Population Density and the Heights of Buildings

Abstract

Although it is nowadays generally accepted that, for a given population density, rehousing in higher and more widely spaced buildings is likely to result in improved natural lighting conditions, ideas have hitherto remained somewhat vague.

In the present paper the truth of the above statement, for the special case of tenement blocks arranged in parallel rows, is established by a simple mathematical analysis. It is shown that, except in very open developments such as are rarely encountered in towns, an increase in the height of the buildings will, for a given population density, always improve the lighting conditions; or, less desirably, that more people can by this means be housed on a given site without making the lighting conditions worse. In the latter case it can frequently happen that the increase in population density is accompanied by an increase in the amount of open space per person.

The analysis rests on the assumption that, for a given orientation of the blocks, the lighting conditions are defined by the angle of obstruction (determined by its tangent, h/w) at the ground-floor windows. The latter part of the note is concerned with an examination of the amounts of daylight and sunshine which can be received with various values of h/w.