urban condition
16/12/2011 § Leave a Comment
Hong Kong is a fast city. One thing I’ve learned from visiting and researching the city is that things change at a pretty rapid pace in Hong Kong.. and the area that I’ve chosen to study is no exception. Most of the neighbourhood is comprised of post-war tong lau, 6-7 storey walk ups with commercial space on the bottom. Wing Lee street, where most of these photos were taken, is one of the rare spots in the city where older tong lau still exist. The area was slighted for demolition but the decision was reversed after a movie filmed at the site won an award at the Berlin Film Festival. Some of the nearby housing blocks are still under threat and luxury towers have begun to pop up around the area. While it’s easy to overly romanticize the worn and lived-in nature of these areas, there is something to be said about preserving the tong lau typologies as an alternative to the massive housing towers which are both out of scale and out of touch with their surroundings.
Hopefully I’ll be able to address some of these issues with my design project. Anyway, Hong Kong has turned out to be a fascinating and complex place to study.. super glad I chose this studio!
I’m heading home on Sunday.. can’t wait to be back in Vancouver for a few weeks 
different but familiar
26/11/2011 § 2 Comments
I’ve been back in Delft for almost two weeks now but Hong Kong is still on my mind. The best way I end up describing it to people is “different but familiar”. There was something about Hong Kong that made me feel sort of comfortable, but at the same time there were always so many new and different experiences and things to see to keep it exciting. These photos were taken close to my site in Sheung Wan and at the Graham Street Market in Central. I was amazed to see the printer [in photo 3] still using a very old style printing press.. really fascinating to watch.
I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been super busy since I’ve been back, but now that I finally have some film developed I’ll have more to share. Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of November!
