Repetition:PublicHousingSysteminShekKipMei Squatter,ResettlementBlockandPublic Housing
ByCharlieLeungPui-lam“Stilltoday,peoplethinkthatpublichousingisnotarchitecture, theythinkit’sjustshelter.”
- DesignDNAofMarkI:HongKong’s PublicHousingPrototype(RosmanWai 1,2019)
Abstracts:
After the Shek Kip Mei Fire in December 1953, 58,000 people became homeless. To rectify the situation, the government constructed basic resettlement blocks for the fire victims and all low-incomeshouseholdsinShekKipMeiimmediately.ShekKip Mei Estate - prototype of Hong Kong public housing system formed in 1954. In this essay, I am going to explore how the introduction of public housing system has changed the urban lifestyle in Shek Kip Mei Estate, such as living style, social circle,businessandurbanpatternetc.
Keywords:repetition,urbanlifestyle,publichousingsystem
1. Introduction
After World War II, a great among of illegal immigrants squeezed into Hong Kong. At the very beginning, most of them were living in squatters with bad conditions. Some of the immigrants may be homeless also. Squatters were made by simple materials, such as stone, timber, with zincing or canvas covering. After the great fire of Shek Kip Mei in the Christmas of December 1953, over 58,000 peoples became homeless suddenly. Therefore, the government kick-started the basic resettlement project in Shek Kip Mei immediately for providing homes to the victims and the low-incomes families. The prototype of Hong Kong public housing system – Mark I was formed in 1954. During the 1970s, the Hong Kong Housing Authority decided to make improvement to the Mark I blocks to form larger self-contained flats. Part of the Shek Kip Mei Estate were demolished and being redeveloped in the 1990sinordertoincreasethelivingconditionsforthecitizens.
Inthenextsection,differenttypesofhousing(squatter,resettlementblockandpublichousing)aregoing tobeexplored.
2. TypesofHousinginShekKipMei
2.1Squatters
Those unauthorized temporary houses were built without any planning, in high density. The density of those housing just like honeycombs. With reference to the photo of Squatters in Shek Kip Mei (Fig.3 and 4), you may not hard to find that those squatters were normally be built in one or two floors with very simple structure. You may not easy to find a gap between one squatter to it next door. The squatters that people living in were usually without internal partitions for any spatial separation. Living zone, dinning zone, cooking and sleeping area were compressed into one space. No hygiene facility and electricity would be offered. Some of the residents tried to steal electricity from the power line. Some shops were opened at the ground floor, mixed with the domestic living area. All their movement and activities were mainly happened at the ground level. Narrow alleys becamethecommunalspacefortheresidentstogathering,havingmealsordotheirbusiness.
2.2PublicHousing
2.2.1 ResettlementBlock
H-shapedResettlementBlock
There are total 29 blocks for the resettlement project in Shek Kip Mei. The first eight H-shaped resettlement blocks (A-H) adaptingMark Idesign with 6-storeys were built by the Hong Kong Government and completed in Dec 1954, which provides affordable housing for the fire victims and low-income households. Moreover, the other 21 blocks were constructed in 7-storeys high,
2.2.2 Redevelopment
with external corridors, shared toilets and one room units with a minimum size of 120 sq. ft. in order to increase the living space for the community. The blocks were constructed with reinforced concrete. Compare with the squatters, the resettlement blocks offers a stable and safe living environment to the residents. Actually, there were no electricity and water supply servicestobesupportedinthebuildings.
Business
The keepers of substantial squatter shops were offered shops with 240 sq. ft. in resettlement estates. They were required to pay a rent of $100 a month in the 50s.2 In the 1960s, Sham Shui Po became a crucial district of HongKong’s garment industry. Many of the female workers could work from home. Residents who lived in the resettlement blocks provide a great labour force to the garment industry. There might not be an obvious separation of working space and living spaceduringthe1960sto1980s.
Nearlyallresettlementblocksweredemolishedin the 2000s, except Mei Ho House. Mei Ho House is the onlysurviving H-shaped resettlement block in Hong Kong, a Grade 2 historic building. In 2009,itwasselectedtobeconvertingintoayouth hostel by HKYHA. Shek Kip Mei Estate is being redeveloped in seven stages. The first stage of redevelopment was completed in 2006. The Y-shaped and T-shaped site specific design was adopted for the redevelopment project in 2012 & 2013.Theredevelopmentprojectbringsnewform of living in the public housing. All flats are designed with kitchen, toilet, water supply and electricity services are also provided in the domestic blocks. Numerous of stores are opened at the ground level of the residential buildings, suchassupermarket,restaurantsetc.
3. BeforeandAfter(DifferentiatefromSquatterstoPublicHousing)
3.1Interviewwithlocalresident
According to my conversation with a former resident of Mei Ho House and Block 40 (demolished) in Shek Kip Mei Estate. He said, “In the past, it is very common for a big family (7 to 10 peoples) to live in a small flat less than 100 sq. ft. in the resettlement area.” In fact, most of the residents used to add a loft in their flat for expanding the usable area. The resident also mentioned that most of the people in the past were likely to gather with friends at the corridorindifferentblocksorinthepark.
3.2ChangedonLivingstyle
3.2.1
Corridor
In the resettlement block, as the living units were very tiny, 8-9 peoples are normally live within flat around 100 sq. ft.. To solve the problem that the flats without kitchen space, tenants expanded their living area to the common corridor. Corridor turns into a multi-functional space from transition zone,whichserved ascookingspace,playedarea, dinning space etc. It reflected that the movement of the residents is changed from inward to outwardsforsatisfiedtheirbasicneeds.
Inaddition,HongKong’seconomytookoffinthe 1970s. Some resettlement blocks were reconstructed by merging the former front and backunits into one for expandingtheflat size and add spacing of the internal private toilet and kitchen. The residents can enjoy their private hygiene facilities in their own unit. The living habits of the residents were reshaped as the facilitiesimprovedafterthereconstruction.
3.2.2 Kitchen,Bathroom&Toilet
In the past, residents shared a common kitchen at the corridor zone in the resettlement blocks. After rectification during the 1980s, the units accepted to be reconstructed with an individual kitchen space inside the flat. Common kitchen at corridorbeingeliminatedafter1980s.
FromCommontoPrivate
The design of resentment blocks defined toilet, washing area and bathroom as common facilities at the beginning. As a result, the spaces which mentioned above became the common zone for the residents. Entertainment activities were always held in the washing area (see Fig. 13). Peoples were playing Mahjong at that common zone. However, the later reconstruction introduced theindividualtoiletspaceinsidetheunitsfor the residents. They were unnecessary to access thosepubliczonesagain.Theoriginal common zones no longer bustling and lost it function. The movement of residents turned fromoutwardtoinwardsagain.
4. SingularityandDiversityunderRepetition
4.1FormofLiving
Amodern living lifestyle was formed under the changed from squatters to the public housing. At the very beginning, squatters were built without any planning and illegally. Therefore, all the unauthorized temporary houses are look different, as they don’t have any standard or prototype to follow. The boundary of commercial zone, domestic zone and common space cannot be identified clearly.ThiskindofuncontrolleddevelopmentrepresentstheurbandisorderofShekKipMei.
RepetitionofBuildingBlocks
As the resettlement project in Shek Kip Mei was introduced by the government in 1954, the messy situation was being changed. The project tried to reform the urban pattern into a better development orientation.Road,streetandblockwereclearlybedesignatedtoaspecificpositionunderplanning.A basic grid of Shek Kip Mei can be observed through the map (Fig. 15). It offers abasic condition for the transportation in later development. The resettlement area in Shek Kip Mei was expanded horizontally, and its blocks wereduplicated in the site.Repetition phenomenon on buildingform and livingstyleoccurredunderthelaunchedofpublichousingdevelopment.
In respect of the population growth, Shek Kip Mei Estate were started to be redeveloped in 2000s. There is a big change on the public housing design, no matter on the block forms and flats components design. The redevelopment project of Shek Kip Mei Estate tried to adapts with the contemporaryneeds.It expandedtheblocksverticallytooptimizethenumberofflats.
4.2TheChangeofCommonSpace
4.2.1 MovingfromToptoGround:Schools
Rooftop schools occurred after the resettlement blocks were built in Shek Kip Mei. Most of the schools were parasitizedon therooftop levelof the resettlement blocks to provide educationalservicefor thelow-income local residents. This kind ofeducation environment repeated in different resettlement blocks. Children from low-incomes families received an opportunities to enjoy their school life. It shows that the rooftop servedasthesemi-public areaforthelocals.
After the redevelopment, all rooftop schools were closed, some of them were relocated to new address. The usage for educational purposed was faded away. Rooftopoftheredevelopmentblocksbecomesaprivateareafortheresidents.
4.2.2 MovingfromBlocktoExternalPublicSpace
As the original common social space inside the blocks were being erected in the new public housing design. The sports or entertainment facilities were built at the public space. Residents turn their social movement at the ground level. Without veranda, people can just hanging quilts at the public space, such as basketball court and the parketc.
5. Conclusion
Undoubtfully, public housing brings benefits to the lower class. It provides a hygienic and living safe environment to the residents. The living environment and living standard in Shek Kip Mei are keeping improved after the introduction of public housing design. Although many people think that public housing is just a shelter, it’s not true. For the residents who lost their home in the Shek Kip Mei Fire, publichousingisasilverlininginthestormcloud.
5.1CommunityEngagement
Former residents weretreasure the time theywerelivingin the resettlement blocks in ShekKip Mei. As the resettlement blocks provide a lot of common space for the residents, they got the opportunities to practice the communityengagement. Those common spaces allowed the residents to share, to communicate and to work together. Therefore, a close relationship between the neighborhoodswaseasytobeobservedinthepast.However,the newtype publichousingerasedthe unnecessarycommon space in order to optimize the number of flats and increase more private space for the residents to enjoy. Social activities were relocated to external public space. Human touch betweentheneighborhoodslossgraduallyasthelivingformchanged.
5.2FromLow-risetoHigh-rise
Thehousingdevelopmentratioschanged from low-risetohigh-rise. Atthebeginning,squatterswere built within one or two floors; resettlement blocks were built with 6 or 7 storeys high; the redeveloped public housing constructed with minimum 12 storeys to maximum 40 storeys high. By the means of expanding the blocks vertically into high-rise, more living space with high quality can beofferedtopeoplesinneed.
5.3LargeGroupLifetoSmallGroupLife
The way that people living was changed from large group into small group. As the number of flats are increasing through high-rise planning and the prefabricate construction method. Each resident is allowed to enjoy a reasonable and bigger living area. The living environment is changed from informal to formal. Big families can be divided into small groups and be rearranged into different flats.Bigfamiliesnoneedtosqueezeinasmallunitanymore.
Reference
Images
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Fig.12 PhotobyAuthor,“LivingmodelinMeiHoHouse”,HongKong,2020
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