Today I joined Peter Ferretto’s first year masters group to walk around Sham Shui Po, one of the poorest areas in Hong Kong, yet also one of the city’s two districts with a grid. The area is extremely densely populated; almost all of the grid blocks have high level of commercial activity around the perimeters, some also have markets on their ground floors. Sham Shui Po tells very rich and detailed story of entertainment, consumable/religious/electronic objects, cultural and religious rituals in the life of a middle or low income Hong Kong resident.
‘Buildings will go but grid will stay’: Each of the students has chosen a block for a design of a social housing intervention project
Below: Main streets of Sham Shui Po
One of under 10 sqm units such as below costs equivalent of £ 2,500/month to rent
Below: bread factory
Skyscrapers in the distance are in a different, more affluent area
Food market occupying ground floor of one of the blocks
Council housing area in the process of demolition
Below: barber shops and other businesses affected by demolition have moved into public walkways
Vegetation within the old block under demolition
Experience inside buildings and on roofs
Below: brothel on one of the floors (pink light means it is open)
Alley within a block:
fabrics market: soon to be demolished
Temple
Computer club (being in which costs cheaper than hostel per night ~£3.50/night)
Below: a 1930s building, dwarfed by later additions
no.balsa 