Task 2: Some cities create housing areas by providing taller buildings. Others create housing by building houses on a wider area of land. What solution is better?

Nowadays, with more than half the world’s population living in the cities, the problem of housing development in urban areas has become more urgent than ever. There are two main options to tackle the issue: either by building more skyscrapers, or by expanding the land size of urban areas

then

conjunction used in comparatives

than

build more houses in the new area. In

this

essay, I will compare the merits of both solutions and state my own opinion. The provision of high-rises is deemed to have beneficial impacts from social and economic perspective.

To begin

with, high-rise buildings can solve the problem of housing scarcity.

This

is because these buildings are believed to possibly accommodate a dense population in the metropolis, compared to their low-rise counterparts.

Secondly

, the authorities of the cities can

also

save a considerable amount of money if they choose the

first

option. The underlying reason is that more citizens are allowed to live in a certain area of territory, which means it is dispensable to build new infrastructure

such

as roads, bridges, electric cables and lightings, which must be done if the city expands in land use.

On the other hand

, when the matters of safety take into consideration, the

second

approach might surpass the

first

. The reason is the ability to withstand the devastation caused by natural disasters. Whether it is an earthquake or hurricane, the damage suffered by low buildings can be less catastrophic due to their stronger foundation and less heavy load.

Additionally

, in case of emergency,

such

as fires and earthquakes, the high-rise skyscrapers could potentially be much more dangerous for its inhabitants than smaller houses. A prime example is that when it comes to fires, elevators could be shut down and the stairs could be inaccessible due to the fires and the smoke, precluding people from escaping to safety if one is stranded on the top floors of a skyscraper. In conclusion, as discussed above, I am of the opinion that both of the cited approaches are advantageous as they solve specific issues.