Communal area design in apartment buildings: development and comparison of a desktop and on-the-ground landscape assessment tool

ABSTRACT

In the context of global urbanisation, creating high-density living environments that promote health, wellbeing and social connectedness is vital. In apartment buildings, residents live in close physical proximity and share communal areas, however not all areas are equal in design and quality, which may impact usage and residents’ social connections. We developed and compared an on-the-ground and desktop/remote observation approach to auditing indoor and outdoor communal area design and quality. The Communal Areas Audit Tool (CAAT) and Communal Areas Desktop Audit Tool (CADAT), which measured design features that can impact residents use of (and interaction within) communal areas, were assessed for reliability and validity. Of the 77 CAAT items, 69 demonstrated moderate to almost perfect reliability. The CADAT included 57 CAAT items assessed using secondary data sources (architectural plans; online photographs; Google Earth imagery) and was validated by comparing the desktop and on-the-ground audit results. Only one CADAT item demonstrated poor agreement. The CADAT was a more time-efficient, inexpensive tool that bypassed the difficulties of accessing private buildings. Although it excluded items only auditable in person, its use is more practical for large-scale studies investigating high-density apartments and residents’ social outcomes, which is increasingly important to consider given urban densification.

KEYWORDS:

• Apartment buildings
• high-density development
• communal area design
• audit tool
• Australia

This article is related to:

Research for city practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

AK is supported by an RMIT Research Stipend Scholarship (Healthy Liveable Cities Group) and an AHURI Postgraduate Scholarship Top-up (17/PRO/817); LG is supported by the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy, Liveable Communities (#1061404) and the NHMRC Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (# 9100001); BGC is supported by a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow Award (#1107672); and SF is supported by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE160100140) and a RMIT University Vice-Chancellors Research Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Kleeman

Alexandra Kleeman is a postgraduate researcher in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. With a professional background in public health, Alexandra’s current research interests include the design and provision of high-density housing and the impact this form of housing has on residents’ health and social outcomes.