Cultural Difference

As I mentioned in my second posting (Personal Opinion) that one of the reasons of a high-rise not having a community feel is cultural difference and almost the similar thing was mentioned by Vanessa. Vanessa mentioned about her experience in Montreal that how there was community feel because there were people from different backgrounds.

When I mentioned the point of cultural difference I was thinking of Karachi, Pakistan. In Pakistan - Karachi is biggest metropolitan area and it has a lot of apartment complexes. And my personal experience from visiting family relatives living in those apartment complexes was very different from my experience of living in a Vancouver apartment complex. In Karachi the relatives knew all their neighbors i.e. those on the same level, one level above and one level below. Also they knew neighbors on the first floor, and some other living in different blocks of the same apartment complex.

I should explain first in Karachi one apartment complex comprises of few blocks (e.g. A, B, C ....) and usually the complexes have an open space in the middle where usually kids gather in the afternoon to play. And the place feels so lively because of kids playing (of course loud too :). Where as here in Vancouver the apartments do have nice open green space around them but it is an area where no one can have BBQ because either due to building codes or people just don't' know that they can have any out door activity, like BBQ etc.
Here in Vancouver the neighborhood for sure would have a public park for kids to play . But in my opinion for an apartment building to have community feel the interaction has to happen in close proximity where people live. So people feel comfortable in a group of unfamiliar people (initially) and can introduce by mentioning where exactly they live (as ice breaker). And even if some people were not aware of something happening where they live, if they were to leave/enter the building can see some activity and drop by or simply say "hello" to people which creates a bit familiarity among people.

In my opinion it is human nature that we get to know or get comfortable with people in a common space and when we are comfortable enough and know that the person will get along well with, then we invite them to our personal space. But apartment buildings fail to do so as there is no common space where groups can meet. Though some buildings do have common spaces where people can have parties but again it has to be booked for a specific events, so I guess the need is to be bit more creative and re-creat the common space for people to interact and socialize.