Building Communities: New Hong Kong Developments

By Isaac Tam

The first image which come to mind when mentioning “Hong Kong”are probably skyscrapers and bustling streets. Yet, behind the curtain of such extravaganza, it is not hard to detect a sense of distance among citizens. If you pay attention to surrounding people while strolling through the urban landscape, you will notice indifferent faces rushing past. Everyone is either absorbed by their phones, or in a hurry to get to their next destination.

For as long as I can remember, my parents have been telling me stories of their childhood in the 60s. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, they would narrate how a whole family of 11 shared a small flat in public housing, with 2 or 3 people sleeping on each bed, and some on the floor; How they would help out the family business by making plastic flowers in the flat, or by knitting clothes. After school, they would roam through the long hallways on each level of the block with other kids in the estate, and hang out in the courtyards formed within a maze of more than 60 blocks. They would play self-made games like marbles in front of people’s doorways, and since everyone kept their doors and gates opened, neighbours became very close and formed tightly-knit communities.

Today, these scenes have already become an exceptional rarity. The compact communities have all dispersed in newly developed districts, and a research in Hong Kong in the past decade further highlights separations among residents, suggesting that one in three people does not know the name of a single neighbour(1) Some might explain it by the arrival of individualist culture, while others might blame it on the popularisation of television and mobile phones. But it is also arguable that the whole urban design and development of new towns in the recent decades have had a huge responsibility in the alienation of human relationships.

The design of public housing blocks in the 60s focused on providing the lower class with a better place to live. Therefore the buildings all adopted simple, modest designs aiming to provide comfortable spaces for each family. A typical design was the “H-shaped” plan, formed by stretches of interconnecting flats with corridors on the sides. Other block types also included the archetypical interconnecting corridors with rows of flats closely aligned. Together with the long open walkways in the air, these designs encouraged social interaction and dialogue between neighbours, building communities that form many of the sweet memories of an entire generation in Hong Kong.

As time passed the typical housing block grew thinner and taller to accommodate more people and improve individual living conditions. Now a common type of public housing design, the “Harmony Block”, has around 40 floors, each consisting of

16 flats. The lift lobby is at the centre of the floor which joins all 4 branches in the shape of a cross, with two flats on each side of the corridors. The doors of each flat look into the dimly lit indoor hallways, while the opposite flat is just at a short distance of 2 metres away. These dark, narrow indoor corridors deter people from hanging around, and the close proximity of lifts from flats, although aiding people in getting to the ground faster, prevent chances of neighbours meeting casually. . The alienation continues even after leaving the housing block, as the public spaces in between buildings are always shaded due to the tightly packed tower blocks. They block all possible natural views, and the lack of leisure facilities like children’s playgrounds further prevents people from socialising. Moreover to solve traffic problems, the overreliance on footbridges isolates people from actual ground activities, reducing the amount of human interaction in the area.

Of course the new housing blocks have their own strengths over the old ones, in particular a better living standard and amount of living space. And one must appreciate the efforts made to improve people’s lives. However, once we have solved the basic needs of shelter and safety, it is important to progress and tackle the next level of needs: human relationships and and the forging of a sense of belonging. It is certainly a challenge to satisfy both the physical need for privacy, amount of living space, transport convenience, and the social need for a community. And it will be a challenge that architects of this generation must engage with.

(1) Hong Kong: city of strangers. Taipei Times, 06 Oct. 2006. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.ww