Exportation of British Tenement Housing, its iterative evolutions and influences in Hong Kong. Fifth year HTS Thesis Kwok Yu Hin 12th December, 2014
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Exportation of British Tenement Housing, its iterative evolutions and influences in Hong Kong. Fifth year HTS Thesis Kwok Yu Hin 12th December, 2014
Introduction.
Fig. 01
This essay aim to look at colonisation and the subsequent export of architecture. Focusing on Hong Kong as a former colonial city, and the effect in which the colonisation implied on such city with difference economic and social background from the imperial empire. However, we can see a distinctive progress of evolution, and discuss the discourse of the tenement housing in relation to the changes due to local inputs. Exportation of building types was clearly the spread of imperial or economic power through the most fundamental element of modern life in which is the place of dwelling. The typologies (Fig. 01) that are imported evolve with its host city, adapt and morph according to social and political changes, the successes as well as problems of the host city would projected back through the iterations. In 1916 Vladimir Lenin wrote in his “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” “Economically, the export of capital facilitates the development both of horizontal and of vertical monopolies… These processes intersect, collide, and also combine to give rise to higher forms of monopoly... And since this process of imperialist partitioning had been completed (approximately) by the end of the 19th century — and the economic forces impelling imperialist expansion still continued...” 1
Through architecture, and the reflection of local and global inputs, it is clear that the initial displays of powers exists, and are obviously transformed, some beyond resemblance from its origins. This notion of export in architecture depends largely on power and wealth of the state, but ultimately, the architecture transforms because of its destination and their way of living. Ultimately, this essay will investigate the influence of the city have on such tenement typologies, and the changes it under goes in a foreign environment. The input of which is to cause the typologies to change in progression, as well as the influence on the local urban and social condition. In turn, we could apply typological export and import today in an ever more diverse architectural culture, the exchange of building types are no longer bounded by imperial powers but of economical ones. 1Vladimir, Lenin. Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Pp13.
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The Export of Architecture. Export, most will reason, literarily connotes the transfer of a product from its source of production to a foreign or external recipient, primarily in international trade. In architectural terms, it also refer to the craft, style as well as its attached theory subject to alteration with local inputs. The term also describe architecture as a produce with an origin, the ‘Product’ here integrates Culture, lifestyle, language, and fashion and represent them in terms of identity. “Architecture, possibly rated material in terms of the physical building components it employs, and immaterial with regards to construction methods, building forms and functional requirements – has been exported all through history by explorers, adventurers, and new settlers.” 2
At the turn of the 20th century, the British Empire was at its peak, covering over 33million square kilometre; nearly a quarter of the earth. It was described that the in British “empire…the sun never sets.”3 The Empire expanded its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacies far and wide, into the furthest corners of Africa, Australia, American and Asia, in promotion of its power. British imperialism spread being one of the last frontier. Hong Kong was one of the last colony, thus a perfect example of typological study as modern society interact with their buildings more than ever. Technology had also advanced more in 50 years than 500 previously, taking that into consideration, we can see a distinct diversion of Hong Kong architecture in parallel to the British architecture at the same period because of local factors and advancement of technologies. The original tenement housing typology in Britain was an urbanised substandard multi-family dwelling, typically occupied by the poor and the misfortune who cannot afford anything otherwise, it was the pre-cursor of the modern day council housing in Britain. The Victorian tenement could still be seen in parts of London and commonly in Glasgow, Scotland. As well as New York, Berlin, Bueno Aries, Mumbai and Hong Kong. The translation of the tenement type also transformed to adapt the local scene over the years after their arrivals. For examples, In Hong Kong the structural levels raised due to the relative increase in urban density. This was prior to the first mass relocation to the modern public housing as we know it.
2https://transnationalarchitecturegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/british-colonial-architecture-current-research-3/ - Article on British colonial architectural exports.
3 Thornton, Weldon. Allusions in Ulysses: An Annotated List, Pp33.
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a Fig. 02
The migration of typology between different countries represented the wealth and influence of the initial origin. For example if the British Empire was not such an influential factor on the rest of the world, the typology and regulation of architecture today would be a lot more different in the former colonies. Through iterations and evolutions of the mass housing, we gradually see the positive outcome of the typology in which it was accommodating inhabitant with space and interaction to the streets, and most importantly the sense of community which often thrift within. Social housings were always designed to accommodate the lower income portion of the city, and mostly being associated with negativity as they to some degree they offered the most basic and frankly poor standard of life as well as a appeared to be of under achievement and failures. Social housings are often situated in the urban area to increase density, through historical and necessary transformation, subsequent types of social housing always eventually become outdate and is phased out gradually. Even though it appears to have had a negative impact, it was nonetheless a seemingly good temporal solution to the mass influx of population into the urban area at the time, as it tackles the over populating city. As
5 such, in Figure 02, we see the progression of the British tenement against the Hong Kong tenement, the divergent is obvious, as well as the contributions of the density within the two locations. The spread of these typologies reflected the extent of state influence, however, that was 1900’s idea of power through globalisation. What does tenement housing have to offer today? Especially when the economics of the British territories are no longer the leading frontier, simultaneously the economic powers are being over taken by its former colonies. Historically, Power and architecture had always shared great intimacy, the Great Wall of China; Arc de Triomphe; the White House. Even though the tenement were not particularly powerful on their own, their roots represented otherwise, it showed the possession of one country over another.
Tenement’s vision and experiment. Post war architecture in any periods, local and global, all seem to bear a huge sense of optimism, but also uncertainty. Therefore post war architecture often reflect the helplessness of the inhabitant verses the powerful visionary of the architecture, the inhabitants and the vision sat at different ends of the spectrum. From the Smithson’s' robin hood garden in London to the massive public housing estate in Hong Kong, we not only see the similarity of minority immigrations, accompanied by a low standard of living, which are both far from the city centre. They represented poor facilities, youth problem, immigration and segregation. The solution to these problems are generally demolition and relocation, the solution was to temporarily hiding the problems. This urged the evolution of housing experiment to go on, thus the transformation of a typology. Hong Kong was undoubtedly influenced by British culture, while mass majority of housing scheme was based on the British governing body, sampling the displacement of scheme. The substitution of ideas and trails in a different country.
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Fig. 03
4http://www.hiddenjourneys.co.uk/Hong-Kong-Bangkok/Hong%20Kong/Middle/hjp.HKG.RGS.032.aspx?mode=image - Pre-1869 painting -RGSIBG image / E. L. Watling.
6 “It may be defined as thick rows of masts: then handsome terraces of houses rising tier above tier upon such a steep incline that they look as if each higher range were founded on the chimney pots of the other. About half-way up the houses ceased, and then diagonal and zig-zagged roadways, with scattered villas rapidly ascended into the clouds.�5
The quote above was first impression of Australian priest/scientist of the Hong Kong flats along the Victoria bay (Fig. 03),
his vision was that Hong Kong would not have the skyline of today, but more of a sub-urban outer London garden
city. The British architecture is very distinctive and many remains today, such as the Victorian era court house and the Murray house in Stanley (Fig. 04). Residentially, the tenement housing blocks, introduced late 20 th century up until the 1960s, was the only British influence in housing, but one with linear development and intimate relationship between the inhabitant and the street level. Hong Kong today was transformed based on the many iteration of tenement housing blocks originated from the west.
Fig. 04
The Typographical differences Throughout the end of the 20th and 21st century, Hong Kong had seen many housing schemes due to the change of politics, historic and economic scenery. Tenements are now the sentimental memorabilia for the local, even though they have not always been delivering the basic architectural potential effectively, they nonetheless symbolise of the city today through nostalgia.
5Shelton, Barrie. Karakiewicz, Justyna. Kvan, Thomas. The making of Hong Kong, from Vertical to Volumetric, pp 48 - Julian Tenison Woods (priest/ geologist on visit to Hong Kong, Jan 1885).
7 Before the economic boom in the 1980’s, it was common for different families to live in the same tenement apartment, life was bad as there would only be one kitchen and toilet, and often the cramped environment lead to theft, assault, and most importantly, created serious fire hazards. If you lived in an apartment, there tend to be a landlord, and 2 nd landlord or sometimes 3rd sub-letters, but the reason that it was such a horrid place to live is that architecturally. With increasing popularity amount young families to live in the older tenement housing without lifts, they were built to accommodate families (although it was very common to be partition and split between several families and accommodate up to 30 people.)6. The tenement housing had evolved to become a relic of the past in which revived again by economic and social desires and agendas. Tenement houses were designed to accommodate one family, and each room are labelled with specific identities, bedroom, kitchen, hallway, play area, dining area, therefore it would not work if bedroom were partitioned where the kitchen would have been. However, community sprit were high, in particularly in these tenement houses. Take Sham Shui Po in the Kowloon district for example, most of the original tenement housing were demolished and replaced, but the grid (Fig. 05)
set by these housing remained, sheltering the public area.
Fig.05
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Tenements are and have been regarded as an integral part of Kowloon and parts of Hong Kong Island, it is part of the streetscape. To understand the status of the tenement, we would have to go through the typology and the representation of each of the housing and their impacts.
6http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275206/Hong-Kongs-metal-cage-homes-How-tens-thousands-live-6ft-2ft-rabbit-hutches.html 7Image - http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/high-density-from-the-ground/en-gb/
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The Evolution of Hong Kong Tenements. 3 story shop house
Fig, 06
Traditionally the ground floor space is considered one of the floors, which is why the two floors shop houses are considered three floors. The first floor cantilevers over the street to shelter the shop front and the targeted pedestrian. The owners or tenants who runs shop often lives in the back of the shop, where access to the upper floors and roof with balcony where the conditions are less crowded. These dwellings are considerably intimate with one another as they are attached next to one another as well as back to back. Shop houses were not tenements, as it was pre colony, and tenement was a British construct aimed and build strictly as dwellings. The first versions of these houses were largely unregulated, which were common in Hong Kong, but was later to address the hygiene and services issues that arises through nonstandardisation.
5 -8 story tenement houses
Fig.07
9 At this point it was on average 700 hundred people per hectare, however, the density reached up 4000 persons per hectare in certain areas, the tenements were highly abused once again. Overcrowding and tuberculosis was the outcome of the tightly packed and unhygienic environments, in 1935 known as the final year of Colony’s housing import, partially to accommodate the growing population post war, as well as to tackle the disease. Mr W.H. Owen, ARIBA was appointed, he studied the 80 years of colonisation and the local transformation of the shop housing. He found that the Hong Kong typologies had not change much in its width of 49m, but had become much shallower. Owen called the typical typologies up to that point type A (Fig. 06), and the version in which he envisioned, had lost the kitchen and clearing the ground. Primarily in direct contact with the street, without the canopy, the shop front are now visible. In Type A, the stair cases limited to their immediate designated floor, in the Owen’s version, the stairs have become communal and compact in the centre of the building. Each floor now accommodate up to 10 people per floor. The new type offered higher degree of privacy (ironic as it was proven false in later years, although at the time it was true.) lower construction costs lower rental cost, increased shop area etc. the height of these building stayed the same as the Type A, the plan of this type rooted deeply in the tenement in England, Transforming the individual houses into separate apartment. This typology existed for a further two and a half decade until it was phased out for larger demand in end of the 50’s. It was so popular due to the endorsement of Patrick Abercrombie by stating that his post war tenement typology was of “outstanding value” 8.
The massive blocks In 1956 Building Regulations allow the height and mass of city buildings to expand enormously because the new building materials (particular reinforced concrete for flooring rather than timber) were safer. Also, lifts were becoming more affordable in high rise construction. Under the new regulation, building height twice the street width in height was allowed. The limit of building height was doubled from previously 70-80 feet (21.3-24.4m) and plot rations of between 18:1 and 20:1 were possible. Buildings less than nine storeys were not required to provide lifts. There were some requirements for the upper floors to set back from the streets and the provisions of light well in order to ensure the lighting and ventilation conditions of streets and units.9 The massive blocks (Fig. 08) derived from the traditional layout. The building inhabit the same footprint, spreading over the full length of the block, but with the insertion of the elevator shaft, the building is able to extrude upward, densifying the area. Entering the airspace of the immediate zone, inhabiting space vertically to enable the densification of programs and facilities. The early version of the taller typology often incorporated work and living in the same space, in retrospect, it was the union of the body and the space, where you live was where you earn the living to stay alive in such a dense metropolis. In recent years, it had been brought back into fashion to live in factory studio where utilizes the workspace 8 Shelton, Barrie. Karakiewicz, Justyna. Kvan, Thomas. The making of Hong Kong, from Vertical to Volumetric, Pg 66 9 http://densityatlas.org/understanding/Hong-Kong_housing-typology.pdf?&session-id=f4f0f69ba98de096252ab9882b1a62ab
10 into habitable space. In the modern society, the fine line between work and living had almost diminished on the technological level, therefore it was logical to bring work into living, and living at work. Then in 1966, building regulation pass yet another law, in fear that the massive block regulation would bring the city into such density it could not accommodate. Thus the podium typologies were born, reducing the previous 18:1 ratio down to 8:1, and that the first 15m of the footprint could be 100 percent utilised if it was not purpose for inhabitation. This is the reason why we see so many shopping malls at the ground level, as developers would opt for 100 percent site coverage in order to gain more profits.
Fig. 08
There were no clear city centres, there is however, a diverse range of flexible consumerism as well as produce. Wet markets and ground floor shop provides daily and basic commerce, as well as shopping mall that scatter around the building blocks. In a way the makeup of the area became very dystopian as depicted in movies such as the blade runner, where the disconnection and chaos is inspired by city arrangement such as these. A city which seems chaotic but at the same time as much connected socially at the ground level and organised as a cul-de-sac suburban area. In my opinion, that the reason why the tenement housing became outdated as a typology in Britain, is the exact reason they thrived in Hong Kong. The density in which housing blocks are occupied in the city centre is one of the key element that these housing survived in Hong Kong. The value of limited space in Hong Kong cannot support an urban plan similar in Britain, in which experiments were affordable until the Garden city 10, pushing residential outward into the greenery, relieving traffic and congestion in the city centre, giving more space per person and raise the standard of living. On the contrary, in Hong Kong, there is no outer space, but upper space. The vertical space is the only territory that allows intervention to provide more liveable space for the ever expanding city. For all one knows is that the future of tenement typologies will continue into one that supports the vertical garden city (Fig. 09, 10) 11.
10 Nagy, Gergely, Szelenyi, Karoly. Garden Cities - The British Example. 11 Author’s AA DIPLOMA 17 project, 2013-2014, “Between the Current and Aloft.�
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Fig. 09
Fig. 10
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Problems of the Tenement. Social. Hong Kong had always been a socially diverse metropolis with a rich economic background, with many minority in which also makes the city a socially diverse one. However in most cases meant social segregation through its architecture, especially in the overloaded tenements today. By increasing the density in the city centre, the communal space is being pushed towards the edges or in the hidden in between spaces with diminished security. Koolhass’ Delirious New York suggested that the skyscraper was the device of social indifference, in which in my opinion the suburban does exactly the same where the houses orientates around an economically supported community, just less in comparison as it is not as dense. The apartments acts as the device for the sane psychological and physical solitude most of the time, however, it is clear that many experience the contrary. Mitchell describes the relative increase emotional stress with the density of residence12. “The culture of Congestion proposes the conquest of each block by a single structure. Each building will become a “house”- a private realm inflated to admit houseguests but not to the point of pretending universality in the spectrum of its offerings. Each “house” will represent a different lifestyle and different ideology.” 13
The overcrowding of the city is reflected through the physical and social conditions, the effects of the highly dense residential area are also shown through attitudes and behaviour of the inhabitants, in which the layout of the apartment is also a factor of contribution. Social researcher Baum and Valins’ studies showed, where a group of student were the subject of surveillance in discovery that students living in areas with social common rooms are more like to interact and students living in segregated suites are less likely as there are less chances of interaction. While another study in India concluded that families living in overcrowded housing weaken social ties. The need for being alone is greater as the home is no longer a place with complete privacy. 14 “Clear awareness of lack of space in the housing unit, the influence of social structure on the internal relations of the housing unit, 15
12 RE Mitchell. Some Social Implications of High Density Housing. American Sociological Review, Vol. 36, pp. 18-29, 1971. On density and housing conditions.
13 Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York “Culture” Pp 125.
14Moch, Annie , Bordas, Florence and Hermand, Danièle. Perceived density : how apartment dwellers view their surroundings Le courrier du CNRS, n° 82, 1996, pp.131-132- citing, Baum, Andrew, Valins, Stuart The Role of Group Phenomena in the Experience of Crowding, Environment and Behavior June 1975 7:185-198
13 In addition to this quote, it is not the amount of space per person within the apartment that defines the lack of space, but the usable area for manoeuvrability. One can be content with life in an extremely small, but well-articulated apartment with spatial qualities; or disturbed with life in a comparatively large house with very poorly defined spaces. Relative to the internal logic within each apartment, the common space should be clearly define, and the routes be designed so that social interaction became possible. The boundary of public space and private space would then no longer conflict but in harmony.
Diverse Ownership. One of the most distinct difference between the British housing and the Hong Kong housing is density, it is also the characteristic that separated the former colony from most of the world. The problem arise when newer, more “advanced” architecture are being build, as they tent to target the financially wealthier class of the city. Density is something that had always been a fascination to designers and architect, in relation to circulation, how to adapt the vast amount of people to a small space and still achieve successful mobility and space. Hong Kong was like a laboratory in architecture in terms of the experimentation of high dense architecture. The typologies ranged from the dual purpose build housing block, to accommodate the flood of Chinese immigrants before China Cut off the boarder; Estate housing to accommodate the aging population and the decline in economy in the 70-80s, and the newer housing blocks to lodge the rise of the middle classes. The tenements are now popular among developers, because of the continual aging buildings are becoming a hazard, more importantly tenements represents a vast amount of land that could be re-invested, converted into shopping malls which continually seem to be the most important development projects in Hong Kong. Problems arise when a block of building are co-owned by the each apartment, and usually a building association would decides if they would all agree to sell the building to developer or not, if one unit does not agree, the sale is off, therefore, most of the time the landlord would rather chip in and make the housing block habitable and retain the community and their roots with familiarity. Therefore it made buying and clearing an entire block extremely difficult for developers. It is obvious that recent housing emerged out of specific topographical, social, economic as well as architectural constrains, but nonetheless, the influence of British architecture is present and inseparable from the current and future planning of Hong Kong. However, it is in my opinion that the modern architecture had lost its quality from the tight knitted communities that the shop housing and the early tenement had to offer. It is as if though through the quality was lost in linear transformation, it is possible that now is the time to introduce more diverse culture into the design of housing in Hong Kong. To move away from either bland public housing designed from a few templates, and the upmarket, inefficient and overpriced “luxury” flats; as well as sub-standard living conditions (Fig. 11).
15 RE Mitchell. Some Social Implications of High Density Housing. American Sociological Review, Vol. 36, pp. 18-29, 1971. On density and housing conditions.
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Fig. 11
The Elevator and Anti-social Encounter. Rem Koolhaas wrote in the Delirious New York that the elevator is the product of modern technology at the same time it became the binding element that made the skyscraper possible. A lot like Manhattan, Hong Kong had less and less ground surfaces, but more and more internal spaces. But still, the demand for more space are needed for activities, thus the necessity for the elevator to achieve higher into the skies. He argued that the elevators isolated people from interacting with one another, while the stair based tenement housing, where social interaction were possible on the vertical ascend and descend. The birth of the elevator meant the birth of many different typologies, including the mega-blocks. The union of steel and elevator perhaps also brought about the death of social life within the urban fabric, the social element within the apartment building block is so distinctly
15 absent that when one move into an endless block of apartment it is purposefully inserting one-self in the urban fabric to become part of the desolate within a collective. “We mostly inhabit closed spaces. These form the milieu from which our culture develops… if we wish to raise our culture to a higher plane, so must we willy-nilly change our architecture. And this will be possible only when we remove the sense of enclosure from the spaces where we live. And this we only achieve by introducing glass architecture” 16 “The building becomes a union of elevator and steel frame.”17
Verticality in the city is essential as part of the city today, this is credited to the invention of the modern elevator. However, we must also acknowledge the problem of the elevator. Not only did it became the mean of social isolation but it also became the tool for developer to abuse the land value in relation to its architecture. Buildings are no long made to last but to be taller and more expensive until another which is taller and more expensive. The elevator meant the death of social design, as the elevator shaft divides the building into many vertical levels, and the lift lobby being the only place of encounter. Perhaps one day, and the only socially acceptable place of interaction is within the elevator itself. Thus it shall be made larger with entertainment within, making the journey that is made long by technology less cruel.
16 Banham, Renyer. The architecture of the well-tempered environment, 2 nd ed. Pp.126. 17 Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York “Culture” Pp 125.
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Speed of the city.
Fig. 12
The speed of a metropolis city is vastly different from a down scaled city, and is different between different metropolises. Many shops in the ground level (Fig. 12) are small, family owned businesses similar to the shop houses in the early typologies, there are sub typologies that are not planned by any architect, creating a diverse infrastructure without planner, architecture without architects, many of the shop has illegal constructions to optimise space where it is needed in cities such as this. These constructs decorates the city with characteristics, and would have been impossible with official planning which are restricted by regulations and “public image”. The locals becomes “architects” of the city, what they build would be called “constructs” rather than architecture, perhaps that would be the term in a heterotopian 18 colonies 18 Foucault, Michael. Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias Pp 3-4, HETEROTOPIAS.
17 between the buildings and alleys, these categories together becomes the other spaces described by Foucault. “Constructs� are non-official, they are squeezed into the gaps of the city fabrics and co-exist, without them, no city is unique, and the typological characteristics of the Hong Kong tenement housing would never have deviated from the British version.
Fig. 13
Characteristic oddities emerge through and within the dense urban topology, in which infrastructure and buildings become so close together they almost seem to have united as a single object. The street becomes the building and the building becomes the street, not strictly similar to the Smithson’s street in the sky, but there are typologies which changed to adapt the growing city, it was made necessary for the high way to pass through an existing building for alternative ways to connect buildings within the city-scape. Inside part of the tenement district, whilst some tenement made way for new build, it remains hard for redevelopment. Oddities appears to adapt to the ever densifying urbanisation. The speed of the city are often defined by the streets; highways, roads, alleys, and corridors, with such urban viscosity in Hong Kong. The city centre are often defined as slow and crowded, however, this does not define the pace of the city itself. With fast paced oddities shown through the high way in the buildings, as well as underground tunnels, the city fabric is not reluctant at all in comparison to the pedestrian. Perhaps it is exactly because of such crowdedness, the hectic quality became the representation of pace, the spaces in between exaggerate everything that happens.
18 It is a characteristic which the city bares, and the buildings are becoming denser to cope with the fast moving inhabitants. Whichever is the case, we make connections between buildings in the means of social communication or direct access to destination. In my opinion, there should be more social communication and less direct access to destination. That way, the density of the city would not change, but the pace of the city could slow down, when the connections are no longer a short cut but conversational.
Fig. 14
Within context, Figure 14 shows a very different side of the city, where the in between space sprawls to life fighting for slowness and gentle unification of building, nature and people. These moments in the city are very fitting as described in Vidler’s Architectural Uncanny19 as objects moments as well as becoming certain narratives that illustrates the city.
19 Vidler, Anthony. The architectural uncanny.
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Kowloon Walled City. The dense Kowloon city centre reflected a lot of cultural relevance to the demolished Kowloon Walled City. Over time, the evolution of the tenements in giant skyscrapers seemed to have become bland and boring. Driven purely by its wealth, and becoming more economically viable but distinctly socially disconnected. Between the mega-structure and the “cake� podium typologies, the walled city represent a new experimental transformation by developers after the original colonial transformation. Kowloon walled city was called a walled city because the make-up of building surrounds the initial site in resemblance to a wall, separating it from the rest of the city, and fencing up the external influences such as governmental power and social connections. The wall city was in the limbo within the traditional legal system, making it a lawless twilight zone in which governs itself in a heterotopian fashion. This heterotopia-ism was mimicked and translated into other contexts around the world, showing the influence and effect this type of architecture has and its contextual export
Fig. 15
The walled city was a well-known cluster of residential, retail and slum, self-contained and manifested through time. The city itself was a collective instead of design and build by architects or developers. The density of city was so
20 high it caused crime and problems in which had lead the city to be left in limbo from the British, Chinese and Hong Kong jurisdiction, thus the denser it became the less constrain there was. Kowloon Walled City accommodated an approximately 33,000 residents within its 0.010 sq. mi perimeter. Its masses and voids became constructs which were figurative, active and positively. Interconnected buildings resulted in a collective entity it is also one that endorse private and automated circulation within, thus a completely new typology with references to its surrounding, especially the early tenements.
Self-organisation as a collective. In contrast, a Corbusian or modernist archetype offers borderline brutal but elegant solutions to the within, poetic explanation to the circulation and a modern standard of architecture. However, the external logic and relationship were subsequently non-apparent, deviating from culture, history and environmental concern as a monumental piece of work. The Kowloon walled city became a piece of obsolete monument within many people who grew up with it, and shaped it. It also became a piece of lost culture within the larger community local and overseas.
Fig. 16
April 1994, the final brick fell marking the end of the Infamous Kowloon Walled City. Instead, it was converted into a park, a monument, in which so many other iconic infrastructures had ended up. In some ways, the monument is as derelict as the departed architecture; the value of the park is not nearly as rich as the self-generated city, which represented history, culture, and the struggle of accumulation in architectural freedom. Poetically, the site of walled city had returned to zero (Fig. 16.) We can see the reverse of a housing process in such a small location. From the imperial times, growing into the labyrinth of which was made famous, and again forgotten as a relic of the past. Poetically, the land on which it was built upon had only increased in sentimental value, and set as a typological example for many architecture and movies would be based upon.
To the outsiders, it was the City of Darkness20, but for many whom had been part of the city, it was a tight knitted community that was welcoming, and was nowhere near as notorious as many had described it. As a piece of architecture, it had some very specific qualities in which are unique, from the crowded passageways and labyrinth like configuration, to having electricity wired outdoors to prevent fires. Many intense moments happens within the city’s boundary, within the 20 Lambot Ian, Girard Greg. The City of Darkness: life in Kowloon Walled City.
21 floors of the maze, instead of its parameters, shops, factories and kindergartens. These hidden moments gave the city a life of its own where as described by the quote below in interviews with people who lived there. "Life was poor, but we were very happy,”21
The walled city was interesting as a piece of architectural phenomena; it represented the discontent of social trend of home owning, but at the same time reflected the poverty of most of the inhabitant. Through poverty, infrastructure that are custom build for the inhabitant manifests, and the relative businesses and schools accommodate people only in its immediate proximity. Conceivably the wall city reflects what city planners do not consider as part of planning strategy, where the inhabitant should more often be the architects, the clients and the beneficiaries. This way our cities can becoming more civil than just buildings with density. Imagine the Kowloon Walled City becoming a precedence to densification
(Fig. 17),
making cities more liveable with civil space and paths, and less socially isolated brought on by the concrete cores, steel structures, and monotonous elevator interior. “An autonomous entity with its 10,000 inhabitants [… resisting] the various forces of suppression by the use of this architecture’s defensiveness and labyrinthine organization of space.” 22
In oppose to the Corbusian top down approach to modern town planning, in which the architects are detached from the ground. Without any sense of belonging and urgency of the public, nor the inhabitant, only to strive to achieve ideals such as “street in the skies” and creating “ideal cities”. Neglecting the most basic and fundamental of part of the town is that the inhabitant makes up the social infrastructure whether it be horizontal or vertical; private or public, within the given framework provided by the designers. The heterotopian construct of the Wall city went along with the vision stated in the above quote, in description of a Parisian 19 th century housing block during the Haussmann’s transformations that the block of housing would provide space for workers, if the walled city would work in such harmony, it would never have been torn down. However,
21 Lambot Ian, Girard Greg. The City of Darkness: life in Kowloon Walled City. 22 Lambert, Leopold, on 19th century Haussmann’s transformations of Parisian house Situated at the intersection of the rue Eugene Sue and the rue Simart - http://thefunambulist.net/2012/02/08/history-haussmannian-social-housing-a-kowloon-walled-city-within-paris-part-1/
22
Fig. 17
In the case of the Kowloon walled city, it was deemed unreasonable and had span out of control of the government by the 1990’s. To avoid it growing in to a parasite of the city or as a precedence of similar constructs uprising, the city was demolished and the labyrinth of Kowloon was no more. The only architectural object that was preserved was the Yaman (ancient police station) and its ancient city wall is at the eye of the city, it symbolised the past, as a foundation of the new build, as well as a hidden past within the wall of the city. Out of its historical context, it represented nothing in relation to the walled city, as if the memories of the city vanish with its construct.
23
Building Obsolesce: Salvage or Demolish To what extend should we consider demolition or otherwise determine the historical values and preserve the buildings which are no longer useful or even became the problem. Neglecting what doesn’t work within the city instead of to build a newer version of same problematic archetype. The newer types does not necessarily create the same practical values with an inert social impact and sometimes produce worse architecture for money. Estimated that some new build office tower only get about 10-20 % occupancy, it seems ridiculous to evict the social qualities out of the residential areas only to populate it with empty office building which lacks souls and characters and ultimately voids the city centre with forsaken building density. This is exactly what happens today with the tenements once developers acquire enough space. Perhaps more preservation was necessary than the total erasure of the city from any context, as it was such a phenomenal piece of inspiration for many in terms of its manifestation and self- organisation. Recently more buildings are listed than ever to preserve their ‘historic qualities’, the preservation are aimed mainly at their façade
(Fig. 18)
but not their
interior or sometimes structurally. Such half-hearted “regenerations” further isolates the inhabitant of the building, as it becomes even more detached from the city fabric as it stands out within a crowd and becomes a monument rather than a piece of habitable architecture.
Fig. 18
We live in an age that seem to have deflated in values and lost sight of purposes between architecture and social lives and “can no longer produce convincing monuments.”23 Through modernity, we progressed into a society in which aimlessly preserving a lot of buildings and objects that serves no sentimental value to the people who occupy them, and at the same time we do not preserve what need to be preserve the right way in order to make best use of them as monuments as well as habitats. 23Mumford, Lewis. Monumentalism, symbolism and Style. Architectural Review (April 1949), Pp 147.
24 We must question the value of preservation versus the act of preservation. The two have had a very distinct discontinuity attached to it, the preservation in most cases are at the public best interest and in coherent to a positive city plan and regeneration. But at large, the power of developmental bodies are often more than over whelming, therefore in monumental architecture are erected to secure the investment of the properties and the land in many cases. But in my, as well as many other’s mind, the Kowloon walled city was a monument, in which represented the bizarre nature of architecture and its relationship with one’s body, though very compact, it was also very rich. Not in the monetary sense, but in a utilitarian and humanist perspective. Experiment through iterations will always remain as useful investigation avenue, therefore the architects have to be the enablers of occupants to go beyond their own times, to be able to fit the models of what the modern house should be, with vision of the greater scale of the city. The evolution of building is the expression of changing in urban lives. The buildings then are not one isolated event but embedded in the city. But in the case of Hong Kong, the streets and public space all seem to have been neglected alongside the development of buildings, the illusion of which the architecture became more than the street, the density became more than the manoeuvrability. The street is a product of culture, in cities there are inherent tolerance, the differentiation of architecture and the plot. Buildings could often be pragmatically build on the cheap, in speculation that the greatest values are intrinsic to the land but not the thing that is being built on it. Architectural spaces are subjective once the occupants inhabits, but if we see the inhabitant in social housing as a class of society which is unwanted 24, no typology could salvage the condition of a compact city, where housing continues to be a problem. From the tenement houses imported through colonialism, we can learn that the evolution of the building is important in order to adapt to the situated city. more importantly, is that we must not forget the civic quality the import had brought about, the intertwining passage way and the roof top in which are all habitable space for social connections,
Value of demolition Through the Walled city, we see the demolition as an exaggeration, at the each typological exchange, the cause are mostly due to social and economic decline, as well as technological advancement. Where a typology is to become obsolete base sole on the need for new buildings to replaces the outdated. Certain typologies are no longer fitting for society and reason to build newer, better and more expensive range of housing to fulfil the need of the modern status of the city. The importance of obsolesces in cities with a strong sense of vision and ideal at the beginning which often turn sour as the vision were greater than its financial capabilities, the planning are too ideal, but from the Walled city we can see order and pattern emerge without the finite planning, but the opportunities to sprawl. When the value of the land had outweighs the value of the architecture because it may be outdated, or problematic or simple cannot cope with modern demands, demolition are often the cheap option over conversion. Their regenerations and visions are top down. However, the removal of historical and culturally relevant structure to replace the larger infrastructure could be difficult. Not only are building and land ownership, but also the sentimental values of the existing 24 Rossi, Aldo. The architecture and city - Rossi described “Social housing as a dumping ground of economically lower classes.”
25 occupants. Relocation in order to generate space for a newer structure that is almost never aimed at the correct class nor at the same as the original band of inhabitants. In the case of Murray House in Stanley, Hong Kong, originally a maritime museum, reconstructed in Stanley after decades of storage. The museum was of colonial Victorian origin, it was clear that when the building was no long serving its purpose, it was to be demolished. Instead it was disassembled brick by brick and re-erected at its current site. Note that the original sit is now the Bank of China, in which illustrates my point of the value of land surpasses the value of the building and its purpose. Although the building was not demolished, it was nonetheless replaced by a more powerful and wealthy institution with great power.
Fig. 19
In other cases such as the Blue House (Fig. 19) in Wan Chai district had become a historically monumental, with it came the sentimental value as well as culture significance, thus buildings such as this one became a symbolic gesture of hard sell preservation and stands as proof of Colonisation. In the resistance of purchasing by larger corporates, the tenement housing shows a resistance to power as well as a limit of power from the developers. Foucault suggested that there are number of ways that the exercise of power (in this case the developers) can be resisted. “Together with the resistance and revolts that domination comes up against, a central phenomenon in the history of societies is that they manifest in a massive and global form. At the level of the whole social body, the locking-together of power relations with relations of strategy and the results proceeding from their interaction.�25
25 Foucault, Michael. Power, Pp 348.
26 This is reflected not only in Hong Kong’s housing schemes, but also in the protest it demonstrates against the possible avert of democracy. Students and professionals stood and occupied the main streets of Hong Kong in resistance to the powerful Chinese government, and as an act to test the limit of this power. Although it seems like a David against Goliath story, it reflects a lot about the society of this city, especially when there is a “ Common enemy”, there are always the possibility of resilience no matter how oppressive the system. What are the function of an abandoned or near derelict typology? Serving as an example or regenerative ideal to a society that is changing around it. Architects often imagine that their designs would simply fulfil its role and put together with such coherence that obsolesce would occur only in the failing of material, rather than the end of its designated purpose. However the value of the design depend largely at the occupants, therefore demolition is often the result of a building unable to cope with the function it need to provide. Therefore there is value in unbuilding and rebuilding, although through the unbuilding, we expose elements that are perhaps less than pleasant, as well introducing elements to a neighbourhood that had perhaps had it way of life, the disturbing could bring in uncertainties to the surrounding. But at the same time, the value of unbuilding increases the potential of a neighbourhood as a whole, unifying different neighbourhood, and in the case of the tenement housing, perhaps it could provide more social agendas as well as public infrastructure that completes the typology where it is lacking. On the other hand, unbuilding without rebuilding could also resolve the problem in a dense urban area, by simple removing some buildings to increase free space for which the public could hang out and socialise, i.e. Aldo van Eyck’s playground in Amsterdam.
Regeneration. On 29th January 2010, a tenement building in the Yau ma Tei district collapsed killing 3 people 26, the tenement house was 55 years old on the date of the incident. This caused the wide spread discussion and awareness of whether the tenement buildings are nowadays still a viable or safe typology to be living in, had they long been since expired pass the designated age architecturally as well as materially. The local and district officials targeted these building along with developers which long had wanted to move into the area, as perhaps these typology are outdated to adapt the increasing in urban population as well as the social decay within the communities, as some of the living standards are simply inhuman, although many inhabitants had no choice as they simply cannot afford anything else. Discussions arise with possibility of regeneration of the entire area with new builds. While a lot of inhabitant still argues that tenement houses could be salvaged and repaired or transformed into different uses. A monument is classically defined as “human landmarks which men have created as symbols for their ideals, for their aims, and for their action,” 27.
26 http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/BuildingCollapseReport_e.pdf - Building collapse incident report. 27 Giedion, Sigfried, J.L. sert, and F. Leger. Nine Points on Monumentality,1943, in Gideion, Architecture, You and Me, Pp.48.
27
Conclusion. When buildings achieve such status whether it is through historical means or appointment. The need for regeneration is clearly illustrated by the collapse of the typology, it is a necessity to ensure the building remains stable, but at the same time allow the typology to move further beyond a cliché of modern architectural “regeneration” of cladding everything with colour and greenery with a label of sustainable regeneration. I op for a more considerate and further evolved breeds of tenements, may be the essay should end with a question, that open doors for the tenement house once more. Since the tenement house export was in direct correlation to the imperial power, the iterations of which could be consolidated into once single project of a transformation of architecture. Even as a speculative iteration of the ongoing tenement typology, which this time would represent the power of modern capitalism in which the UK’s architectural industry has become less formidable and less competitive, and critically less radical in comparison to earlier part of the last century. The housing types in the UK had halted theoretically at the Post-modernist, making way for the immigrants from the East28. “London is the global financial centre as well as the most open and diversified city that enjoys the most mature economic development, making it the first option for our investment in Europe.” – said Greenland president and Chairman Zhang Yuliang29
What then would be the consequences be of importing such transformed archetype back to its original source? Could the tenement typology from Hong Kong be fitting into the heart of London, where the demand of housing had been on a rise? Will the materiality of which is to adapt with the surrounding, and carry on its evolution as a breed?
28 http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/30/farrells-masterplan-royal-albert-dock-london-docklands/ 29 http://www.cityam.com/article/1389143299/london-skyline-gets-12bn-chinese-fortune
28
Bibliography Books Baum, Andrew, Valins, Stuart . The Role of Group Phenomena in the Experience of Crowding, Environment and crowding. Banham, Renyer. The architecture of the well-tempered environment. Foucault, Michael. Power. Moch, Annie , Bordas, Florence and Hermand, Danièle. Perceived density: how apartment dwellers view their surroundings Behavior June 1975. Nagy, Gergely, Szelenyi, Karoly. Garden Cities - The British Example. Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York. Lambot Ian, Girard Greg. The Darkness City: life in Kowloon Walled City. Mumford, Lewis, “Monumentalism, symbolism and Style,” Architectural Review (April 1949). Giedion, Sigfried, J.L. sert, and F. Leger. Nine Points on Monumentality. RE. Mitchell. Some Social Implications of High Density Housing. American Sociological Review. Rossi, Aldo. The architecture and the city Rowe Colin, Koetter Fred. Collage city. Shelton, Barrie. Karakiewicz, Justyna. Kvan, Thomas. The making of Hong Kong, from Vertical to Volumetric. Thornton, Weldon. Allusions in Ulysses: An Annotated List. Vidler, Anthony. The architectural uncanny. Vidler, Anthony. Public Fear. Vladimir, Lenin. Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism W.R. Lethaby. Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, 1892
Websites and Articles.
29 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275206/Hong-Kongs-metal-cage-homes-How-tens-thousands-live-6ft-2ftrabbit-hutches.html http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/30/farrells-masterplan-royal-albert-dock-london-docklands/ http://www.cityam.com/article/1389143299/london-skyline-gets-12bn-chinese-fortune http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/BuildingCollapseReport_e.pdf https://transnationalarchitecturegroup.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/british-colonial-architecture-current-research-3/ http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/high-density-from-the-ground/en-gb/ http://densityatlas.org/understanding/Hong-Kong_housing-typology.pdf?&sessionid=f4f0f69ba98de096252ab9882b1a62ab http://thefunambulist.net/2012/02/08/history-haussmannian-social-housing-a-kowloon-walled-city-within-paris-part-1/Leopold Lambert, on 19th century Haussmann’s transformations of Parisian house