aspects: they offer much shorter commuting times between homes, offices and places of leisure, that are often located within a close vicinity of each other. This leaves people with ample time to allocate to each part of their lives, professional and personal. Moreover, such settings also offer a sense of security, as due to being compact, locals are familiar with areas and each other.

Similarly, vertical cities are known to be environmentally friendly. More and more populace - bitten by environment protection bug, is choosing such areas over others; locations having lesser multi-storey buildings predispose deforestation. Furthermore, most of high-rises are also designed with an aim of conserving and, in fact, generating own energy, by use of non-conventional methods and fuels, like solar power, etc.    

However, conservative lobby still favors horizontal urban settings: they feel, horizontal arrangement offers a good quality of life: the pressure of population is far lesser which aids in better utility services; having green front and back yards offers superior comfort due to availability of abundant sunlight and fresh air; surroundings and skyline are a very pleasing sight, unlike the street canyons in the concrete jungles of high-rises.

In a nutshell, both the vertically and horizontally developed urban metropolis have their own benefits and shortcomings; hence judging which is a better place to live is impossible.