Policy Press

Inside High-Rise Housing

Securing Home in Vertical Cities

By Megan Nethercote

Published

Jun 30, 2022

Page count

282 pages

ISBN

978-1529216288

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Jun 30, 2022

Page count

282 pages

ISBN

978-1529216301

Dimensions

Imprint

Bristol University Press
Inside High-Rise Housing
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Condominium and comparable legal architectures make vertical urban growth possible, but do we really understand the social implications of restructuring city land ownership in this way?

Geographer and architect Megan Nethercote enters the condo tower to explore the hidden social and territorial dynamics of private vertical communities. Informed by residents’ accounts of Australian high-rise living, this book shows how legal and physical architectures fuse in ways that jeopardize residents’ experience of home and stigmatize renters.

As cities sprawl skywards and private renting expands, this compelling geographic analysis of property identifies high-rise development’s overlooked hand in social segregation and urban fragmentation, and raises bold questions about the condominium’s prospects.

Megan Nethercote in ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University.

Introduction

1. Verticalizing Cities

2. The Condo Home

Part 1: The Private Unit

3. ‘You’re Not Supposed to Do That’

4. ‘I’ll Close My Blinds’

Part 2: Shared Infrastructure and Amenities

5. ‘It’s the Building’s Wiring Problem’

6. ‘She’s Sort of Made It Her Own’

Conclusion: Securing Home in Verticalizing Cities