Human Density
Three years ago I went to Hong Kong for a vacation because after the first SARS outbreak, it was extremely cheap to travel there and I’d never been to Asia before. One thing I imagine every westerner is immediately struck by when going to someplace like Hong Kong is how everyone lives right on top of each other. There’s just no space between people’s personal spaces. The funny thing is that there’s plenty of room in Hong Kong for people to spread out, they just don’t.
I had somewhat forgotten about this whole phenomenon until I ran across a post entitled Michael Wolf and the Architecture of Density over at Magical Urbanism. Then it all started to come back.
Don’t forget the multitude of clothelines poking out of buildings like thorns, the bamboo used to build monstrous residential units, and the bizarre alcoves where people must look out of their windows right into someone else’s.
Posted in Asian, Living Space, bizarre
