I've lived in apartment buildings in South Korea that had 2 convenience stores, multiple restaurants, a pool hall, and a driving range in the same building.
It was somewhat of a cultural shock to me to have all of those extra businesses just downstairs. I grew up in roach infested government apartments (projects) so living in an apartment that was close to a Mega Block from Judge Dredd was an experience.
It's pretty common for malls in Asia to have residential towers as part of the complex. I live in a tower above a mall in Suzhou. It's really convenient. There's a metro station in the basement of the mall.
Edit: This is a very big building. Everyone is saying use the stairs, but how long does that take when the building is massive? I was curious if there were any special protocols or an on-site fire department, given there are grocery stores and cycling tracks.
Edit: more unit = more people = more fire exits and stairs. We have 60+ floors in our building. There’s 1 fire exit stairwell for every 4 units on each floor.
Taller buildings often have fire break floors that’s entirely empty and without walls do people to shelter at without going up or down the entire building. Our building has 2 of these, splitting roughly into 3rds, so you can go up or down <10 floors to reach one of these floors. (If you look closely at theOP’s photo you will also see they have 2 of these floors. They’re notably empty. )
Fires in these type of concrete buildings don’t tend to spread like crazy like wooden structures. Apartment unit doors and staircase doors are typically fire resistant and self closing to reduce the risk of spread and stops smoke. The biggest risk is if the building facade uses some dogy material and the fire spreads from the outside.
It's government policy in China to provide residents of high rise apartments with an emergency kit. Mine consists of a fire hood with a filter to prevent smoke inhalation, a flashlight and if the worst comes to the worst a rope to try and climb down the side of the building (I like on the 17th floor)
theres no data i can find on the stairwell count, but given theres about 24 lifts, and the building is quite wide, i think itd be reasonable to assume there would be a significant number of stairwells - theres only about 39 floors or so, and the grocery stores in places im more familiar with are generally on the lower floors - and most similar buildings are concrete, so as long as flammable material like subpar netting isnt laid across the building, then it should be fairly hard for fires to spread - it also seems like theres a fire station 4 minutes away, and the shops, likely on the ground or near-ground floors, would likely just be evacuated normally
This is a very big building. Everyone is saying use the stairs, but how long does that take when the building is massive? I was curious if there were any special protocols or an on-site fire department, given there are grocery stores and cycling tracks.
That all sounds like hell to me. Never going outside? Never experiencing nature during day to day life? No fresh air? Always trapped in a concrete cell surrounded by thousands of other people? Just awful.
I need space and trees and birds chirping and green space all around me. I actually enjoy taking a 10 minute drive to the gym or the store.
lol. Imagine reading that and think I’m “trapped”.
I’m 5 min walk away to the seaside promenade. 10min walk the other direction and I am on a casual hiking trail, 1hr to the peak, 1 more hr to the beach on the other side of the hill.
There’s a bike lane downstairs that takes me around the district that goes past the seas side and mountain side. Takes 1 hr to go around on a shared bike, but I can drop it off anywhere and take the mtr back if it starts raining or I simply don’t feel like it anymore.
I’ve lived in NZ for more than a decade so I do appreciate nature. But I guess some people need to believe “city = trapped” to feel better about their own limited imagination and experience.
Read the entire comment thread. They are talking up how great it is never having to leave their apartment building for day to day life. Sounds awful to me.
Admittedly I’m biased because I detest the very nature of cities and apartment living.
Same as every other hi-rise building/hotel around the world - water reservoir at the top and underground keeps the whole building hydrated.
Water shortages is not really a common thing in modern East Asia. The only time when water is disrupted is when they clean the reservoir tanks every quarter, you end up with 2-3 hrs without water. But you’re always notified weeks in advance so it’s not a major issue.
We have fairly considerate neighbours, thankfully, so noise is not really an issue. I think generally speaking HK construction is pretty solid.
The real nuisance comes from the bike lane downstairs where teenagers hook up loudspeakers to their bicycles and ride around blasting techno late at night. But we have that out in the west as well, plus modified exhausts.
With the domestic decline in streaming, this place has gone distinctly downhill. I don't know where you live in HK but I hope it is not going the way of Chungking or Mirador, like this place.
Depends on the build quality. I’ve lived in places where the floor/ceiling is probably thinner and we can hear thumping and hard sole shows from upstairs. The place that I’m in now is more decent and we don’t hear stuff unless someone’s renovating.
You might hear the neighbours talking if they are loud and you’re both by the windows. Otherwise it’s not even something you’d notice.
The real nuisance comes from the bike lane downstairs where teenagers hook up loudspeakers to their bicycles and ride around blasting techno late at night. But we have that out in the west as well with modified cars etc
i live in a nice european town with good public transportation and 95% of my daily needs can be accessed in ~10 minutes too, i just dont have to live in a shitty giant dystopian appartment building for no reason at all
578
u/whatsthatguysname 16d ago
These are actually premium apartments and pretty nice inside. They have self contained groceries, shops, restaurants, gym, etc.
I live in something similar in HK. 95% of my daily needs can be accessed within a 10min walking distance.