Nowadays, when Earth’s population is growing rapidly, providing accommodation for all of the people is getting increasingly difficult. In order to cope with this issue, governments are using different methods, such as building higher buildings or widening residential areas while keeping houses relatively short. There is no clear answer on which strategy is better since both solutions can be effective and relevant, depending on the population density and amount of available space for creating new housing areas.
To start with, each solution has its advantages and drawbacks. Building taller buildings, for example, provides more accommodation without any additional territory needed. It is also cheaper to expand houses vertically, rather than horizontally, since it does not require to build new foundation, water and gas communications from the scratch. On the other hand, taller buildings are not as resistant to earthquakes as shorter ones, they block flows of the wind which leads to air pollution. In addition to that, higher houses require more advanced technology to build. Thus, creating housing by providing taller buildings should be deemed as an option only in cases when the area for building new accommodation is scarce and demand is high due to the large popilation. Moreover, the tectonical activity in region has to be low or absent and the city must have enough advanced building machines and trained personel.
Building more accommodation on a wider area of land in its turn, is more suitable for regions with lower population density. In this scenario, expansion of houses should be happening horizontally, since more space is available. For instance, there are not many high-rise buildings in Australia, because people have possibility to buy relatively cheap land and build their own one or two store house due to lower demand for this very land. Locals do not have necessity nor urge to live in cramped flats, since more convenient solutions are available.
To encapsulate, both taller houses and building on a wider area of land can be viable solutions to accommodation problem. The efficiency of each method depends on circumstances, for example high-rise buildings should be built in areas with higher population density and tectonical stability while more short houses could be placed at locations with a lower number of residents and larger amount of free space available.