In this special episode our topic is a little less about engineering and a little more about urban planning. We take a journey back in time to the now demolished Kowloon Walled City, a dense settlement occupying a small portion of British-controlled Hong Kong. The small territory remained officially under China’s control, but Britain’s control of the island of Hong Kong left China with little influence, and the abandoned administrative centre would grow organically into a free anarchist state.

There are typically two trains of thought within urban planning: an approach heavy on government intervention, laden with zoning laws, regulation and what we might think of as red tape, compared with an approach of communities that grow organically to serve the needs of the community as and when needed. The Kowloon Walled City was a living example of the second train of thought pushed to the extreme. The 2.6 hectare city was extremely dense, housing up to 50,000 people at its peak with a population density roughly the equivalent of 1 - 2 million people per square kilometre, orders of magnitude higher than the famously crowded Manhattan at 27,000 people per square kilometre, or the 41,000 in the world’s current densest city: Manila.

The density was in no small part due to one of the only building restrictions in the city, a 14-storey height limit so planes could safely fly above the city and land in Hong Kong’s former airport just a short 800 metres south of the city. Despite the limit some photographs depict planes having to nearly navigate around buildings on descent. The city contained not just residential, but also commercial and industrial space including restaurants, schools, and unlicensed doctors and dentists. Absolutely no space was unused leaving absolutely no green space and children playing on rooftops. Buildings were built so close together that even during broad daylight the alleyways were dark and wet from the many air conditioners in the levels above, and many of the buildings leaned against each other.

After Britain had taken control of Hong Kong back from Japan following the second world war thousands of immigrants from China began moving into Kowloon, leading to a total of 2,000 residents by 1947 essentially squatting in the city. At first Britain had attempted to drive the squatters out but gave up and adopted a “hands-off” policy to Kowloon by just 1948. This policy meant a lack of police presence and basic utilities such as power and water, in part to discourage habitation in the city. The lack of power led to most residents using kerosine lamps and stoves resulting in massive fires and huge losses of life. China Light & Power would then be responsible for supplying power to the city, but demand for power consistently exceeded the supply, power theft was very common, and the implementation of the utility was anything but safe.

By 1984 both the Britsh and the Chinese had completely lost any control over the city with crime and lawlessness spilling out into the rest of Hong Kong, leading to its demolition being announced in 1987. The remaining 35,000 residents would be compensated by the government so they might relocate into Hong Kong, however this compensation was only the equivalent today of a meagre $16,00, hardly enough to go far in historically expensive Hong Kong. The demolition would be completed in 1993, just a few years before Britain would cede control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. John leaves us with the understatement of the 20th century: “So, not impressed with the British"

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

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