Some people think that vertical cities are the best, where people live and work in tall buildings. Others think that horizontal cities are better, where there are few tall buildings. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

There are various models of urban planning devised to cope with the growing human population. Expanding cities thus have a choice: to grow upwards or to grow outwards. These both have their merits and choosing which is best is a difficult task. It depends upon whether you value efficiency or comfort. When cities grow upwards, using large apartment buildings and skyscrapers to house their vast populations, they tend to make more efficient use of space. One tall building could perhaps house a few thousand people, whereas a smaller building of the same ground dimensions would only house a few dozen, at most. This is undeniably more efficient than spreading a city out over a vast area. Moreover, as technology improves, the height of buildings can continue to grow, housing more and more people. Through this sort of design, cities can stay within their geographical confines, but still allow for a growing population. On the other hand, some cities grow outwards. The people planning these urban areas tend to think of tall buildings as unsightly and crude, and prefer a more aesthetically pleasing design. People have more space to themselves, and the city less crowded. However, this sort of city grows further outwards, consuming more of the surrounding countryside, which would otherwise have been preserved with more tall buildings to house the people. In conclusion, there is no correct way to design a city, but both “vertical” and “horizontal” urban planning have their benefits. Whichever is the superior approach is simply a matter of perspective.