View from above

In the capital, grow all new residential skyscrapers - you can already speak of urban fashion. Apartments on higher floors are more expensive and developers are positioned as an exclusive housing. But is it really useful and safe to live in the clouds? View from the top If you look closely to the Moscow office and residential skyscrapers, it is easy to see that under the apartment trying to take the upper floors. In this case, the higher the living space, and so its price is higher. Typically, each successive floor sold for 1-2% more expensive than the previous one. Demand, according to developers, is also growing. "You could say that" the degree of popularity "increases in proportion to altitude - our experience in sales of apartments in the" Capital City "is a vivid illustration of the fact, - says Irina Rogachev, director of the department of real estate Capital Group .- Today it is the tallest building in Moscow, and most customer arrives to the delight of the fact that you can live on 50-70th floors and look upon the city like the palm. " Types - the main argument of developers behind them, and usually hunt buyers of apartments on upper floors. People like to look at the city from a height. However, it is "like" it is formalized. Young science videoecology just those involved and that confiding harmony with algebra in this area. "The human eye is constantly in motion, constantly scanning the area. As soon as it finds something interesting, transmits information to the brain - explains the director of the Moscow Center" Videoecology "Alexey Filin .- So are most harmful to look at the homogeneous space or chant monotonous points . And this is always seen before the eyes of the inhabitants of areas with a typical building. " At this point how lucky - or a lifetime, looking out the window, hang back a look at a blank wall, or watch endless rows of identical windows. Both, according to videoecology wrong. It is therefore useful to look at everything from above. "On the upper floors of the problem is not: open space gives scope sight" - says Alexey Filin. "Comfortable for people of height - the height of the tree, seven or eight floors, - the Member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences and renowned urbanist Yuri Bocharov .- To live above it is possible, but a short time. Therefore, in Europe apartments in high rise buildings are unpopular. It good accommodation for the young, but not a haven for life. to have children and grow old in skyscrapers is not worth it. " At the height of a man lost visual contact with the ground. Living on the 40th floor at times feels like an airplane. Sometimes it can be with his apartment to go to the clouds: the lower limit of nimbostratus clouds begins 100 meters from the earth's surface. "For children travel in lifts pose a constant psychological stress. Mothers are very concerned if a child walks down outside of visual contact - lists academic Bocharov .- In the West, psychological problems of high-rise residents devoted many publications." As a result, many children's skyscrapers (and sometimes adults of their inhabitants) and walk inside the building without going outside. And the developers are trying to create for the right conditions, the eyeballs scoring their towers recreational infrastructure. The "Amber City", for example, provides recreational atrium four stories tall, with a few pieces on the tower. In "City Mercury" is designed as a separate Club 42th floor, accessible only to residents of the skyscraper and their guests. Finally, do not forget the fear of heights, which has developed in phobia (acrophobia). She suffers from 3-5% of adults. Therefore, by the way, on platforms and balconies at high altitude often provided the railing, not allowing a person to even look down. Of course, if you have this phobia, the upper floors it is better not to settle. But if not, then stay at 100 meters above the ground is not necessarily its cause. "We can not say that there is a direct relationship: the person will live on the 30th floor, and he must develop a phobia, he would feel bad - explains psychologist and consultant at the Institute of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Irina Badykova .- It depends on so many factors - and the type of person, and from education and from some circumstances of life. Many, on the contrary, will feel very well at higher altitudes, to feel freedom and independence. While people anxious, of course, it is better not to risk it. " What more atmospheric phenomena always praise on the upper floors, so it's clean air. Environmentalists here say in one voice, at the height of the big city pollution almost not felt. "If a house near the road, are urged not to buy houses below the tenth floor, - says the senior expert of" Ekostandart "Eugene Kuzmenko .- There the air is relatively clean, less noise. And with each floor, these indicators better and better . But these are the two factors that most people care about and which to us is most often treated customers expertise. " Unfortunately, to fully enjoy the fresh air will not work: many skyscrapers windows on the upper floors simply can not be opened. The fact that the wind speed is highly dependent on the altitude. The formula on which it is calculated is the distance from the earth in the fifth degree. That is why at the observation deck is always so cold. But the wind - it's not only cold and noise, they achieve such power that can pose a real danger. "In the past more than 75 meters generally forbidden to put windows that open, - said Boris Butz, CTO of Mission of French company" Aereko "in Russian, Ph.D. in Mathematics. - Wind is so strong that a woman, for example, can simply flap in hand can not hold and get hit the window frame. This is the windward side. And on the leeward pressure is so low that a person can literally suck out. " Now restrictions have become softer. They say that without the influence of the construction lobby has not done. Allowed to use the windows with an opening sash, if installed in front of them transparent shields. Still allowed the windows do not open, and pushed forward. But all this, of course, is not that familiar window. But there is a significant plus - mosquitoes can not fear: mosquitoes above the fifth floor do not fly. Engineering at the height of a skyscraper residents very vulnerable to fires. Let us recall the September 11 attack. In the room proshlom "Home" We wrote about all sorts of means salvation from the upper floors, mass development which began immediately after the tragedy. Manual and automatic hoist, rescue arm snapping up fine, but not always, they really can help. May prevent escaping from the lower windows of the fire, suffocating smoke, and just a powerful high-altitude winds. And in some houses where the windows on the upper floors do not open, install self-rescuers is impossible in principle. But far less terrible disaster than a fire can ruin the lives of slum high-rise buildings. Enough to shut down, stop, elevators, and a person is trapped in his apartment, and even worse - in the lobby of the first floor. However, in fairness I must add that Moscow's standards for high-rise buildings provide elevators for emergency power sources, including self-contained. Another feature of high-rises - increased pressure in all the pipes, because otherwise the water just does not pick up on the upper floors. "Because of this pipe breaks in skyscrapers - the phenomenon of constant, often flooded on several levels," - says Boris boots. So, in a skyscraper apartment has certain disadvantages, however the developers are trying to prove otherwise. Types and truth are excellent, but not for everyone. The air is really clean, but just so they will not be able to breathe. There is no doubt but that now reside in the skyscrapers of prestige. But fashion - fickle thing. Residential skyscrapers in Moscow Name Height (m) Existing Floors LCD "Triumph Palace" 264.5 (211 without spire) 57 RC "Sparrow Hills" 188.2 LC 48 "Scarlet Sails" 179 LCD 48 "Edelweiss" 176 (157 without the spire ) 44 high-rise on the waterfront Tinkers 176, 32 (26 non-technical) LCD "VellHaus on Lenin" 162 46 Hillock at Kudrinskaya Square 156 30 (24 non-technical) Constructed tower "Federation" 509 (without spire: 243 - "The West" and 360 - "East"), 62 and 94 "Mercury City Tower" 365 (no spire - 322) 77 "Eurasia" 309 70 "Capital City" 235 - "St. Petersburg" and 274 - "Moscow" 62 and 73 Imperia Tower 239 60 "Lisario Trading Limited" 330 87 Multi-function exhibition and business complex on the site "City" N20 228 LCD 54 "Tricolor" 194 LCD 58 "House on the Mosfilm" 203 (part of the floor will be demolished, but is not yet known how many) 51 RC "Continental" Around 160 48 LCD "Avenue 77" 155 LCD 42 "Bastion" (formerly "airship") 153 40