CHUNGKING MANSIONS: THE SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY (MArch Thesis, by Derek Siu, University of Bath) by Derek Siu

厦大慶重 Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City To what extent can Chungking Mansions be understood as a self-sufficient city?

Derek Siu Student Number: 080138099 Master of Architecture Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering University of Bath January 2014

厦大慶重 Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City To what extent can Chungking Mansions be understood as a self-sufficient city?

Derek Siu Student Number: 080138099 Master of Architecture Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering University of Bath January 2014

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

重慶大厦

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Gordon Mathews (Professor in Anthropology at CUHK), Adam Mukther, Walt Olley (whose name I might have misspelt) for their time and help in undertaking the interview with me. I would also like to thank the following people for their invaluable contributions to my work: Sofie van Brunschot, Marissa Lin, Grace Chan, Edith Fung, Arnold Wong Florence Chen, Joanna Wong, Marty Alexander, Non Arkaraprasertkul and names of whom I have missed out or wish to remain anonymous .

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Professor Vaughan Hart for his critical observation, inspirational advices throughout the completion of this research paper.

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Keywords

Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, self-sufficent city, self-sustainability, physical attributes, tower and podium, , mixed-use development, Manhattanism, megastructure, building typology, public realms, programmes

Abstract

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

The hyper urban density of Hong Kong has generated some of the most dramatic urban landscapes and phenomena in the world within the limited developable land area of the city. Perhaps the most dramatic of all was the now demolished anarchic Kowloon Walled City, an unplanned ‘megastructure’, where it underwent formal and functional evolution in response to the changing needs of its inhabitants over time. Living up the spirit of the anarchic development of the walled city, Chungking Mansions is a contemporary epitome of megastructure. It has evolved over years to accommodate the changing demands of its inhabitants, mostly in compliance with regulations. It is now an enclave of ethnic minorities from the developing world that is significantly different in wealth, culture and racial composition from the first-world urban environment of Hong Kong that it is situated in. The disparity between the two makes Chungking Mansions one of the most fascinating urban phenomena in Hong Kong, if not the world.

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Based upon anthropologist Professor Gordon Mathews’ book, ‘Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’ which discusses the significance of Chungking Mansions in the overall picture of ‘low-end globalisation’ and its embodied autonomy of socio-cultural diversity, this research paper takes on the phenomenon of Chungking Mansions from an architectural perspective. It looks into the underlying physical attributes that contribute to the concurrent socialcultural self-sustainability of Chungking Mansions. The investigation aims to explore how Chungking Mansions can be understood as a self-sufficient system through analysing its physical attributes. The paper will first examine the issue at an urban scale critically through applying theoretical notions of ‘Manhattanism’ touched upon by Rem Koolhaas in ‘Delirious New York’ and ‘megastructure’ by Reyner Banham. Subsequently the paper probes into specific physical attributes of Chungking Mansions that facilitate the unique phenomenon of sociocultural self-sustainability of the building based upon literature research and the observation made during my three different visits to the building in December 2013. It will focus on the analysis of Chungking Mansions’s building typology, the physical quality of its public realms and the its programmatic layout.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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A research paper submitted by Derek Siu towards the degree of Master of Architecture at the University of Bath, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Session 2013-2014. Student number: 080138099.

Contents

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Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Context

24 28 30 36 38 41 42 44 46 49 50 54 68

1.1 // Hong Kong 1.2 // Chungking Mansions a. Architecture b. Evolution c. Experience

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chapter 2. Theoretical Analysis 2.1 // Manhattanism 2.2 // Cryptomegastructure 2.3 // Lobotomy Chapter 3. Detail Analysis 3.1 // Typology – Podium & Tower 3.2 // Public Realms 3.3 // Programmes

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Appendices Appendix A: Accounts of experience in Chungking Mansions

Appendix B: Interview with Professor Gordon Mathews, the author of ‘Ghetto at the centre of the world: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong.

Appendix C: Building density guidelines of the metropolitan area of Hong Kong

Appendix D: Floor plans of Chungking Mansions in the 1962 Sales Brochure

Front Cover: Photograph of the silhouette of Chungking Mansions (2013) [Author's own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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list of illustrations

Figure 01. Author’s own, 2013. Silhouette of the tower blocks of Chungking Mansions. [Photograph]. Figure 02. 1975. ‘High-Rise’ by J.G. Ballard [Illustration]. Available from: http://www. dreadcentral.com/img/news/aug13/ballard-highrise.jpg Figure 03. 1994. ‘Chungking Exrpress’ directed by Wong Kar-wai [Photograph]. Available from: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jbUR69OFM5s/ SsiXC7wD2II/AAAAAAAAAIE/diavLG-2I2I/S660/ brigitte6666666.jpg Figure 04. 1994. A scene in ‘Chungking Express’ depicting the presence of South Asians in Chungking Mansions [Film]. Available from: http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=euwk0ZSTCDA Figure 05. Author’s own, 2013. Front Elevation of Chungking Mansions [Photograph]. Figure 06. SCMP, 2013. An Infographic of the Kowloon Walled City [Diagram]. Available from: https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/ styles/486w/public/2013/03/16/scm_news_1.1.nws_ backart1_1_0.jpg?itok=sNYzFxXw [Accessed 19.01.2014] Figure 07. Girard, G. and Lambot, I., 2012. Night view of the Kowloon Walled City [Photograph]. London: Daily Mail.Available from: http://i. dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/05/article-213991412EF32A4000005DC-199_964x620.jpg Figure 08. Girard, G. and Lambot, I., 2012. Aerial View of the Kowloon Walled City [Photograph]. London: Daily Mail. Available from: http://i. dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/05/article-012EF340A000005DC-165_964x736.jpg Figure 09. Jaggi, M. and Jansen, J., 2008. Newspaper clippings featuring safety concerns in Chungking Mansions [Illustration]. In: Chungking Mansions: 3D [in]formality. Basel: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Basel. Figure 10. Luk, E. , 2003. A recent media report on a rape case in Chungking Mansions [News Article].

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Figure 21. Author’s own, 2013. Photograph showing the View of the interior of one of the lightwells. [Photograph].

Figure 11. 2011. ’Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’ by Gordon Mathews [Illustration]. Available from: http:// www.bibliovault.org/thumbs/978-0-226-51020-0frontcover.jpg

Figure 22. Author’s own, 2013. Photograph showing the View from the Podium rooftop [Photograph].

Figure 12. 1976. ‘Delirious New York’ by Rem Koolhaas [Illustration]. Available from: http://3. bp.blogspot.com/_sPxI1RRKAZE/S_rUL0LPKQI/ AAAAAAAAIBE/n6w0uu8HiQQ/s1600/deliriousnew-york-a-retroactive-manifesto-for-manhattan. jpg Figure 13. 1976. ‘Megastructure’ by Reyner Banham [Illustration]. Available from: http://www. megastructure-reloaded.org/typo3temp/pics/ e80ee4614a.jpg

Figure 24. Author’s own, 2013. First Floor Plan [Architectural Drawing].

Figure 14. Author’s own, 2013. Density Areas in Hong Kong [Diagram]. Adapted from Kandt, J., 2011. Hong Kong Spatial DNA. In: R. Burdett, M. Taylor AND A Kaasa, eds. Cities, Health and Wellbeing: Hong Kong Urban Age Conference, 16-17 November 2011 London. London: LSE Cities, pp. 3435. Figure 15. 2013. Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong [Photograph]. Available from http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6608194543_8cd9 45fdc9_b.jpg Figure 16. Author’s own, 2014. Hong Kong’s Economic Transformation [Illustration]. Figure 17. Author’s own, 2014. The Context of Chungking Mansion [Diagram]. Figure 18. Author’s own, 2014. Chungking Mansions is situated within a city block in Tsim Sha Tsui [Diagram]. Figure 19. Author’s own, 2014. The Massing of Chungking Mansions. [Diagram] Figure 20. Author’s own, 2013. Looking upwards in one of Chungking Mansions’ lightwells.[Photograph].

Figure 23. Author’s own, 2013. Ground Floor Plan [Architectural Drawing].

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Hong Kong: The Standard. Available from: http:// www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_ cat=11&art_id=134249&sid=39754719&con_type=1

Figure 25. Author’s own, 2013. Typical Tower Floor Plan [Architectural Drawing]. Figure 26. Author’s own, 2013. Ethnical Diversity. Photograph of Chungking Mansions’ entrance. [Photograph]. Figure 27. The Incorporated Owners of Chungking Mansions. Former to the Chungking Mansions, the building site was home to the Chungking Arcade. Circa. 1940s. [Photograph]. Available from: http:// chungkingmansions.com.hk/img/505.jpg Figure 28. The Incorporated Owners of Chungking Mansions, 2013. Rendering of Chungking Mansions, portrayed as a high-end residential estate in 1961. [Illustration]. Available from: http:// chungkingmansions.com.hk/img/503.jpg Figure 29. Zastrow, M., 2009. Spooky figure. Inside Chungking Mansions at night [Photograph]. Available from: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3424/3852415495 _8c826e7f7a_o.jpg Figure 30. Author’s own, 2013. Long queues of tourists, businessmen and residents waiting for the elevators. [Photograph]. Figure 31. Author’s own, 2013. ’Social Experiment?’: monitors at the ground floor lobby of Block A showing live CCTV images from the elevators [Photograph]. Figure 32. NYcityMap, 2013. Manhattan Grid [Photograph]. Available from: http://static. urbantimes.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ Untitled-1-970x514.jpg

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Figure 33. Patt, T., 2013. Hyper Density. View of Central, Hong Kong [Photograph]. In: book title. Place: Publisher http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8520/ 8618215083_411ca67d61_o.jpg Figure 34. BRAVO, 2012. Original Drawing showing the North-south Section through Chungking Mansions in the 1960s [Architectural Drawing]. Hong Kong: BRAVO. Figure 35. BRAVO, 2012. Original drawing of the eastwest section through Chungking Mansions in the 1960s [Architectural Drawing]. Hong Kong: BRAVO. Figure 36. Author’s own, 2013. Architectural Lobotomy: Seperation of the exterior and the interior architecture [Photograph]. Figure 37. Author’s own, 2014. The Massing of Chungking Mansions: the towers and the podium [Diagram]. Figure 38. Author’s own, 2014. Culs-de-sac of Chungking Mansions [Diagram]. Figure 39. Shelton, B., Karakiewicz, J. and Kvan T., 2011. Walter Bunning’s 1944 model new town, consisting of town centre and single strand connections to residential neighbourhoods, each with its own small centre. Both town centre and neighbourhoods are bounded by green belt.[Diagram]. In: The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p.158. Figure 40. Shelton, B., Karakiewicz, J. and Kvan T., 2011. Typical Hong Kong tower and podium consisting of a town centre (podium) and single strand connections to isloated ‘tower neighbourhoods’ above. [Diagram]. In: The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p.158. Figure 41. Author’s own, 2014. Corridors: Exploded isometric drawing showing the corridors in the podium arcade. [Diagram]. Figure 42. Krier, R., 1979. Street, Square and Urban Structure as depicted in Rob Krier’s ‘Urban Space’ [Diagram]. In: Urban Space (Stadtraum). London: Academy Editions.

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Figure 56. Author’s own, 2013. Under-utilised rooftop. Photograph showing the current condition of the rooftop. [Photograph].

Figure 44. Author’s own, 2013. View of the ‘Square’ the atrium in the podium arcade. [Photograph].

Figure 57. Author’s own, 2013. Programmatic variety. Photographs showing the variety of programmes present throughout the structure of Chungking Mansions. [Photographs].

Figure 45. Author’s own, 2013. Internal Streetscape: corridors in the podium arcade [Photograph]. Figure 46. Author’s own, 2013. Photographs showing ‘Afresco-style’ dinning in the corridors of the podium arcade. [Photographs]. Figure 47. Author’s own, 2013. Photographs showing various incidents where the inhabitants’ activities spill out to the building’s public corridors. [Photographs]. Figure 48. Author’s own, 2014. Lobbies: Isometric Drawing showing the lobby areas of each floor in Chungking Mansions’ tower blocks. [Diagram]. Figure 49. Author’s own, 2014. Photographs showing the invasions of private activities into the public realms of the lobbies. [Photographs]. Figure 50. Author’s own, 2013. Photographs showing the front entrance of Chungking Mansions. [Photographs].

Figure 58. Jaggi, M. and Jansen, J., 2008. Programmatic Variety: a collection of business cards of shops and services within Chungking Mansions. [Scanned Image]. In: Chungking Mansions: 3D [in]formality. Basel: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH).

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Figure 43. Author’s own, 2013. The ‘Square’: sometric drawing showing the atrium in the podium arcade. [Diagram].

Figure 59. Author’s own, 2014. Programmatic layout in the podium: Exploded isometric drawing mapping the spectrum of programmes within Chungking Mansions’ podium levels. [Diagram]. Figure 60. Author’s own, 2014. Programmatic layout in the towers: Exploded isometric drawing mapping the spectrum of programmes within Chungking Mansions’ tower levels. [Diagram]. Figure 61. Author’s own, 2013. The most iconic image of Chungking Mansions: the skywards view from the podium rooftop. [Photograph].

Figure 51. Author’s own, 2014. Entrance: Isometric drawing of the front entrance of Chungking Mansions. [Diagram]. Figure 52. Author’s own, 2014. Podium Rooftop: Isometric drawing showing the rooftop area of the podium. [Diagram]. Figure 53. Author’s own, 2013. Photographs showing the current conditions of the podium rooftop. [Photographs]. Figure 54. Author’s own, 2014. Towers’ rooftops: Isometric drawing showing the area of the tower blocks’ rooftops of Chungking Mansions. [Diagram]. Figure 55. Author’s own, 2013. Panorama of Chungking Mansion’s rooftop against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s skyline. [Photograph].

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.01

Silhouette of the tower blocks of Chungking Mansions. (2013) [Author’s own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.05

Front Elevation of Chungking Mansions (2013) [Author’s own]

Introduction

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chungking Mansions is an existing 18-storey concrete structure tucked away within the hyper dense urban forest of Hong Kong. Built as a highend residential development in 1962, the purposebuilt structure evolved dramatically throughout its 50-year history. It is an enclave of developing world composed of an ethnically and culturally diverse population in stark contrast to the homogenous Chinese population of the developed world of Hong Kong. Like the fictional multipurpose tower block depicted in J.G. Ballard’s ‘High-Rise’, Chungking Mansions contains a wide range of services for the convenience of its occupants and users. As featured in director Wong Kar-wai’s film, ‘the Chungking Express’, which portrayed the building as a den of iniquity populated by south Asians, Chungking Mansions is allegedly notorious for the crimes and illegal activities.

figure.02

‘High-Rise’ by J.G. Ballard (1975)

It is frequently associated with the now demolished Kowloon Walled City. However, it is noted that Chungking Mansions is fundamentally different from Kowloon Walled City as it is a purpose-built structure whereas the latter was a total anarchic urban development. Chungking Mansion’s formal and functional evolution has been largely in compliance with regulations.1 Yet the sense of wonder and juxtaposition in terms of socio-cultural values it imposes against its immediate urban backdrop is not so dissimilar. Like the Walled City, it is a unique urban phenomenon that occurs as a result of the dense urbanism of Hong Kong.

figure.03

‘Chungking Express’ directed by Wong Kar-wai (1994)

figure.04

A scene in ‘Chungking Express’ depicting the presence of South Asians in Chungking Mansions. (1994) 17

figure.06

An Infographic of the Kowloon Walled City. (2013) [SCMP]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.07

Night view of the Kowloon Walled City in the early 90s. (2012) [Girard & Lambot] 18

figure.08

Aerial View of the Kowloon Walled City in the early 90s. (2012) [Girard & Lambot]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.09

Newspaper clippings featuring safety concerns in Chungking Mansions (2008) [ETH]

figure.10

A recent media report on a rape case in Chungking Mansions (2013) [The Standard] 19

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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’Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’ by Gordon Mathews. (2011)

figure.12

‘Delirious New York’ by Rem Koolhaas (1994)

figure.13

‘Megastructure’ by Reyner Banham (1976)

Aim

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Based upon the findings featured in anthropologist Professor Gordon Mathews’ book, ‘Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’ which discusses the significance of Chungking Mansions’s autonomy from the rest of Hong Kong in terms of its socio-cultural values, its diverse racial composition and the role it plays in the overall picture of ‘low-end globalisation’, this research paper takes on the phenomenon of Chungking Mansions from an architectural perspective. It looks into the underlying physical attributes that contribute to the concurrent social-cultural self-sufficiency of Chungking Mansions. This investigation aims to explore how Chungking Mansions can be understood as a self-sufficiency through the analysis of its constituent physical attributes. The self-sufficiency referred in this investigation is the system that sustains socio-cultural activities of the inhabitants of the building.

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Method The paper firstly examines the general physical attributes of Chungking Mansion through referencing the notion of ‘Manhattanism’ advocated by Rem Koolhaas’ in ‘Delirious New York’ and the notion of ‘megastructure’ advocated by Reyner Banham in order to establish an overall understanding of the architectural factors that bring about the socio-cultural self-sufficiency of the building. Subsequently the paper will probe into the specific physical attributes of Chungking Mansions that facilitate the socio-cultural self-sufficiency of the building. It will focus on the critical analysis of the building typology, the physical quality of public realms and the programmatic layout of Chungking Mansions, in reference to theoretical literature and data collected during my three visits to the building in on 18-19, 21 and 28 December 2013.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chapter 1 // Context

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Hunan

Guangxi

Guangdong Guangzhou Macau

Hainan

figure.14

Jiangxi

Shenzhen Hong Kong

Peral River Delta

Density Areas in Hong Kong (2013) [Author’s own, adapted from Kandt]

Fujian

1.1 // Hong Kong

chungking Mansions

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Hong Kong is a very dense urban environment. With a population of 7 million, the overall population density of the city is about 6300 persons per square kilometre. However, by confining the population density to the built-up area which only accounts for 24 per cent of the overall land area, the population density would be 25,900 persons per square kilometre.2 This results in the city’s adoption of a relatively high-desnity paradigm (Plot Ratio is currently between 6.5 – 10 in the zone 1 metropolitan area 3) in its urban development.

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The former British colony was founded in 1841 as an entrepot, trading between China and the world. It was returned to the Chinese in 1997. With its proximity with China and the adoption of a minimal interventionist policy on economic activities, movement of goods and people under the ethos of positive non-interventionism, Hong Kong attracted a global mix of population, with the majority Chinese and a vast array of other peoples, for the business opportunities it offered. Despite the success in trades, Hong Kong remained much of an impoverished place for its inhabitants throughout its history. The economy took off during the postwar periods, firstly emerged as a manufacturing hub in 1960s and 1970s, then developed into an international financial centre towards the late 1980s during which Hong Kong developed into a wealthy state, which in terms of per capita income, joining the rank of developed countries. It remains a major financial centre and one of the most developed states in the world ever since.4

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.15

Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. (2013) [Flickr]

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Hong Kong's Economic Transformation. (2014) [Author’s own]

pre-war

Trading port 26

Post-war

manufacturing hub

Late 80s onwards

Financial Centre

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Set within this context, Chungking Mansions presents an interesting phenomenon as it reflects a very contrasting world in terms of economic, social and cultural values. It is an urban enclave that embodies the dynamism of the developing world that strives to succeed within the established economic success of the city. It is home to ethnic minorities, mainly from developing countries in Africa and south Asia, who are deemed as less wealthy in contrast to the wealthy Chinese-dominated population of Hong Kong.5 The developing world character of Chungking Mansions is in many aspects detached from the homogeneity of the developed world of Hong Kong: ‘Chungking Mansions is in Hong Kong, but it is not of Hong Kong. It is an alien island of the developing world lying in Hong Kong’s heart.’ 6

S H H

Kowloon Park 重慶大厦

china ferry

to macau and china

Tsim Sha Tsui

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

MTR Station tsuen Wan Line H S

Isquare Shopping Mall S

chungking Mansions

H harbour city Shopping Mall

nathan road

MTR Statio east rail line

Peninsula Hotel 2

Star ferry

To Hong kong island

kEY S

shopping Mall

hong kong cultural centre

Hotel / hostel

hong kong space museum

Park

hong kong art museum

the kowloon mosque

Peninsula Hotel

Kowloon Mosque

H 3

Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Isquare Shopping Mall

Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront Promenade

Tsim Sha Shui Waterfront Promenade

harbour city Shopping Mall

H 重慶大厦

H S H S

Chungking Mansions H

Holiday Inn

Imperial Hotel

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.17

The Context of Chungking Mansion. (2014) [Author’s own] figure.18

1.2 // Chungking Mansions Situated between 36-44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, the city’s most popular tourist shopping district on the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, Chungking Mansions is a 18-storey concrete structure that accommodates a wide spectrum of activities, programmes and people. A mix of cheap hostels, shops and residences are mingled within concrete structure. Surrounded by hotels, shopping malls, offices and mixed-use tower blocks, Chungking Mansions is standing in the heart of the hyper urban density of Hong Kong. Chungking Mansions is within close proximity to a number of the city’s cultural landmarks and public spaces. It is a block away from the city’s biggest mosque, the Kowloon Mosque and the city’s largest urban green space, the Kowloon Park. It is 300m away from northern waterfront of the Victoria Harbour, the centrepiece of Hong Kong, where several of the city’s public cultural venues are situated. Conveniently linked with the city’s mass transit

Chungking Mansions is situated within a city block in Tsim Sha Tsui. (2014) [Author’s own]

railway, it is 45 minutes from the Sino-Hong Kong border. Chungking Mansions is also close to various transport terminals which are connected to the city’s major international port facilities. Sustaining an estimated population of 5000, mainly from African and south Asian countries, Chungking Mansions is visited by approximately 10000 people every day. At least 120 different nationalities have been identified amongst the members of the building. The complexity of the socio-cultural dynamic in the building is no less than the one of Hong Kong. Chungking Mansions plays a significant role in the trading of cheap Chinese products to the developing world, as identified by anthropologist Prof. Gordon Mathews in his research on Chungking Mansions in which he describes the building as the ‘centre of lowend globalisation’.7 It is essentially a mini ‘entrepot’ where traders from developing world buy cheap Chinese products and sell them back in their home countries to make profit.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Towers Block C

Block E Block B Block d Block A

street front Podium

Nat

han

figure.19

Basement Roa

The Massing of Chungking Mansions. (2014) [Author’s own]

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1.2a // Architecture

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Built as a high-end residential development in 1962 on the site of the former Chungking Market, it was amongst the first to be completed amongst the predominant vernacular ‘podium-tower’ design in urban Hong Kong, following the amendments of the building ordinance in 1956 and 1962 that allowed 100 per cent site coverage, increased plot ratio and new specification on street-building height relationship, permitting twice the street width in height.8 The 18-storey building is a straightforward concrete column and slab structure divided into two distinctive parts – the podium and the towers. The podium is formed by the 3-storey vertical extrusion of the city block that houses two separate shopping malls. Above the podium are three tower blocks consist of 15 repeating floor plans that rise to the 18th storey (the 17th floor). There is an basement level which accommodates the third shopping mall in the building. Chungking Mansions measures approximately 85m in length, 57m in width and 50m in height and accommodates 480 units in the tower and 293 shops in the podium. The western tower (Block A) enjoys the most street frontage facing Nathan Road while the other two, situated to the east of it, are hidden from street view. The towers feature meandering surfaces and light wells that descend from the top of the tower blocks to the roof level of the podium to enhance ventilation and lighting conditions. There are 5 sets of elevators connecting the towers to the ground floor, leading to the common misconception of 5 separate tower blocks. There are, in fact, only 3 separate tower blocks with eastern towers catered by two sets of elevators each (Blocks B and C are in the same tower structure while Blocks D and E are within another). Although housed in the same structure, the two blocks in each of the two eastern towers are not directly reachable to each other without returning to the ground floor. The inability to get from one end of a tower block to the other often leads to confusion: ‘“You can’t get therefrom here” is a statement that largely applies to Chungking Mansions’ different blocks vis-à-vis one another. One can indeed melt away and vanish in Chungking Mansions.’9

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Looking upwards in one of Chungking Mansions’ lightwells. (2013) [Author’s own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.21

Photograph showing the view of the interior of one of the lightwells. (2013) [Author’s own]

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Photograph showing the view from the Podium rooftop. (2013) [Author’s own] 32

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PRODUCED Alleyway to BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Minden row

Transformer room

Elevators to block E

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Atrium area

E Elevators to block D

Elevators to block B E

E E Escalator to 1/f Arcade (CKE)

E Elevators to block A

Escalator to basement arcade (Woodhouse)

Main entrance E

MTR Station external stalls

Nathan Road

Pedestrian Crossing

ftstudio

external stalls

e. siu.dft@gmail.com

figure.23

CLIENT

Ground Floor Plan. Scale 1:500 (2013) [Author’s own] E

entrance

ftsiu PROJECT

CHUNGKINGMANSIONS DWG TITLE

GROUND FLOOR PLAN DATE

SCALE

1:500 DRAWN BY

CHECKED BY

13-12-17 SIZE

DS DWG NO.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Elevators to block C

THE-101

CLIENT STATUS

NA REV

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

atrium

staircase to G/f

Escalator to 2/f arcade (CKE) Chungking express (CKE) shopping arcade not accessible from the main arcade

figure.24

First Floor Plan. Scale 1:500 (2013) [Author’s own]

ftstudio e. siu.dft@gmail.com

CLIENT

ftsiu PROJECT

CHUNGKINGMANSIONS DWG TITLE

GROUND FLOOR PLAN DATE

SCALE

1:500 DRAWN BY

DS DWG NO.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

CHECKED

13-12-17 SIZE

THE-101

STATUS

A4 REV

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Block E Lobby

party wall

Block B Lobby

Block D Lobby

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Block C Lobby

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Block A Lobby

ftstudio e. siu.dft@gmail.com

CLIENT

figure.25

ftsiu

Typical Tower Floor Plan. Scale 1:500 (2013) [Author’s own]

PROJECT

CHUNGKINGMANSIONS DWG TITLE

TOWER FLOOR PLAN SCALE

DATE

1:500 DRAWN BY

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

CHECKED BY

13-12-17 SIZE

DWG NO.

CLIENT STATUS

NA REV

THE-103

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.26

Ethnical Diversity. Photograph of Chungking Mansions’ entrance. (2013) [Author’s own]

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1.2b // EVOLution

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chungking Mansions has a tradition of shifting functions in response to the changing demands of its occupants. The towers have transformed gradually from a residential function to a multifunctionality while the podium has remained consistently commercial. 10 Its inhabitants changed too. From being lair of prostitutes in the 1960s, it emerges as a haven of western backpackers in the 1970s during which it also became home to an increasingly diverse population from south Asian countries. During late 1990s and early 2000s, the building saw a sharp increase in the number of African inhabitants. This was reflected interestingly in the shops in the podium: ‘The stores on the first two floors of Chungking Mansions increasingly came to reflect the changing needs of African merchants – from watches to Africanstyle clothing to cut-rate mobile phones, the new “must have “ commodity for many African consumers.’11 In recent years, the building experienced an increased presence of mainland Chinese, drawn by the cheap guesthouses and the relaxed visa policy to enter Hong Kong. Chungking Mansions is often related to the Kowloon Walled City for the similar notion of self-sufficiency they operate upon. They are both allegedly centres of crimes and iniquity. In architectural terms, however, they are significantly different. Chungking Mansions is a purpose-built structure that has experienced little formal changes since its completion. It evolves mainly in terms of functions with compliance to building regulations. Kowloon Walled City, on the other hand, was a complete anarchic urban development, experienced constant evolving forms and functions. Despite their typological difference, they manifest similar notion of selfsufficiency: ‘In common with Kowloon Walled City, Chungking Mansions could be considered as complete city within one structure. It managed over the span of forty years to transform from the original singular residential function to become a place of multiple programs that cater to a wide mix of cultures without manifesting the community tensions that so often emerge in cities of such cultural differences.’ 11

figure.27

Former to the Chungking Mansions, the building site was home to the Chungking Arcade. Circa. 1940s. (2013) [IOCKM]

figure.28

Rendering of Chungking Mansions, portrayed as a high-end residential estate in 1961. (2013) [IOCKM]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.29

Spooky figure. Inside Chungking Mansions at Night. (2009) [Flickr]

figure.30

Long queues of tourists, businessmen and residents waiting for the elevators. (2013) [Author’s own]

figure.31

’Social Experiment?’: monitors at the ground floor lobby of Block A showing live CCTV images from the elevators. (2013) [Author’s own]

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1.3c // Experience

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

The difference in the ethnic composition and culture between Chungking Mansions and the rest of Hong Kong is quite overwhelming. The claustral spatial character of building can cause confusion and anxiety to some of its visitors. A female Dutch traveller recalls on her first arrival at the building in 2011: ‘When I arrived at the entrance of the huge building, I was approached immediately by many Indian men trying to convince me to stay at their hostel… The lower floor of the building was a complete chaos with not a lot of women there. I had to go up to one of the floors to check in, which I did. At my check-in I found out that my room was not on the same floor, but on another one, so I had to walk down 2 stairs. Just a man sitting on one of the steps was injecting a needle into his arm… it (my room) didn’t have any windows. There was no real shower, just a shower head in a very tiny toilet…’ 13 One may even find a sense of surrealism in the experience through the building as another Dutch traveller Sofie van Brunschot describes her experience in Chungking Mansions in 2011: ‘The labyrinth-like halls and stairways were either eerily deserted or haunted by lone figures in hoods, hovering in corners. The fact that camera’s monitored what was happening inside the elevators and this was being shown on the ground floor where there was always a queue didn’t seem very positive. Was this a form of social control or just a way to make sure you didn’t get in the elevator with some sketchy figures?’ 14

Sharing a similar view of the building, American traveller Marissa Lin describes her impression of Chungking Mansions when she visited it in 2012: ‘I remember it being just the most chaotic and seedy place ever. Extremely narrow and crowded walkways, a limited number of elevators that were painfully slow, hence the very very long line of people, mostly backpackers, waiting for each one. Lighting is terrible and dim, and it gives the whole place an even creepier, grungier feel.’ 15 Having stayed overnight at Chungking Mansions and visited three times in total on various occasions in December 2013 (18-19, 21 and 28) during the writing of this research paper, I was able to examine and experience the building in more detail. My initial impression of the building was not so dissimilar to those experiences above; the socio-cultural and ethnic diversity offered inside was very different from the homogenous environment outside. Despite repeatedly warned about the dangers in the building, from my experience, the building was less encroached by crimes and illegalities than commonly believed. I experienced hardly any troubles through the building. Except for occasional smell of marijuana rising through the staircases, most of the activities within it looked legitimate. Navigation through the building was made easier with printed building plans but it was much easier than anticipated.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chapter 2 // Theoretical Analysis This chapter examines the general physical attributes of Chungking Mansion through referencing Rem Koolhaas’ notion of ‘Manhattanism’ and Reyner Banham’s notion of ‘megastructure’ in order to establish an overall understanding of the architectural factors that bring about the self-sufficiency of the building.

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figure.32

Manhattan Grid (2013) [NYCityMap]

2.1 // Hong Kong's Manhattanism

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.33

Hyper Density. View of Central, Hong Kong (2013) [Flickr]

Manhattanism, a notion advocated by Rem Koolhaas that manifested by the urban development of Manhattan over the years. One of the most insistent themes of Manhattanism is that individual ideological pursuit of each city block under the physical constraints of the Manhattan Grid: ‘…each new building of the mutant kind strives to be “a City within a City’. This truculent ambition makes the Metropolis a collection of architectural city states, all potentially at war with each other.’16 Whereby the Grid system is the sine qua non of Manhattanism, limiting every urban development to a homogenous building site, rid of any unique physical context, restricting the pursuit of intended ideology within the perimeter of a single city block, turning a city into a homogenous whole consists of competing city blocks of equal size: ‘The city becomes a mosaic of episodes, each with its own particular life span, that contest each other through the medium of the Grid.’17

The sine qua non of Hong Kong’s own adapted Manhattanism is the hyper urban density caused by the lack of buildable land and an ever growing population. The pressure on developable land forces the attributes of a city block ascribed to Manhattanism to be condensed into almost any available building block of any size, often as a puny fraction of a complete city block. To maximise development potential, city blocks inevitably resort to vertical expansion in order to carry on their ideological pursuits. Chungking Mansion is a manifestation of Hong Kong’s own adapted Manhattanism. It was one of the first buildings to take on vertical expansion as a development paradigm. As an unplanned episode, Chungking Mansions manifests a city within a city defined by its distinctive embodied socio-cultural and functional character, an ideology essentially in Manhattanist term, that is contrastive to other building blocks in Hong Kong.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.34

Original drawing showing the north-south section through Chungking Mansions in the 1960s. (2012) [BRAVO]

2.2 // Cryptomegastructure

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chungking Mansions, with its simple concrete frame construction and a shifting mix of programmes, has subconsciously created an unintended outcome – a megastructure or more accurately a cryptomegastructure. Megastructure, as Reyner Banham explains in his 1976 book, owes its original appeal to ‘its ability to reconcile the designed and the spontaneous, the large and the small, the permanent and the transient,’18 and its failure to ‘its inability to reconcile the avant-garde and the establishment’19:

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‘The failure of megastructure falls in the same place from which aformal urbanism grows: between formal “comprehensible design” and informal “self determination” systems. In the first case, the megastructure proved too amendable to the formal… In the second case it proved too amendable to the informal: leaving “so much liberty for the self-housing and selfdetermining intentions of the inhabitants that they had liberty also to destroy the megastructure itself.’20 Never designed to be a megastructure, Chungking Mansions is somewhat successful in what a megastructure fails to achieve, ‘reconciling the avant-garde and the establishment’. Rather than an avant-garde architectural expression, Chungking Mansions accommodates the most avant-garde programmatic layout in its ‘establishment’ expression. The successful examples of megastructure are the ones that do not actively carry the label of it, hence a cryptomegastructure: ‘While megastructure’s eventual collapse as a viable political or intellectual movement in architecture, according to Banham, came about as a result of establishment organisation and avant-garde expression, the cryptomegastructures that accompany aformal urbanism in Hong Kong and elsewhere exhibit avantgarde organization and establishment expression.’21

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figure.35

Original drawing of the east-west section through Chungking Mansions in the 1960s. (2012) [BRAVO]

2.3 // Lobotomy

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.36

Architectural Lobotomy: Seperation of the exterior and the interior architecture. (2013) [Author’s Own]

Chungking Mansions is a globe in terms of the needle and globe analogy employed to describe Manhattan’s skyscrapers ‘outer limits of architectural choices’22. While the needle denotes ‘the thinnest, least voluminous structure to mark a location within the Grid’23, the globe represents ‘mathematically, the form that encloses the maximum interior volume with the least external skin. It has a promiscuous capacity to absorb objects, people, iconographies, symbolisms; it relates them through the mere fact of their coexistence in its interior.’24 Chungking Mansions is a globe by definition as its exterior surface is comparatively small compared to the interior volume it encloses. Given that there is ‘humanistic assumption’25 in Western architecture that ‘it is desirable to establish a moral relationship’26 between interior and exterior so that ‘the exterior makes certain revelations about the interior that the interior corroborates,’26 the condition present in Chungking Mansions insinuates its inevitably introvert character. Whatever happens

in the volume of the Chungking Mansions would likely to be concealed behind the surface. Adding to this condition is the fact that only one of its six elevations has a formal street frontage that can be readily comprehended by public. This phenomenon is the architectural equivalent of lobotomy, ‘the surgical severance of the connection between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain to relieve some mental disorders by disconnecting thought process from emotions,’27, which separates a building’s exterior from its interior. The architectural lobotomy is inevitable in Chungking Mansions. Much of its everyday life is to be hidden due to the sheer volume of he building, regardless of the architectural expression of its exterior, favouring the existing confinement of the high levels of social, cultural and economic activities within the building.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Chapter 3 // Detail Analysis This chapter probes into the specific physical attributes of Chungking Mansions that facilitate the selfsufficiency of the building. It focuses on the critical analysis of the building typology, the physical quality of the public realms and the programmatic layout of Chungking Mansions, in reference to various theoretical literatures and the observation made during the three visits to the building in December 2013.

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figure.37

The Massing of Chungking Mansions: the towers and the podium. (2014) [Author’s work]

3.1 // Typology: Podium and Tower

The construction of Chungking Mansions follows a vernacular podium and tower typology. The podium-tower typology owes its origin to the urban habitation typology of the traditional shop-house: ‘… there is some essence of shop-house carried through to the podium and tower developments, albeit within a different form and at an exploded scale. While the original shop-house had a floor of publicly accessible shopping with a mix of commercial support and residential uses on the few floors above, the podium provided several levels of publicly accessible space, with shops, services and amenities, and residential towers above. The podium was thus capable of continuing retail activities at street level with porous facades to enliven the street and provide services and employment in the neighbourhood.’28

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Through the analysis of building typology, this section discusses the notional similarity of Chungking Mansions and a city

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Historically street was an extended activity zone of the shop-house typology. Active street frontage was therefore a crucial part in Hong Kong’s spatial culture, recognised as early as 1948 by Sir Patrick Abercrombie in the Preliminary Planning Report. 29 As the 1935 Building Ordinance was amended in 1956 and subsequently in 1962, allowing much higher intensity of land use with increased plot ratio and relaxed limit on building height, inner city shop-houses were imminently replaced by taller structures. In order to maintain continuous street frontages, 100 per cent site coverage was allowed at the lower levels for retail, parking and building services as set out by the 1956 and 1962 legislations while the towers above were allowed to ‘break free from the surrounding urban forms.’30 The podium-tower typology is essentially a shop-house typology exaggerated in scale. It maintains the activities on street level while allowing the towers to be set private. In many cases, the occupants of the towers carried on the old norms of mixed functions, both private and public, taking place through at least part of the structure, whether in compliance or through loopholes in the regulations. Chungking Mansions similarly experiences a functional synthesis of private into the public. Public and private functions are readily observed throughout the building, intruding into circulation spaces, ventilation shafts

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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towers the culs-de-sac

podium the city centre

figure.38

Culs-de-sac of Chungking Mansions (2014) [Author’s work]

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The podium-tower typology is an intrinsic factor for the ‘lobotomy’ to occur in Chungking Mansions. Although the 3-storey podium that occupies the entire building site of Chungking Mansions has an active frontage onto Nathan Road, the majority of the activities is internalised. Hence the building and the activities within are generally invisible to the street. The only significant perforation that allows visual contact between the inside and the outside of podium exists in the form of the entrance hall. Adding to the introvert character of the building is the obscure thresholds to the towers. With the elevators of the towers tucked away within the labyrinth-like podium corridors, the towers are further disengaged from the outside than the inward-looking podium. The spatial separation has a major effect on how people inhabit the building: it allows physical and visual disengagement between the inside and the outside, favouring the formation of a self-sufficiency with features that are so distinguished from the rest of Hong Kong. The podium-tower typology also resonates the attributes of a city in which it creates vertical culsde-sac similar to those found in suburban areas in many cities:

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

and fire escape routes at times.31 Perhaps a pioneer of the typology, Chungking Mansions was amongst the earliest to exist, featuring with a volumetric mix of public and private functions in its podium and towers structure.

figure.39

Walter Bunning’s 1944 model new town, consisting of town centre and single strand connections to residential neighbourhoods, each with its own small centre. Both town centre and neighbourhoods are bounded by green belt. (2011) [Shelton, Karakiewicz & Kvan]

‘The towers are vertical culs-de-sac, organisationally the stacked equivalent of a Modernist residential neighbourhood often with a single cluster of lifts to connect with the centre below, which is zoned level by level to take several categories of use but not dwellings. Hong Kong has therefore, with its podia-and-towers developments, become more and more an up-ended, albeit concentrated, version of suburbia, and this is especially so in new towns and on some of the newer reclamation sites.’ 32 Chungking Mansions is, employing this notion, a city within the city with its towers, the ‘culs-desac’, reaching out to the sky while connecting to the podium, the ‘city centre’, the market place that provides the daily amenities and the threshold between the internal and external worlds.

figure.40

Typical Hong Kong tower and podium consisting of a town centre (podium) and single strand connections to isloated ‘tower neighbourhoods’ above. (2011) [Shelton, Karakiewicz & Kvan]

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second floor

first floor

ground floor

figure.41

Corriodors: Exploded isometric drawing showing the corridors in the podium arcade. (2014) [Author’s work] 54

3.2 // Public Realms

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

This section focuses on the analysis of the public realms in Chungking Mansions in terms of the urban spatial analogy of ‘Street’ and ‘Square’. It probes into the physical attributes of the building’s internal urban spaces and their association with the building’s achievement of self-sufficiency.

Street and Square Urban space refers to ‘all types of space between buildings in towns and other localities’ and is ‘geometrically bounded by a variety of elevations.’ 33 The two basic forms that constitute urban spaces are the ‘street’ and the ‘square’.34 The street is ‘a product of the spread of a settlement once houses have been built on all available space around its central square. It provides a framework for the distribution of land and gives access to individual plots’.35 The square ‘is produced by the grouping of houses around an open space. This arrangement afforded a high degree of control of the inner space, as well as facilitating a ready defence against external aggression by minimising the external surface area liable to attack.’36

Street

square

urban structure

figure.42

Street, Square and Urban Structure as depicted in Rob Krier’s ‘Urban Space’ (1976) [Krier]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.43

The ‘Square’: isometric drawing showing the atrium in the podium arcade. (2014) [Author’s work]

figure.44

View of the ‘Square’ - the atrium in the podium arcade. (2014) [Author’s work]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.45

Internal streetscape: Corridors in the podium arcade. (2013) [Author’s own]

Corridors Chungking Mansions’ internal layout is rather straightforward on plan, in contrary to common belief of it being an endless labyrinth of corridors. The podium follows an orthogonal grid layout while the towers follow a centripetal configuration with the elevator lobby encircled by the units of flats. The corridors at podium levels function as streets, providing access to individual shop units. They also accommodate all kinds of commercial activities forming an internal streetscape. Where corridors break from their linear form to give a larger space, they become internal squares. The atrium, for example, captures the essence of a square with shop-lined elevations forming the boundaries and the void’s edges on the first floor framing a view from above to the space below and vice versa.

The corridors, whether of character of the street or the square, are occupied by foldable chairs and tables put out by restaurant owners in many instances to cater their customers at shoulderbrushign distance with passersby, resonating the experience of ‘alfresco’ dining. Some furniture is put out by shopkeepers as ‘street furniture’ to provide definitive space for social activities such as conversations to take place as seen in some instances on the first floor. The corridors are to the scale of human beings, measuring between 3m to 7m in width and 3m in height (with electric cables running below the ceiling the ceiling height is approximately 2.5 metres in most places).

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figure.46

Photographs showing ‘Afresco-style’ dinning in the corridors of the podium arcade. (2013) [Author’s own]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.47

Photographs showing various incidents where the inhabitants’ activities spill out to the building’s public corridors. (2013) [Author’s own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.48

Lobbies: isometric drawing showing the lobby areas of each floor in Chungking Mansions’ tower blocks. (2014) [Author’s own]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Lobbies The lobby on each floor of the tower blocks is enclosed by the elevations of the flat units forming a internal space that resonates the ‘square’. During my visits, the invasion of the private activities into the public realm of the lobby was consistently observed: guesthouses’ reception, drying laundry, playing children and seated men in conversations all spilling out onto the lobbies. Lobbies are therefore important to the building’s self-sufficiency.

figure.49

Photographs showing the invasions of private activities into the public realms of the lobbies. (2013) [Author’s own]

a: hostel break-out area b: drying laundry c: drying laundry d: hostel reception

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figure.50

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Photographs showing the front entrance of Chungking Mansions. (2013) [Author’s own]

figure.51

Entrance: isometric drawing of the front entrance of Chungking Mansions. (2014) [Author’s own]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Entrance Another important urban space of the building is the entrance hall. It is a ‘street’ in character that allows the movement of people between the inside and outside. In reality, it is more than a circulation path, it is also a square where people meet, converse and make business. Situated directly in front of a 30m wide pedestrian crossing, the hallway is the meeting point of pedestrians from four different directions. The hallway is on a slightly elevated platform above

the street level. The subtle level difference attracts a constant waiting crowd and touts, lingering on the marble-paved steps that connect the streets to the building, as it allows better view over the street. It is an outpost for the self-sufficiency to reach out for the outside world.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Rooftops Based upon my observation, the rooftops of the podium and the towers are yet to fulfil its full potential in urban spatial terms at the benefit of the inhabitants of Chungking Mansions. Apart from the building services and the puny illegal extensions, they are poorly utilised and manifest none of the liveliness in the ‘streets’ and ‘squares’ in the building. They are key spaces that can potentially incorporate into the existing network of public realms in Chungking Mansions.

figure.52

Podium Rooftop: isometric drawing showing the rooftop area of the podium. (2014) [Author’s own]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.53

Photographs showing the current conditions of the podium rooftop. (2013) [Author’s own]

a. occupied by sewage pipes and electrical cables b. illegal sheds and air-conditioning machines

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.54

Towers’ rooftops: isometric drawing showing the area of the tower blocks’ rooftops of Chungking Mansions. (2014) [Author’s own]

figure.55

Panorama of Chungking Mansion’s rooftop against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s skyline. (2013) [Author’s own]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

figure.56

Under-utilised rooftop: photograph showing the current condition of the rooftop. (2013) [Author’s own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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g a: Grocery. b: food. c: Food. d: restaurant.

h e: hostel. f: bookstore. g: factory. h: clothing.

i: convenient store. j: hair salon. g: halal restaurant. h: guest houses.

3.3 // Programmes

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While public, commercial programmes are mainly constrained to the podium and private, residential programmes restricted to within the towers in most planned podium-tower developments in Hong Kong, Chungking Mansions has a much blurred line of division between commercial and residential programmes, public and private realms. Commercial programmes are readily observed amongst the structure of the supposedly omniresidential towers. Apart from the vast number of cheap hostels and the accustomed residential flats, many units in the tower blocks are converted into restaurants under licenses of private clubhouse, factories, offices and warehouses. On the other hand, the podium is strictly commercial, consists of a variety of shops and services. This blurred boundary allows high level of activities penetrating through the building, promoting social interactions that are instrumental to the formation of the Chungking Mansions’ socio-cultural self-sufficiency.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Mix-used pattern in buildings is nothing totally new in Hong Kong. It is often seen in the traditional shop-house typology. However, the post-war podium-tower urban development has seen a much more definite line separating public and private programmes in buildings, though the restriction is often evaded due to the ambiguity of the lease conditions. 37

figure.57

Programmatic variety. Photographs showing the variety of programmes present throughout the structure of Chungking Mansions. (2013) [Author’s own]

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.58

Programmatic Variety: a collection of business cards of shops and services within Chungking Mansions. (2008) [ETH Basel]

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.59

Programmatic layout in the podium: exploded isometric drawing mapping the spectrum of programmes within Chungking Mansions’ podium levels. (2014) [Author’s own]

kEY

WATCHES

GROCERY

TRADING

MOBILE PHONES

FOOD

EXCHANGE

ELECTRONICS

CLOTHING / GARMENT

TRAVEL

AUDIO-VISUAL

LUGGAGE

BOOKS / STATIONARIES

PHARMACY

LAUNDRY

OTHERS

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

second floor Chungking Express Arcade (CKE)

first floor main arcade Chungking Express Arcade (CKE)

Ground floor main arcade

g / Garment

ge basement woodhouse shopping arcade

Stationaries

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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7th floor

6th floor

5th floor

4th floor figure.60

Programmatic layout in the towers: exploded isometric drawing mapping the spectrum of programmes within Chungking Mansions’ tower levels. (2014) [Author’s own] Hostel

Food

kEY residence HOSTEL FOOD COMMERCIAL CHARITY

Commercial Charity

3rd floor

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17th floor

11th floor

16th floor

10th floor

15th floor

9th floor

14th floor

8th floor

13th floor

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

12th floor

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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figure.61

The most iconic image of Chungking Mansions: the skywards view from the podium rooftop. (2013) [Author’s own]

Conclusion

While it is recognised that Chungking Mansions cannot stand alone as a self-sufficient city on the ground of economic, food and energy selfsufficiencies, it can be understood as a self-sufficient city in the following aspects: Its pursuit of individual ideology as a sociocultural enclave within the building block attributed to the notion of Manhattanism. The functional evolution of the building in meeting the shifting needs of its inhabitants ascribed to the notion of cryptomegastructure. The introvert character of the building achieved through the notion of lobotomy in Manhattanism that encourages socio-cultural self-sufficiency of the building.

It is facilitated by the following physical attributes of Chungking Mansions: The podium-tower typology that generates a functionally mixed internal environment that disengages from the external environment through visual and physical means. This protects the enclave of ethnic minorities and diverse culture from external influence.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

If Kowloon Walled City was the epitome of a total anarchic self-sufficiency in an urban context, Chungking Mansions is the epitome of a regulated self-sufficiency in an urban context. Subjected to legislative restrains, Chungking Mansions enjoys a much lesser degree of liberty in formal evolution. However it is notable that it has undergone continuous transformation to become the mixeduse enclave of an international population its is now, departing from its original intent as a highend residential complex serving the local Hong Kong population. Already a significant influence in contemporary Hong Kong’s urban developments, Chungking manifests itself as a useful model for mix-used self-sufficent urban developments in the world.

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Various areas of the internal public realms that resonates external urban spaces where activities spill out, enlivening the internal ‘streetscape’. The blurred boundary between the public and private functions, residential and commercial programmes that maintains high levels of activities throughout the structure. There may not be a commonly agreed view amongst its inhabitants on the degree of success of Chungking Mansions’ self-sufficiency. In fact, it may not be experienced consciously by everyone. However it is certainly reflected in the changing human behavioural pattern. For example, an increased tolerance of diversity and social harmony as demonstrated by its inhabitants within the physical constraints of the building. With the mingling of people in the confined physical environment, creating an intimate social realm, in tandem with the vast array of programmes present in the building, catering the inhabitants’ essential needs, Chungking Mansions indeed presents a high possibility of life without the need of ever leaving the building. While whether one does so remains an unexplored part of the research, this research paper draws on the conclusion that, in additon to the commonly recognised economic, ethnic and socio-cultural attributes of the building, Chungking Mansions is certainly an evident and distinctive self-sufficient city understood by the physical attributes manifested by its architecture.

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Notes

Shelton, Karakiewicz and Kvan, 2011. p. 31 Cheng, 2010. p. 3 Planning Department, 2011. See Appendix C. Mathews, 2011. p.1 Jaggi and Jansen, 2008. Mathews, 2011 p.15 Mathews, 2011. p.13 Shelton et al., 2011. pp 113-114 Mathews, 2011. p.23 Prof. Gordon Mathews, 2013. Interview with author on the 21st December 2013. See Appendix for full text. Mathews, 2011. p.37 Shelton et al., 2011. p.31 see Appendix A for full text. see Appendix A for full text. see Appendix A for full text. Koolhaas, 1994. p.89 Koolhaas, 1994. p.21 Banham, 1976. p.10 Banham 1976. p.10 Solomon 2013. p.122 Solomon 2013. p.123 Koolhaas, 1994. p.27 Koolhaas, 1994. p.27 Koolhaas, 1994. p.27 Koolhaas, 1994. p.100 Koolhaas, 1994. p.100 Koolhaas, 1994. p.100 Shelton et al.. p.126 Shelton et al.. p.111 Shelton et al.. p.113 Shelton et al.. p.111 Shelton et al.. p.158 Krier, 1979. p.15 Krier, 1979. p.16 Krier, 1979. p.17 Krier, 1979. p.17 Tam, 1999.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

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word count: 5181

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Bibliography Books

- Ballard, J.G., 2011. High-Rise. 2011 ed. London: Fourth Estate. - Banham, R., 1976. Megastrucutre: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. 1st Ed. London: Thames and Hudson. - Cheng, V., 2010. Understanding Density and High Density. In: E. Ng, ed., 2010. Designing High-density Cities: For Social & Environmental Sustainability. London: Earthscan. pp. 3-17 - Solomon, J.D., Hong Kong - Aformal Urbanism, 2013. In: R. El-Khoury, E. Robbins, ed., 2013. Shaping the City, 2nd Edition: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design. 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp.109131 - Frampton, A., Solomon, J. and Wong, C., 2012. Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guide Book. Berkeley, CA: ORO editions. - Koolhas, R., 1994. Delirious New York. New York: The Monacelli Press. - Krier, R., 1979. Urban Space (Stadtraum). London: Academy Editions. - Mathews, G., 2011. Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. - Rogers, R, 1997. Cities for a small planet. 1998 ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. - Shelton, B., Karakiewicz, J. and Kvan T., 2011. The Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

Thesis / Dissertation - Jaggi, M. and Jansen, J., 2008. Chungking Mansions: 3D [in]formality. Research (ETH Studio Basel). Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Basel. - Tam, H.Y.C., 1999. A New Type of Guesthouses. Thesis (M.Arch). University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Government Publication

- Planning Department, 2011. Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines -Chapter 2: Residential Densities. Hong Kong: HKGOV.

Conference Paper - Kandt, J., 2011. Hong Kong Spatial DNA. In: R. Burdett, M. Taylor AND A Kaasa, eds. Cities, Health and Well-being: Hong Kong Urban Age Conference, 16-17 November 2011 London. London: LSE Cities, pp. 34-35.

Websites - Carney, J., 2013. Kowloon Walled City: Life in the City of Darkness [Online]. Hong Kong: South China Morning Post. Available from: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/ article/1191748/kowloon-walled-city-life-citydarkness [Accessed 10 November 2013] - Mathews, G., 2011. The World in a Building [Online]. Bristol: Berfrois. Available from: http://www.berfrois.com/2011/08/chungkingmansions [Accessed 1 October 2013] - Micklethwait, J. ed., 2011. Chungking Mansions: Home to the World [Online]. London: the Economist. Available from: http://www. economist.com/node/21526300 [Accessed 30 September 2013] - Narukatpichai, J., 2013. Chungking Mansions - An Organic Dystopia [Online]. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University. Available from: http://dencity-studio.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/ chungking-mansions-organic-dystopia.html [Accessed 7 December 2013] - N/A, 2013. Chungking Mansions Official Website [Online]. Hong Kong: The Incorporated Owners of Chungking Mansions. Available from: http://www.chungkingmansions.com. hk/ [Accessed 4 January 2014] - N/A, 2011. 香港･重慶大厦(チョンキンマンション)への招待重慶大厦完成当時の構内図 - 1962年 [online]. Tokyo, Japan: Asia Network http://www.chungking-mansions. com/ch22-3.htm [Accessed 20 December 2013]

Films

- Chungking Express, 1995. Film. Directed by Wong Kar-wai. Hong Kong: Jet Tone Production.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

- Owen, P., 2012. Inside the Kowloon Walled City where 50,000 residents eked out a grimy living in the most densely populated place on earth [Online]. London: Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail. co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insightKowloon-Walled-City.html#ixzz2qtMLx9zC [Accessed 19 January 2014]

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- Chungking Mansions, 2008. Short clip [Online]. Directed by monkeetime. San Bruno, CA: YouTube. Available from: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owf7mHiTS4Q [Accessed 6 December 2013] - Showreel (Documentary) - Peeking Through Chungking Mansions, 2012. Documentary [Online]. Directed by Bill Yip. Hong Kong: Ox Workshop Limited. San Bruno, CA: YouTube. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WKA6_NakyVc [Accessed 6 December 2013] - 香港尖沙咀(HK Tsim Sha Tsui),重慶大厦 (Chungking Mansions)2F, 2013. Documentary [Online]. Directed by jiroodao. San Bruno, CA: YouTube. Available from: http://www. y o u t u b e . c o m / wa t c h ? v = s J 8 a R G X n U Y w [Access 9 December 2013]

Television Broadcast

- 鏗鏘集:半世紀的重慶 (Hong Kong Connection: Half Century of Chungking), 2011. TV. RTHK. 22 August. 19.00 hrs.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Appendix A: Accounts of experience in Chungking Mansions Account 1 - Received on 03/12/2013

Account 2 - Received on 26/11/2013

Anonymous by request (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Sofie van Brunschot (Delft, Netherlands)

Profile: Young female student who was in Hong Kong on an exchange programme.

Profile: Young female traveller who was in Hong Kong en-route to China.

Date of visit: August 2011

Date of visit: Summer 2011

‘In August 2011 I went to the Chungking Mansions for the first time of my life. I was about to study broad for half a year at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, but before I could enter the student housing there I wanted to stay in a relatively cheap place in HK. I booked a hostel room at one of the hostels in the CKM, which ended up to be a very unpleasant experience. When I arrived at the entrance of the huge building, I was approached immediately by many Indian looking men trying to convince me to stay at their hostel. I thought I was lucky that I booked in advance, so I didn’t have to bother to go with them. The lower floor of the building was a complete chaos with not a lot of women there. I had to go up to one of the floors to check in, which I did. At my check in I found out that my room was not on the same floor, but on another one, so I had to walk down 2 stairs. Just a man sitting on one of the steps was injecting a needle into his arm (it was about 18:00 in the afternoon). After I was assigned a room, it didn’t have any windows. There was no real shower, just a shower head in a very tiny toilet. Also, no space to move so I had to keep my stuff under the bed. After a few hours, the 2 Indian guys who worked at the hostel entered my room (without asking) to talk to me. I couldn’t lock the door from the inside, and since the room was so small I felt very intimidated in the room I stayed. After one of them offered me a massage, I decided to book another hostel.

‘My Experience of Chungking Mansions

The other times I went to the CKM I went for the really cheap Indian food. Later on, when my friends told me they went there to buy drugs, I figured the cheap food is perhaps a cover up for the drugs that are being sold. I would suggest for any western/blond girl never to stay at the CKM by yourself.’

It was the summer of 2011 when I visited Hong Kong while backpacking through China with a friend. We booked a hostel with good reviews through Hostelworld. com and ended up staying in Chungking Mansions. The Hostel was run by some friendly Indian guys and was extremely clean as well as extremely small: our room was filled by our double bed and we practically had to stand in the toilet bowl to take a shower. Besides this everything inside the hostel was perfectly fine. It was only Chungking Mansions itself that was a bit creepy and dodgy. The labyrinth-like halls and stairways were either eerily deserted or haunted by lone figures in hoods, hovering in corners. The fact that camera’s monitored what was happening inside the elevators and this was being shown on the ground floor where there was always a queue didn’t seem very positive. Was this a form of social control or just a way to make sure you didn’t get in the elevator with some sketchy figures? The signs in our bedroom stating to lock our window at all times because it was perfectly plausible that burglars would climb up the bamboo scaffolding outside and break into our room. It didn’t seem to make a difference that we were on the 16th floor... It was only afterwards that we found out how infamous Chungking Mansions actually is. When I told my mum (who, I admit, is one of those overprotective parents) she nearly had a heart attack. Turns out that when my parents were tour guides in China in the 80’s they had also stayed in Chungking Mansions and it had been a place to avoid even back then. This all being said, nothing unpleasant happened while I was staying there. It was fairly obvious a lot of sketchy stuff was going on within the depths of the maze that is Chungking Mansions and I think everyone would agree not to befriend any of the dodgy figures hanging around the entrance night and day. But our visit to Hong Kong wasn’t really affected by our staying in Chungking Mansions, even when we returned home late at night from the pub crawl.’

Account 3 - Received on 05/12/2012

Profile: Young American student who was travelling around China while studying Mandarin in Beijing. Date of visit: Summer 2012 ‘Chungking mansions... I was only there for like 2 days - with Anthony! And I remember it being just the most chaotic and seedy place ever. Extremely narrow and crowded walkways, a limited number of elevators that were painfully slow, hence the very very long line of people (mostly backpackers) waiting for each one. Lighting is terrible and dim, and it gives the whole place an even creepier, grungier feel. I suppose it’s possible to live there without setting foot outside, if you can eat takeout food for every meal, but I didn’t see much in the way of fresh produce so I definitely don’t think I could handle it. It was either take-out (lots of Indian and south Asian stalls) or packaged items and dry goods. As far as the people in there, lots of Indian and middle eastern people, plenty of young travellers who are staying there purely because it is ridiculously cheap... Overall, not a place I would have stayed alone at had Anthony not been there. Oh and our hostel room! It was the size of a closet and the whole hostel seemed deserted at times.’

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Marissa Lin (California, USA)

重慶大厦

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Appendix B: Interview with Professor Gordon Mathews, the author of 'Ghetto at the centre of the world: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong' Date: 21 december 2013 // Time: 3pm. Venue: An Indian cafe on the 1/f of Chungking Mansions // Participants: GM : Professor Gordon Mathews A : Adam Mukther. A Somolian asylum seeker who goes by the cover name. WO: Walt Olley. A french-speaking asylum seeker whose nationality was not noted Observevers: Florence Chen, Joanna Wong, Marty Alexander and Non Arkaraprasertkul. 1. Why and how do lives within Chungking Mansions differ from the ones outside? What are the key qualities of CKM that allow such discrepancy? GM: I can’t really answer that. Obviously this building is different in its architecture than the buildings outside. That probably is one reason why people have the kinds of lives that they live in terms of the ability to get away by going upstairs and so on, to get away from police and so on so the architecture has an effect in this but probably not that big an effect. I think most of the people living here are living here legally. They don’t work in here legally but they live in here legally so they don’t need to be that afraid of the government probably. You know the typical shop here is more or less legal. They sell copies but mostly they don’t so I don’t think it is that much of an illegality so how different this is from other places is an open question. One big difference, of course, is that the sales are not to Hong Kong Chinese. The sales are overwhelmingly to African, Indian and Pakistani traders. So that’s a difference. But otherwise how different it is? Yes it is different but not that different. 2. Has CKM transformed during the time between the completion of your book and now? If so, what are the most significant changes? GM: When I first began my research here in 2005 and 2006, it was a little rougher because the building hadn’t gone through the improvements that it has gone through since. The elevators have been improved. The outside surface has been improved. CCTV cameras have been put in. So it has become substantially safer I think. That is probably the biggest difference. There used to be when I first began my research sex workers walking around downstairs. You don’t see them that much but they are there but they are not actively soliciting. Drug dealers are still dealing a little bit but they are too you don’t see them that prominently. It is the white they deal with all you can.

Do you know why that is happening? GM: Well, because you look like an undercover cop so they are not going to talk to you. That is a big reason. They would talk to me and they would often do. That is probably the biggest reason that they could sell stuff to white guys but not to Chinese guys especially young Chinese guys dressed as you are. 3. With the multitude of racial and cultural differences, how is the social order maintained in CKM? GM: I write about this in the book as you probably know. You know, most basically, people here would want to make money. They would do that not through robbery or other means but rather through legal ways of proceeding. People want to make a killing here. Asylum seekers, I mean people like Walt Ali is not the pursuit of money but I think overall of this building, yeah, that is what counts for sure. So that is the same philosophy of Hong Kong? GM: I think it probably is. That is what so odd about Hong Kong people finding the building so mysterious. The values in here are not that different from Hong Kong as a whole except for low-end globalisation which is significantly different. Certainly the values of people are pretty much the same. 4. You mention in your book that there is a self-sufficient ecosystem in CKM and one might never leave the building for weeks or months on end, can you elaborate on the idea of such selfsufficient ecosystem? (Socially self-sufficiency? Economically self-sufficiency?) GM: Yeah, that can be exaggerated because most

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WO: I cant count. In this building in particular, only 20. Some of them are not using this building. Do you have friends from other countries? O: Yes GM: Yes any French speakers. That’s how social community works. There is just a lot of people here who are of the same ethnicity and the same language group so the social groups are made of that. That’s how it works fairly well. You find friends of your own group. You don’t stick to you own group necessarily but you find your closest friends in that group probably. How about in terms economic self-sufficiency, does the money generated from this building feed back to the building? GM: I don’t even think you can think that way cos its not an island that much. All of the owners of the shops live outside this place. The money they make pays their rents or their mortgage outside. Is this building just a single point on a much bigger system? GM: Exactly. Apparently a lot of money is to be made here. I was told recently by a reporter that the rents here are really high, amongst the highest in Hong Kong which is rather remarkable. I don’t know. I haven’t checked recently but that’s what they are saying. They rally huge rents here because so much money can be made. That’s fairly interesting but nonetheless this is not an island that means this is going on in all of Hong Kong.

5. Do you know the reasons why the shopping malls on the 2nd floor and basement are not connected to the building at all? GM: Well, it would make no sense to connect theme. That’s the Shopping mall for Hong Kong Chinese and this here is a place for traders. They don’t want Africans and south Asians in their place. That’s a nicer shopping mall than here. They don’t like south Asians in their toilets.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

people do. Still, also about the self-sufficient ecosystem, this is clearly Hong Kong as a whole. I mean it is both because socially you meet your friends from your same country. (Asking Walt Olley) how many French speaking friends do you have in this building? 20,30,40?

A: But at the same time the Africans and south Asians will not buy from them. Even if the price is cheaper, the wont because they don’t trust them. Or what do you call it, they don’t understand the same language. But the prices won’t be cheaper. Lets say they are different worlds. And this is prime real estate of course you lock the doors. Many of the stores downstairs are part of Chungking Mansions. Woodland is part of Chungking Mansions. Chungking express is and the camera shop next to here is. But they are in a different world that has nothing to do with this place. 6. Do you think a parallel can be drawn between CKM and a city in terms of physical, social and economic attributes? GM: I don’t know how to answer that. To me probably a more appropriate question would be comparing this to any other building. For example the peninsula hotel and so on. Can you compare it? Well you can. Certainly in terms of the peninsula too, you can stay in there all day and get most of your needs taken care of but at a hundred times of the price. Many of these buildings are completely their own ecologies really. The only difference here is, remember all of these trades here is for the African and Asian market, the African and south Asian and southeast Asian markets. That’s a pretty big difference. You don’t see that elsewhere around here much. You know you see a different clientele. Pretty huge difference but no, if it is a city though, I don’t think I can say that.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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7. Will Chungking Mansions carry on its role as a low-end globalisation centre in the future with the increasingly convenient economic connections between china and other countries? GM: No, never. The building has shifted throughout its history, you know, back 40 years ago it was a luxury , no 45 years ago, a rather luxury building for Hong Kong Chinese. 35 years ago it was R&R for the Vietnamese serviceman from US in Vietnam bringing sex workers here. 25 maybe 30 years ago, lonely planet and all the hippies my years was a little bit odd but you can see by looking at the book. But then only about 15 years ago, it had begun to become the centre of low-end globalisation because of China opening up. Now, what is going to happen? Yes, there are more and more Africans in Gaungzhou but you know from your (referring to Adam) own work there seem to be a lot of here still doing trade. Your guesthouse is full? A: Yes GM: And they are all African traders here? A: Yes GM: Why do they choose Hong Kong? Why not Guangzhou? A: The fees and regulations in the mainland at the moment is much tougher than it used to be a couple of years ago and in the same time, they have an easy access to this part at the moment. Most of those traders are suppliers when they sell something then they buy something with the same money. They bring something here they sell it and then they take that hard currency to use it to for other goods they buy in mainland china to shops which are here. Especially for governments and so on they can buy from here because most of the factories in the mainland do have offices here. It could be cheaper than the mainland itself. GM: It might be. There’s other factor as well English is the lingua franca here. There is a lot more French speakers and Arabic speakers in Guangzhou who would learn directly Putonghua. They don’t even bother with English so you would never run into somebody here. I only very rarely

run into somebody who doesn’t speak English. You do there. So that’s another difference. Basically if you want to make a quick killing, China is probably the place to go to. But there is bit more regulation here, a bit more trustworthy. The profit won’t be as high but you can trust it a bit more. That’s what they always say. A: More reliable and sustainable. 8. To what extent do you think the government has played a part in the formation of the CKM phenomenon in terms of building regulations and law enforcement? GM: The government plays almost no role at all if you think about that. All the government has done is to not tear it down. I think generally you are overestimating the role of government. I don’t think that’s the way globalisation works in most places. The government has some role but its not primarily government-driven. No, it is private sector driven. Certainly in Hong Kong, the government is linked to tycoons and all that but the government does not have that much of the law for period. It never really did. The only thing the government has done is to prevent the people from getting the place from being torn down. That’s because the urban renewal authority has to make a profit and you don’t get a profit by tearing down 17-storey building. You get a profit by tearing down a 4-storey building and building a 20-storey building but you cant make a profit by tearing this place down so that’s the only role the government played, by the profit driven, it has prevented it from cleaning up this year. So Chungking Mansions remains. Do you think it is due to the lack of regulations or the lack of implementation of the regulations? GM: There are some regulations. There are regulations of guesthouses. Don’t they carry out putting fire alarms in guesthouse? But a lot of them you can’t help. I mean one thing I just sent off the paper last night talking about how in Hong Kong the police is seen as inefficient because you cant catch somebody working illegally very easily. In china it is rather easy. In Hong Kong you have got to see work being done, like for Dickson to be in trouble, you have to get some proof. In China,

重慶大厦

GM: Yes. A: Professor, they do try their best in a way to interfere, especially the community in the area. In a way they police themselves. They also have a certain positive side but remember they are also human beings who watch TV and sometimes the stereotypes in itself starts. They are also people who have visions and they can see how important and valuable this place is and this diversity.

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

you can catch a person at any time you want so it’s rather different. That’s a major factor here. In other words, is it the lack of interference that makes Chungking Mansions successful?

GM: That too. Although I think much more with police. they can’t do a whole lot. And in China, they can because they don’t have to follow the rule of law. In china you can teaser anyone running away from you which you cant do in here.

Interview with Professor Gordon Mathews, the author of ‘Ghetto at the Centre of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’, in Chungking Mansions on the 21st December 2013. (From left to right: author, Ms Joanna Wong, Prof.

Gordon Mathews, Ms Florence Chen, Ms Marty Alexander and Mr Non Arkaraprasertkul.)

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

重慶大厦

Appendix C: Building density guildelines of the metropolitan area of Hong Kong Source: Planning Department, 2011. Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines -Chapter 2: Residential Densities. Hong Kong: HKGOV.

Density Zone R1 (Zone 1)

R2 (Zone 2) R3 (Zone 3)

Type of Area Existing Development Area

Location

Hong Kong Island Kowloon & New Kowloon Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung & Tsing Yi New Development Area and Comprehensive Development Area

Maximum Domestic Plot Ratio 8/9/10 7.5 8 6.5 5 3

Appendix D: Floor plans of chungking mansions in the 1962 sales Brochure

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Source: N/A, 2011. 香港･重慶大厦(チョンキンマンション)への招待重慶大厦完成当時の構内図 - 1962年 [online]. Tokyo, Japan: Asia Network http://www.chungking-mansions.com/ch22-3.htm [Accessed 20 December 2013]

重慶大厦

Ground Floor Plan 89

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

重慶大厦

First Floor Plan

重慶大厦

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Second Floor Plan

Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

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Tower Block A Floor Plan

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Chungking Mansions: the Self-sufficient City

Tower Blocks B,C and Tower Blocks D,E Floor Plans