Urbanization: Housing in Kowloon City by ARCH2058

URBANIZATION:

KOWLOON CITY (MTR STATION: SUNG WONG TOI)

九龍城宋皇臺站 ARCH2058 Modern Architecture ASSIGNMENT 3: GUIDEBOOK

| Fall 2021

Urbanization: Housing in Kowloon City Yau Pui Yu (3035664752) Liu Chengxi (3035635658) Sun Ziyue (3035635646)

Mei Tung House g Tun

Tau

e Tsu

4min

Kowloon Walled City Park

4min

Carpenter Rd

Long Kung Rd

Lok Sin Tong Primary School

3min

Nga Tsin Wai Rd

Sung Wong Toi Station B3 Exit

Walking Tour Guide Dear Visitors, Welcome to Kowloon City! This guidebook will accompany you to explore the history of urbanization in the Long Tong District. Kowloon City is one of the oldest districts in Hong Kong and has undergone tremendous changes. The three sites introduced in this guidebook have either been demolished or changed their original function to satisfy the current societal needs. All sites reflect how the district has changed due to urbanization over the past few decades. To begin the tour, please exit from the B3 exit of Sung Wong Toi MTR station, then take a 3 min walk to the Lok Sin Tong Primary School, a free school that supported children during the postwar period. Then, by walking along Carpenter Road, you will eventually see the entrance of the Kowloon

The tour mainly focus on the Long Tong District of the Kowloon City (Image Credit: District Council constituency boundary map, 2007)

Walled City Park. The park has entered multiple phases of changes, from the defence wall of the Chinese during the Opium War, to a high-density urban slum and finally to the Chinese garden we see today. Take time to walk around this park. Not only will you discover the fascinating stories from the interviews of previous walled city residents, but you will also see how the site was an important one during the British colonization period. For the final destination, leave the park from its northern gate, and you will see the site of the Mei Tung House under construction. Public housing was one of the oldest public housing in Hong Kong that uses a slab typology. The housing construction and demolition process reflect the migration of the population over the past few decades. Last but not least, please enjoy the trip and take time to absorb the rich history of Kowloon City.

(Image Credit to The Lok Sin Tong Benevolent society) (Image Credit to Yau Pui Yu)

Lok Sin Tong Primary School

Built in 1949, Lok Sin Tong Primary school provided free education to poor children who lived near or close to the Kowloon Walled City. As the population in Kowloon City increased during the Chinese Civil war, the school extended from single-storey to a three storey high building in order to support the increase in children coming in to study. However, along with the demolition of the walled city and the aging population, number of students decreased every year. Finally in 2019, the school stopped operating. Lok Sin Tong decided to transform the classrooms into transitional housing units in order to improve the living conditions for the ones in the queue of the public housing waitlist.

Toilet

Open Playground

Cla

Corridor

Classroom

Ground Floor Plan of Lok Sin Tong Primary School (Image Credit

Assembly Hall

assroom

t to The Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society)

Kowloon Walled City Park in 2021, with foreground of models of old Walled City (Image Credit to Yau Pui Yu)

Kowloon Walled City, 1989-1990 (Image Credit to Ian Lambot)

Kowloon Walled City Park

This historical park incorporates multiple elements in memory of the dismantled Kowloon Walled City. It was designed as a Jiangnan garden of the early Qing dynasty. The site was once used as a fortress of the Qing Dynasty. After World War II, it grew rapidly into a giant urban slum. As shown in the drawings, the outer wall of the Walled City was demolished during WWII by the Japanese army. However, the opening up of the boundary did not result in integration with the context of Kowloon City. The Walled City grew into a wild selfbuilt parasite community. Refugees who fled from the Chinese Civil War flooded into this un-colonized urban island and settled down. The government cleared out the hyper-dense squalor in the early 1990s and redeveloped it into this open environment.

Built up areas in 1961 not found in1922 Common Built up areas between 1922 & 1961 Built up areas 1922 (demolished)

Difference in built-up areas, comparing the 1922 and the 1961 government survey sheet (Image Credit to Lawrence W.C.Lai)

Outer Wall of Kowloon Walled City Kowloon Walled City Park

Outer Wall of Kowloon Walled City on Contemporary Map (Image Credit to Lawrence W.C.Lai)

Mei Tung Lau in 2021 before demolishing (Image Credit to Cola)

Mei Tung Estate

Due to the original demolition decision of the Kowloon Walled City during the 1960s, Mei Tung House was built in 1969 with an intention to resettle the residents. However, as residents of the Walled City were not attracted to the public housing proposal scheme, the demolition decision ceased and other residents moved into Mei Tung House. It was one of the earliest Old Slab public housing built in Hong Kong. The bottom two storeys are for storage and the eight storeys above for habitation. The old slab was mainly designed to fit into the topography near the foot of the mountain. The ventilation and sunlight conditions were not carefully considered in this old prototype, hence overtime the conditions rapidly deteriorated in Mei Tung House. The building was demolished in 2021 and the land will be redeveloped to new public housing to house more occupants in the future.

3rd Floor Plan of the Mei Tung Lau (Image Credit to Sun Ziyue)

Thousands of people gathered at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong on the last day it was open for business on July 5, 1998, to say farewell and witness history (Image Credit to Birdy Chu)

Related Site

Old Kai Tak Airport The Kai Tak Airport was one of the major sites that influenced the buildings of Kowloon City. Due to the take-offs of flights, the buildings must not be built too high. This notably contributed to the compactness of buildings in the Walled City. Developers did not start to construct high-rise buildings in nearby areas until the abandonment of this inner airport in 1998.

Social Welfare Group Responding to Urbanization: Infrastructure by Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society in Kowloon City Pui Yu, Yau Introduction Kowloon City, one of the oldest districts of Hong Kong, has undergone tremendous changes over the past century. One of the major groups which observed and motivated the urbanization process was the Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society, a well-known charitable group in Hong Kong today. The group has contributed to building infrastructure for social welfare since the early 20th century. The

article examines how Lok Sin Tong responded to three important social issues during the last century and advocated the urbanization process in Kowloon City. Moreover, the essay encourages the discussion of how infrastructure could be changed as future urban issues arise. Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society and Its Origin The story behind Lok Sin Tong could be traced back to two centuries ago. In the mid 19th century, merchants in Kowloon City held their trading businesses at a market near Lun Jin Pier.1 In order to have fair trade, all items must be weighed by a scale before the deal was made. A group of locals, who were in charge of this service, collected the fee and used it for charitable purposes. For example, when the plague spread across Hong Kong in 1894, the society provided free medical consultations for those in need and helped with the burial of the dead with no charges.2 The society became the predecessor of Lok Sin Tong Benevolent.

Figure 1: Lun Jin Pier in 1910 - where Kowloon City merchants held their trades. (Image Credits to 趙雨樂,鍾寶賢)

Figure 2: Lun Jin Stone Bridge Gate (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Response to the Demolition of Kowloon Walled City and Lok Sin Tong During Colonization Period (1930s) Lok Sin Tong’s base was originally located within Kowloon Walled City Da Ti Street No.32.3 It serves as a gathering space for residents to hold their meetings and express their complaints. Serving as a communication bridge between the residents and the government, it has played a role in many important decision-making processes and heavily impacted the rate and quality of urbanization in Kowloon City. In 1932, when the British council proposed to demolish houses around the Walled City, residents gathered in Lok Sin Tong and sent representatives to consult with the British Hong Kong Government.4 Consequently, the demolition plan was rejected. The Kowloon Walled City remained and continued to grow, and later supported many Mainland settlers who escaped to Hong Kong during the war period. 5

Response To The Postwar Baby Boom and Overpopulation Problem: Lok Sin Tong Primary School In the 1950s, the Chinese Civil War increased the population of Hong Kong from 60 million to 236 millions.6 Due to the excess population growth, the British Hong Kong Government continued to develop new city districts with housing to settle the newcomers. The issue of overpopulation also resulted in a series of social problems including lack of resources and education, increase in crime rate, and housing crisis. In response, Lok Sin Tong pushed the educational and health development in Kowloon City by opening up more free schools and medical centers. Lok Sin Tong was one of the major forces to push education development in Hong Kong. In 1929, they opened a free school for girls, breaking the traditional norm that girls should not be educated. Later, the society also opened another boys’ free

school. Unfortunately, due to policies, the schools were filtered out before wartime.7 In 1946, the society migrated from the walled city to Long Gong Avenue where they reconstructed their base and Lok Sin Tong Free School to provide children with free education.8 After the war, many children and teenagers near squatter areas in Kowloon Walled City did not have money for education. The reconstruction of the free school expanded the number of people receiving education. At first, the primary school only had one floor, holding eight classes at a time.9 The height was likely impacted by the height restriction in the area, to avoid collisions with the airplanes from the Kai Tak Airport. In 1951, the school extended to a three-story high campus to allow more students to learn. Until 1978, Lok Sin Tong Free School officially renamed itself to the Lok Sin Tong Primary School.10 Also, the new school in the Long Gong Avenue once served as a safety zone of the overpopu-

lated region. When there were fire outbreaks, many residents from the squatter areas and the walled city used the sports court of the primary school as a temporary refuge since there were no social centers back in the day.11

Figure 3: Old Base of Lok Sin Tong within the Walled City Da Ti Street No.32 (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Figure 4: First girls’ free school established by Lok Sin Tong in 1929 (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Figure 5: Current View of Lok Sin Tong Primary School (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Response To The Current Housing Crisis in Hong Kong: Renovation of Lok Sin Tong Primary School To Transitional Housing Due to the resident displacement caused by the demolition of Kowloon Walled City, the majority of the remaining residents in Kowloon City were elderlies. This resulted in a significant decrease of students in the primary school. Finally, in August 2019, the school stopped taking in students and announced that it will be rebuilt into transitional housing.12 According to the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the applications for applying to public housing estates has increased immensely and the waiting time has been updated to 5.9 years. In response to this heavy traffic 13 in the public housing waitlist, Lok Sin Tong proposed the transitional housing scheme to support those in the queue. The space allows 51 families to live in, as an attempt to improve their living conditions to a certain extent.14 The classrooms of the primary school were

divided into two, transformed into transitional housing units that could allow 3 - 4 family members to live in.15 The original basketball court and open playground is conserved in the reconstruction process to provide space for children to play and for organizing social activities.16 At the same time, during the renewal process, the school continues to conserve some of the most important historical monuments such as the stone tablets of the Lun Jin Pier to celebrate the origin of Lok Sin Tong.17 According to Lok Sin Tong, they will continue to develop transitional housing by collaborating with the government and other local groups.18 This transformation reflects the continuous housing crisis in Hong Kong and the aging society in Kowloon City today. The reuse of old infrastructure is an adaptive use is a response from Lok Sin Tong to tackle current urgency. Nevertheless, it is arguable whether this is the most efficient way to help facilitate the housing crisis.

Figure 4: Stone Bridge Gate Preserved at the Entrance of Lok Sin Tong Primary School (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Figure 5: Renovation Period Captured in 2020 of Lok Sin Tong Primary School (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Figure 6: Original Classroom that will be transformed into two living units (Image Credits To: South Morning China Post)

Figure 7: Classroom After Transforming Into a Transitional Housing Unit (Image Credits to Lok Sin Tong)

Conclusion From the plague to the current housing crisis today, Lok Sin Tong has been attempting to provide solutions for the most recent social urgency. Today, it continues to develop its infrastructure across Kowloon and New Territories with the alliance of other societal groups. Looking at the historical timeline, Lok Sin Tong observed and plays an important role behind the urbanization of Kowloon City. As time passes, the different phases affect its primary focus, whether it is to build free schools for the poor, or renew infrastructures for transitional housing to facilitate the housing crisis. Also, it is evident that these responses to urgent social problems allowed Lok Sin Tong to gain intimacy and trust with the local residents. This connection web is seen to be a crucial element to hold the society together in order to continue developing the city as a whole.

The infrastructure supported by Lok Sin Tong impacted the living experiences and shaped the cityscape of Kowloon City. It is important to rethink the mission of Lok Sin Tong in the future, with the challenge of aging population and urban redevelopment.

Notes 1. History, Mission & Vision - the lok sin tong benevolent society kowloon (Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society Kowloon, 2021), https://www.loksintong.org/history-mission-vision?_ lang=en. 2. 香港九龍城區議會. 追憶龍城蛻變. Di 2 Ban.; 第2 版. ed. 香港: 九龍城區議會節日慶祝活動籌劃工作小組, 2011.35 3. 趙雨樂., 鍾寶賢. 九龍城. 1st Ed.; 第1版. ed. 香港地區史硏究 ; 1. 香港: 三聯書店(香港)有限公司, 2001. 105 4. 香港九龍城區議會,追憶龍城蛻變.37 5. Ian Lambot, Peifeng Huang, and Xianxian Chen, 黑暗之城：九龍城寨的日與夜 (香港: 中华书局香港有限公司, 2015).15 6. 方駿, and 熊賢君. 香港教育通史. 香港史地系列. 香港: 齡記出版有限公司, 2008.276 7. 黃柳青, 李煜銘, and 曹小蕾, “從義學到義務教育—探討九龍樂善堂教育服務如何回應香港社會變遷” (Hong Kong: 樂善堂梁銶琚書院, 2017), 8 8. 香港九龍城區議會,追憶龍城蛻變.36 9. 黃柳青, 李煜銘, and 曹小蕾, “從義學到義務教育—探討九龍樂善堂教育服務如何回應香港社會變遷” 13 10. 黃柳青, 李煜銘, and 曹小蕾, “從義學到義務教育— 探討九龍樂善堂教育服務如何回應香港社會變遷” 14 11. 趙雨樂., 鍾寶賢. 九龍城. 124 12. “樂善堂社會房屋計劃 ─ 改建校舍作「過渡性社會房屋」,” 1-3. 13.“Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department,” Number of Applications and Average Waiting

Time for Public Rental Housing, November 10, 2021, https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/about-us/publications-and-statistics/prh-applications-average-waiting-time/. 14. 陳麗娜, “【過渡房屋】九龍樂善堂改建小學成過渡性房屋 51個基層家庭已入住 - 香港經濟日報 - Topick - 新聞社會,” TOPick (香港經濟日報HKET, March 30, 2021), 15. Martin Choi, “The Hong Kong School That Will Be Reborn as Homes for Poor Families,” South China Morning Post, April 17, 2019, https://www.scmp.com/news/hongkong/article/3006631/hong-kong-school-be-reborn-transitional-homes-low-income-families?module=perpetual_ scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=3006631. 16. 呂凝敏,“70年歷史小學改建成過渡性房屋最大單位420 呎籃球場變兒童玩樂空間,” 香港01 (香港01, March 29, 2021), 17. 唐健恒, ed.,“【施政報告2021】九龍樂善堂：歡迎政府增加過渡性房屋供應冀更多發展商借地建屋,” 地產新聞及樓市分析 | 地產站 Property Station, October 6, 2021, https://ps.hket.com/article/3075765. 18. 唐健恒, ed.,“施政報告2021”.

Transformation of the Kowloon Walled City: Self Built Architecture and its Impact on Urbanization in Kowloon City Chengxi, Liu Introduction Kowloon Walled City is most commonly known for its dense living environment especially during the 1980s in Hong Kong. Due to the excess population in Hong Kong during the war period, refugees gathered in this area mainly because of the low housing rents and started constructing their own houses and business for survival.1 This essay mainly focuses on how the political environment cultivated

Kowloon City’s urbanization in the 20th century, using the transformation of the Kowloon Walled City as an example. Further, the essay will reflect on the successive impacts this paradigm of urbanization has brought to Hong Kong and other parts of the world. It argues that urbanization is not a spontaneous process, but highly motivated by political ambitions, and is directed to a well-organized urban community supervised by the government. Political Motivations in Transformation of the Kowloon Walled City The Kowloon walled city had experienced its early development, prosperity (albeit the prosperity may not be a positive example), and demolition during the last century. In the meantime, Hong Kong was also undergoing three major transitions: pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial times. The change in jurisdiction formed the ground for the growth of the Walled City.

In the early 19th century, the Kowloon Walled City was “a coastal fort with a pier” planned by the imperial Chinese government.2, 3 By the end of the 19th century, following the agreement between China and Britain on The Second Convention of Peking, it remained as Chinese territory in a British colony.4 This exclusion of the Kowloon Walled City from the scope of the lease became a symbol to represent Hong Kong’s status as Chinese territory.5 It is a fortress used by the Chinese to defend the City against the British invasion. During the political turmoil of the early decades, many refugees fled from Mainland China and gradually settled into self-constructed brick and wooden houses within this slot.6 Compared to the early development in the first half of the 20th century, when buildings were still short and visually inadequate (Figure 1), the Kowloon Walled City began to develop into super-dense community fabrics after Japanese armies dismantling stone walls during WWII. In the 1960s and 70s, there were main-

Figure 1: The Kowloon Walled City in 1937, full of vegetable gardens (Image credit to Jin Lu, 1988)

Figure 2: Looking out from the Chawu District of Xitou Village to the Walled City in 1978 (Image credit to Lawrence W. C. Lai)

ly two political factors framed and motivated the spontaneous construction in the Walled City.7 One is the strict regulation of building height, while another is an absence of building regulation inside the Walled City.8 These two triggers appeared to be the opposite.These two triggers appeared to be the opposite. As for the constraint, the building code was due to the operation of the inner airport Kai Tak, which restricted all buildings in Kowloon to 60 meters above principal datum. This led to the appearance of typical Kowloon blocks as “buildings of 12 to 14 stories which were extremely compact and hyper-dense”9, 10 While the Hong Kong government did offer some services like fire hazard abatement notices and mail delivery, they did not have actual sovereignty over this urban island in anarchy.11 Builders in the Walled City were not required to submit any construction plans and constructed their blocks according to simple sketches and experience to save on the cost of hiring professionals. Some of the

builders built plenty of new units on one original site of stone houses and then sold them out at a relatively lower rent.12 The two political elements together contributed to shaping the Kowloon Walled city into a dark, crowded, and high-rise urban squalor (Figure 2). After decades of darkness, poor hygiene, crimes, prostitution, and drug use, this appalling slum was finally cleared and redeveloped

Figure 3: The redeveloped Chinese-style park on the site of the old Walled City (Image credit to Yau Pui Yu, 2021)

by the government into a bright, clean, and open urban park (Figure 3). This transformation can be considered a modern movement of the Kowloon city’s urbanization. This happened in a transitional period from the late 1980s to the 1990s, when the colonization was ending. Besides Hong Kong’s public housing scheme, which provided solid possibilities for clearance, two main political motivations facilitated this modernization. The first motivation was the British government’s concern that they should prevent potential anti-British propaganda after the resumption of Chinese sovereignty.13 This is because the walled City was like a self-governing region and had loads of severe problems which might affect a colonizer’s international image.14 The second political condition was uncommon but valuable cooperation between the British government, the Chinese government, and the Hong Kong government in dealing with this hideous area.15 Further, reconstructing this site into a public park with a tradition-

al taste of Chinese gardens also casts light on the agreement between governments of the former colonizer and the colonized.16 Modern Paradigm Bringing Impacts on Larger Extents This urban planning has a modern vision which questions the unhealthy hyper-density and compactness existing in the Kowloon Walled City.17 The Walled City was a functional community but lacked sustainability caring about living quality. However, some may argue that high-dense living is the nature of Hong Kong, and the shift from a hyper-dense walled city to super-dense public housing is not an essential urbanization.18 Undoubtedly, whether it is a crowded urban slum or public housing, they both emerge to accommodate more people in the face of a scarcity of land. Nevertheless, behind the shift in housing, there is also a critical shift to a wellplanned urban community designed by the

government and professionals, focusing on the need of people. Some suggest that “the planning by the colonial Hong Kong Government was the most persistent and eventually prevailed” for its further impact on other parts of Hong Kong.19 When the City was reduced to a Chinese-style landscaped public park, at the same time, the cottage settlement in Rennie’s Mill, Junk Bay (now Tseung Kwan O) was erased from the surface of the earth.20 At no stage in history was the city unplanned.

The Interlace in Singapore, designed by OMA/ Ole Scheeren (Photo credit to Iwan Baan, 2015)

Beside the influences to Hong Kong, the establishment and demolition of the Walled City have also brought reflection to the world’s housing schemes. It is argued that modern urban planning should focus on living quality and the organizations in spatial arrangement, which is closely related to political control.21 Although Hong Kong has an almost unparalleled culture of “greed and powerful developers”, which cultivate extreme historical over-densified superblocks, some other places also have compact urban fabrics and are eager to find a sustainable way out in planning.22 For example, some new housing experiments of superblocks have taken place in Singapore, called the Interlace.23 The Interlace presents an approach to contemporary living in a tropical environment by adopting a new residential typology that breaks away from Singapore’s standard vertical tower blocks.24 Compared to the Kowloon Walled City, the Interlace in Singapore is undoubtedly an experiment of modern urbanization with re-

flection on an organization and human living qualities. Urbanization and the way our cities may evolve in the future are closely engaged with density. After reviewing the Kowloon Walled City and its policy-related evolution process, it is certain that modern urbanization stands for more regulated ways to deal with compactness, which should not be detrimental to liveability and urban well-being. Conclusion Development of an urban community could happen naturally, but an artificial political environment could interfere with this natural process and realize the government’s ambition of modernization. The Kowloon Walled City acts as a city within a city. Its establishment and rise could be regarded as small parasitic urbanization in the greater Kowloon City. However, as discussed previously, it could be argued that this self-developed Walled City is not modern because it does not conform to modern values, such as organization and human comfort.

Urbanization of Kowloon City benefited from the cooperation of the three parties to clear the hyper-compact Walled City and sought a promising and bright future for livability. To a greater extent, modern urbanization is a policy-motivated campaign. Moreover, its value transcends time and space, bringing reflection and progress that can radiate to the future of Hong Kong and other parts of the world.

Notes 1. Gordon Jones, “The Kowloon City District and the Clearance of the Kowloon Walled City: Personal Recollections”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, no. 51 (2011): 273. 2. Lawrence W. C. Lai, and Mark Hansley Chua. “The History of Planning for Kowloon City”. Planning Perspectives, no. 1 (Summer 2017): 99. 3. Jin Lu, Jiulong Chengzhai Shihua (A History of the Kowloon Walled City) (Hong Kong: San Lian, 1988), 32. 4. Lai and Chua, Planning for Kowloon City, 102. 5. Lu, Shihua, 84. 6. Steffen Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism: Towards a Framework for Quality and Optimal Density?”. Future Cities and Environment, no.2 (2016): 4. 7. Gordon Jones, “The Kowloon City District and the Clearance of the Kowloon Walled City: Personal Recollections”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, no. 51 (2011): 273. 8. Jones, “Personal Recollections”, 273. 9. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 5. 10. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 5. 11. Jones, “Personal Recollections”, 268-269. 12. Greg Girard, and Ian Lambort, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Company Hong Kong Limited, and Roundtable Synergy Books Limited, 2015), 74. 13. Jones, “Personal Recollections”, 273. 14. Jones, “Personal Recollections”, 273.

15. Jones, “Personal Recollections”, 267. 16. Lai and Chua, Planning for Kowloon City, 102. 17. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 1. 18. Lai and Chua, Planning for Kowloon City, 102. 19. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 4. 20. Lai and Chua, Planning for Kowloon City, 109. 21. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 6. 22. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 5. 23. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 6. 24. Lehmann, “Sustainable Urbanism”, 6.

“Urban Immigrants”: Resident Displacement of the Kowloon Walled City and the Mei Tung House Ziyue, Sun Introduction Hong Kong is known for its fast-grown cityscape and urban renewal practices. As one of the symbolic areas in urban renewal, the Kowloon Walled City and its surrounding areas experienced several redevelopments, including the clearance of the Walled City and the reconstruction of the Mei Tung House, one of the public rental housings nearby. Such processes caused the movement of residents, who may be displaced in other districts owing to the demolition of their original homes.

While the “urban immigrants” were relocated to other public housing estates to improve their living conditions, it is noticeable that they may have spatial and emotional struggles resulting from the displacement. The essay will examine three displacement proposals and projects in the area – the “Nunnery Scheme,” the relocation of the Walled City’s residents and the rehousing of the Mei Tung House’s residents. It is argued that while the frequent governmental displacements could contribute to the urban construction, it would also fragment residents’ living experiences, which can be regarded as an indication of urbanization in Hong Kong. Unrealized Displacement: The Planning of the Mei Tung House Before the actual displacement was conducted, the area of the Kowloon Walled City and its surrounding had experienced several resettlement schemes, most of which encountered resistance from the citizens and were

unimplemented.1 The “Nunnery Scheme” was one of the major schemes adopted by the colonial government to reregulate and redesign the area, resulting in the construction of the Mei Tung House. The transformation of the Walled City during the late 1960s and early 1970s brought its redevelopment into consideration of the authority. Owing to economic prosperity at the time, apartments in the Walled City were particularly popular with their acceptable rents, transforming the area from a low squatter village into a cramped high-dense district.2 However, the unrestricted construction in the city created further problems in sanitation and water provision, worsening the unoptimistic living condition of its inhabitants. The “Nunnery Scheme” (Figure 1) was approved in 1969. The authority hoped that a “well-planned, high-rise, low-rent public housing estate built by the Resettlement Department” would attract residents to give

Figure 1: Planning of the Nunnery Scheme (The history of planning)

up their land in the Walled City, enabling it to be transformed into a grand public rental housing estate.3 The Scheme consisted of four parts – Area A, B, C and D - encompassing the Walled City in different directions. As one of the housing estates to relocate Walled City’s residents, Mei Tung House (Figure 2) was designed to occupy Area D in the north fully. Unlike the following buildings of Mei Tung Estates, Mei Tung House was an old slab residential block built along the hill with only twelve floors in height. The upper eight

Figure 2: Street view of Mei Tung House (HK01)

floors provided more than 500 apartments, while the lower two floors were stores offering daily consumption and meals for future residents. However, the “Nunnery Scheme” did not go smoothly as expected. With the negotiation of the developers within the Walled City, residents could directly be rehoused in the growing self-built structures, leading to an uninterest of the governmental scheme.4 While Area C and D, including Mei Tung and

Tung Tau Estate, came into completion, Area A was only cleared without further construction and Area B remained on paper. Realized Displacement: demolition of Kowloon Walled City and reconstruction of the Mei Tung House The “Nunnery Scheme” indicates that the area was one of the focal points of Hong Kong’s governmental plans in easing housing shortages and improving the life quality of the citizens. Subsequently, a large-scale displacement happened due to the clearance of the Walled City and the reconstruction of the Mei Tung Estate. Both projects gained public attention in two aspects: the redevelopment proposal of the original site, and the relocation of the residents. In 1987, the Hong Kong government officially declared the demolition arrangement of the Walled City.5 The resettlement of its residents was part of the compensation plan. Qualified

residents were allowed to rent public housing units provided by the Housing Authority or received funds to purchase the Home Ownership Scheme preferentially.6 Over half of the residents chose to move into public housing estates at the end of the clearance.7 At the same time, the construction of a traditional Chinese garden started immediately on the site as a celebration of its historical and cultural value. Although there was improvement in hygiene, lighting and ventilation, the relocation to the public housing was critical in the design of the resettlement units. Compared with the flats in the Walled City with an average size of 400 – 700 square feet (Figure 3), a standard resettlement room around 120 square feet is more compacted in living. Scholars commented that the housing estates were “merely a means of squatter control and not based primarily on the need to assist low-income families to obtain decent housing”.8 According to a survey, over 350,000 people living in pub-

Figure 3: Layouts of a five-storey building in Kowloon Walled City (Quality of life)

lic housing estates had less than 24 square feet of space per person, indicating the risk of overcrowding habitation.9 Thus, the living conditions in the public housing blocks were possibly not much better than the Walled City’s as people expected. Additionally, community satisfaction was a vital factor influenced by the resident displacement. On the one hand, community interaction was strong in the Walled City. According to the interviews of residents, neighbors would chat with each other in the

hallways as a family. When the fire alarm happened, they would take care of other people’s children and check all the flats to bring their neighbors out of the fire. The Kaifong, a neighborhood welfare association, was established to propagate the good qualities of the residents and protect their rights in the negotiation with the government, contributing to building a collective identity.10 On the other hand, the resettled residents expressed their worries about integrating into a new community. The allocated public housing block for the displacement, Choi Ha Estate, was in the district 5 kilometers away from the Walled City.11 Since residents were forced to depart from the district where they lived for decades, the Kaifong asserted that the Walled City’s atmosphere as traditional Chinese villages should be maintained.12 In that sense, the impacts of the displacement on the former community need further evaluation.

Displacement of the Mei Tung House’s residents: community reintegration and redistribution of flats In the case of Mei Tung House, there was also spatial and emotional transformation due to resident displacement. In response to the aging population as well as the growing demand for public housing, the Hong Kong Government decided to restart the Estate Clearance Program to enlarge the capacity of some oldest housing estates. In 2017, the government announced that part of the Mei Tung Estate, including the Mei Tung House, was listed in the program. The demolition started at the beginning of 2021, and the newly-built public housing blocks will provide approximately 2,800 flats by the end of 2028.13 However, the former tenants of the Mei Tung House encountered inadaptation to the community in the rehousing estates. Some of the tenants showed concerns before the displacement started, while others experienced

a sense of loss after resettling in the new flats.14 Since the neighbors were rearranged to different buildings, it was not easy to maintain the neighborhood relationships or create a sense of belonging between the new residents and the community.15 Furthermore, the tenants faced the redistribution of flats that may change their living conditions. Since the number of family members could increase or decrease in the past decades, the government may reconsider the size of the flat for each family. The elderly may get a smaller rehousing unit with the children moving out, implying a more crowded living space than their previous flats.16 In comparison, the new families with children possibly gain a bigger one not in the same district as their original estate. As a result, the concerns lie in the inadaptation of changed districts, especially the unfamiliarity of daily activities such as shopping and dentistry.

Conclusion This study demonstrates that the redevelopment of the Kowloon Walled City and its surrounding areas led to resident displacement schemes. On the one hand, the displacement enables the creation of new buildings such as the Mei Tung House and the renewal of existing sites in response to the housing shortage and unpromising living conditions. On the other hand, it is noticeable that the displacement inevitably affected the spatial quality and emotional connection of the relocated residents. By digging into the interviews and news reports, it is argued that these displacements could partially segment the residents’ living experiences, as they may realize the differences in personal and communal levels after the relocation. In the fast-paced city expansion and urban redevelopment, the lives of Hong Kong citizens are something worth pondering.

Notes

1. Zhonghua Zhang, Xianggang Jiulongchengzhai Dang An Shi Laio Xuan Bian (Beijing: Zhongguo dang an chu ban she, 2007), 255. 2. Seth Harter, “Hong Kong’s Dirty Little Secret,” Journal of Urban History 27, no. 1 (2000): pp. 92-113, https://doi. org/10.1177/009614420002700106, 8. 3. Lawrence W. Lai and Mark Hansley Chua, “The History of Planning for Kowloon City,” Planning Perspectives 33, no. 1 (2017): pp. 97-112, https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2017.1331751, 8. 4. Lai and Chua, “The History of Planning”, 9. 5. Greg Girard and Ian Lambot, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Somerset, UK: Watermark, 2014), 406. 6. Jin Lu, Jiu Long Cheng Zhai Shi Hua (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited, 1989), 174-176. 7. Hong Kong Housing Authority, Work Report of the Special Committee on the Demolition of the Kowloon Walled City. HA 13/2002, Hong Kong: HD, 2002, https://data.hkppdb.org/zh_Hant_TW/dataset/ha13-02 (Accessed December 22, 2021). 8. Leung Kwok Lau, Wai Chung Lai, and Chi Wing Ho, “Quality of Life in a ‘High-Rise Lawless Slum’: A Study of the ‘Kowloon Walled City,’” Land Use Policy 76 (2018): pp. 157-165, https://doi. org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.04.047, 4. 9. Lau, Lai and Ho, ““Quality of Life”, 5. 10. Harter, “Hong Kong’s Dirty Little Secret”, 9. 11. “Resettlement plan of the Walled City Residents,” Wah Kiu Yat Po, March 6, 1991, Hong Kong Public Libraries Multimedia Information System. 12. Harter, 11. 13. 呂諾君, 黃偉民, “公屋奇景｜逾40年美東邨不敵時代巨輪公屋達人：罕見兩層住宅設計買少見少.” 香港01. 香港01, November 15, 2020. https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E5%8D% 80%E5%B0%88%E9%A1%8C/547143/%E7%BE%8E%E6%9D %B1%E9%82%A8%E9%A0%90%E8%A8%88%E6%98%8E%E 5%B9%B4%E9%87%8D%E5%BB%BA-%E5%85%AC%E5%B1-

%8B%E9%81%94%E4%BA%BA-%E5%9B%9B%E5%BA%A7%E6 %A8%93%E8%A6%8B%E8%AD%89-%E8%B7%B3%E6%A0%BC%E6%A8%93%E5%AE%87%E7%99%BC%E5%B1%95%E5%8F%B2. 14. 岑志剛, 翁麗娜, “居民憂調遷難適應柯創盛冀原區安置,” 文匯報, August 25, 2017, http://paper.wenweipo.com/2017/08/25/ HK1708250013.htm. 15. 關則輝, “拆不走的人情味,” AM730, February 24, 2021. https:// www.am730.com.hk/column/%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/%E6%8B% 86%E4%B8%8D%E8%B5%B0%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA%E6%83 %85%E5%91%B3-256966. 16. 公屋重建，directed by 雍進, 翁振輝, 吳璟儁, 許少芬, 何嘉敏 (香港：電視廣播有限公司, 2014), Electric Resource.

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The Modern Architecture Guidebook Hong Kong’s built environment represents a unique site of inquiry in the global history of the Modern Movement. The Modern Architecture guidebook series draw from an inter-disciplinary toolkit of knowledge, references, and field studies to understand the processes at work in the built environment. Each walking tour in the series begins with one of the 98 MTR stations in Hong Kong as the meeting point. First opened in 1979, this modernist infrastructure has produced a city rationalized around transportoriented development. Organized around key themes (industrialization, colonization, environment, internationalization, migration, decolonization, counterculture, and globalization), the guidebooks present a critical yet open perspective towards the implications of large-scale modernist schemes on the environment and community.