ON WHICH FLOOR TO LIVE ON ?

Every individual family who buys a new apartment is faced with this question of On what floor should they buy the home. These days is has become ‘fashionable’ to live higher especially in large cities like Pune & Mumbai. The reason, developers sell you fresh air & spectacular views of the surroundings. Developers in Pune will charge you extra money per square foot of the flat area which goes on increasing as you go higher. Now here we have to remember that you will get these views only if your building does not have a building as high as your building next to you. So if you have view as an important criterion, please enquire what is likely to happen in the immediate proximity of your building. View was an important criterion for me as well. So when I bought my home on 6^th floor, I ensured that I buy it on the side, where only small buildings were likely to get built in the vacant plot.

But ‘View’ should not be the only criteria while selecting the floor where to live on. Given below is a schematic section of a Tall building.

If you live on the ‘Ground floor’, you will enjoy the Garden, grow trees etc. Ground floor is the place to be if you love social interaction with your neighbors. So if your family is of socializing nature, living on ground floor is ideal. If your apartment does not have a ground floor, you can  still live on First floor, which is  the maximum height which connects you to people on the ground floor & you tend to socialize more.

View of Tree Foliage from third floor apartment window from
 my parents house

Birds seen in tree foliage
from third floor

If you live on ‘Second floor’ or ‘Third floor’, you are at the height of Tree foliage.  You can hear birds singing in the morning & birds will come in your windows & balconies. Your flat will get shaded by nearby large trees. To enjoy nature it is ideal to live on second or third floor. Before I shifted, we used to live on third floor. Today on sixth floor, we miss the sound of rain falling in trees & the song of the Cuckoo. My daughter misses the Sparrows & Bulbul birds coming in or house through our windows. If you live on ‘Fourth floor’  or maximum ‘Fifth floor’, you are still at the height of Tree tops.

View of surroundings from my Sixth floor flat -Terrace

If you live on ‘Sixth floor’ to ‘Tenth floor’, you will enjoy Long distance views if there is no high building next to your building. ‘Tenth floor’ upwards you will enjoy Spectacular long distance views as there are rare chances that you nay have a very tall building next to your building because tall buildings generally are built at certain distance.

All said & done, the interiors of your house should be planned sensitively to enjoy the outdoor views & nature. It makes a big difference if you have a window seat in the sill next to the wide window , so you can sit & enjoy the view. It is important that your Sofa in the living room faces the window or the terrace & does not make its back to the great views. When I was doing changes in one of the flats, we faced the bed towards the east side terrace in the master bedroom. So every time you wake up, you see the Rising sun from the large glass door of terrace. Connection of Interiors & exteriors has been a fundamental Design principle in our traditional ‘Wada’ Architecture & much more refined in traditional ‘Japanese’ Zen Buildings.

So when you are deciding on the floor, on which you will live, ‘Look around your Building’ for answers.

Hrishikesh