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Our House in the Middle of the Street

This picture is taken from the Hong Kong wetlands park, situated in the New Territories. it's incredible to be, at one moment, looking into the vastness of mangroves and wetlands, and then turn 180 and see a wall of high rises on the other side. And the New Territories are the under developed part of Hong Kong. some of these "city walls" have even been built in areas where important wind tunnels existed, blocking off the ventilation system for this highly polluted city. the pollution doesn't come so much from Hong Kong, which has a relatively low number of vehicles and high quality public transit system, but rather come rolling down from mainland China.


Here, the architectural treasures are found on rooftops. City planers and building code enforcers turn a blind eye to the ever expanding rooftops. everywhere i the city, you only have to look up to see some awesome DIY creation on top of a building, often very colorful, with balconies, rooftop gardens and patios, and what appears to be a much nicer and more spacious living quarter.



Here, the historical Blue House, a vestige in vernacular architecture, crammed in between modern highrises. the goal is to build up as much as possible. with so little available land, the price per square foot is so expensive that the only way to maximize profits is to build in height. if you look at some of the buildings below, it seems as though each apartment has a bay window. according to some architects and planners in the business here, it would actually be more economic to build these types of windows to maximize space and save on the necessary square foot ground space, even though it seems to me that it would cost more to build a outcropped window both in labour time and more complicated design rather than a flat wall. lannd value also explains why the buildings are made in cross shape rather than square. this also enables more window access, and since apartments are much smaller than in Canada, it is not uncommon that a family of 6 live in a 3 and 1/2 so windows are essential to sanity. Also, the little ledges on top of each window are composed of a series of fixed metal slats that simultaneously allow and block sunlight when needed.

Buildings here blow my mind. it's like a walled city where you are lucky if you get a glimpse of the horizon from where you live. housing for a tiny 3 and 1/2 can easily run in the millions of dollars to purchase. an interesting phenomena that has been around for some time is the New Town development scheme and the interspersing of Estates (pretty word for social housing blocks) among luxury housing. a blurb below on New Towns and some pics.
This is the view from the top of the elevated KCR public transit system. no sky!

The New Town Developments were originally created to solve an overload of population density within the core of major expanding cities. Hong Kong’s New Town developments were to offer people greener spaces, better living conditions and safer communities; all the components for an ideal living scheme. However, reality proves otherwise: Transportation into the city is expensive and time consuming, and work, when available, is almost entirely situated outside the New Towns. So, they are not self-sufficient. To add to this, there are next to no community facilities proportionate to the population. Basic necessities such as hospitals and clinic facilities are greatly lacking in towns such as Tin Shui Wai and Tung Chung. Government officials have been forced to admit that the new towns are creating the same problems of unemployment, poverty and violence, which they were originally supposed to solve. In Tin Shu Wai, less than 6 months ago, a 36 year old women suffering from mental illness, killed both her children and herself. This is but one among many similar instances. Crammed public housing combined with a lack of social services in the area, augment the prevalence of socially dysfunctional behavior. Mental illness, crime and tragic accidents are only exacerbated when there’s nothing to do and such bad-aid solutions offer little hope of improvement. In both towns previously mentioned, there’s a lack of sports and leisure centers, library and study facilities, community centers, domestic abuse and mental health counseling centers, and services for the elderly, all infrastructures and services city dwellers take for granted. With Tin Shui Wai and Tung Chung being the most recent new town developments and having such poor services, how can we argue that New Towns are for the betterment of the people?


This highrise "wrapping" is a common occurence. it gives a really interesting take a la "Christo and Jeanne Claude" on building volumes.