Kowloon Walled City: Heterotopia in a Space of Disappearance (2013)

That drawing is from a Japanese book on the subject. I bought it a while ago and although expensive, gave a really good glimpse into life in Kowloon. edit: should add a link to said book :https://www.amazon.com/Kowloon-large-illustrated-ISBN-400008...

Wow, coolest thing I’ve seen while doom scrolling this week. I wonder how accurate that is. It must be an especially dense cross section, because it doesn’t leave much room for hallways or other non living space.

Also was hoping to see more of the structural elements… that drawing really makes it feel like the entire thing is made of cardboard, hopes and dreams.

Very very sad about cohost closing btw. It was really the only "post twitter acquisition" social network that spoke to me. It felt very late 2000' in the best ways.

Anyone found anything cool in there? I saw someone holding a rifle, aimed at another person’s back as they crouched down in fear.

“We build our computers the way we build our cities — over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.”

― Ellen Ullman, Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology

Nicholas Negroponte's The Architecture Machine goes deep into analogizing software and housing along the dimension of "improvised / iterated on by the users" to "waterfall designed by committee"

(free with archive account, fascinating book, dedicated to "the first machine that can appreciate the gesture" https://archive.org/details/architecturemach00negr/page/n15/...)

It's a fascinating comparison—I've seen this happen at companies too. Makes you wonder if imposing something akin to building codes for software development could prevent this kind of sprawling complexity.

I feel like like that recently. Just examining an app that was largely written in isolation and ... I just discovered a new auth endpoint / service that nobody knew we had, and it does not behave logically. It has all sorts of limits that impedes testing / troubleshooting.

Pain ...

For the record I am going to eventually direct this app to the "normal" auth service and fix it all up, but man why is it this way???

Is this a reference to the “I divorced my wife and this is what it taught me about B2B sales” joke?

Maybe... that's why I've been fascinated by it. :|

I think this applies to anything that is created over more than a single generation. Basically anything the government touches eventually goes this way too.

That's actually not true at all. According to interviews a lot of people actually miss it. I believe it was a German documentary that I first heard it in. I'm kind of obsessed with this place and even created a game around the premise of a walled city.

Some people actually refused to move out and had to be evicted.

People form emotional attachment to their home, even if the living conditions are bad.

There must have been reasons why those people chose to live there. They must have felt it was their best option. If they were mistaken then they should be provided with more information until they are not mistaken. If they were not mistaken then the government barged in and removed these people's best living option because the government felt it was ugly. That's not very good.

>"people living in squalor is their right!"

For many, a big part of the appeal was the low costs of living. Surely choosing relative squalor with low prices should be an option?

I have stayed there for 2 weeks last month. It is indeed a distinctive experience. I managed to rent the smallest apartment I have ever been to. When I entered the room I burst out laughing at its size. There was basically nothing but a small bed and a toilet/bathroom where you could have showering while sitting on a toilet. It was definitely a memorable feeling to stay there. Every time you enter the building many (mainly Indian looking) man approach and try to sell you drugs, stolen stuff or prostitutes. I wandered quite a bit around because you always had to wait a lot for the elevator so I used the stairs to go to the 8th floor. There was piss and trash all over the stairs. At first day I was really close to changing my location but I eventually got used to the place. I have witnessed at least 3 fights during the 2 weeks staying there. On the last morning at 6 am when I arrived to the first floor after checking out I heard loud noises and when the elevator opened two guys fell inside fighting each other, accompanied by several woman shouting. I managed to step over them out of the elevator and left the building safely. It was chaotic to be honest. But at least I saw no bugs and rats. Overall I think it might have some resemblance to how it must have felt staying in the Walled City.

I've stayed there about half a year ago. [0] Pretty interesting place, although not nearly as dystopian as you describe it! No cockroaches or anything, but ground level is very noisy, and elevator queues are pretty bad.

[0]: If you want to give it a try, open up any hotel booking website and sort by price – pretty much anything under $25 is in the Mansions.

I've visited it earlier this year and it seems pretty unchanged ("cheap watches", "need tailor",...). I've stayed in one of the budget hostels there a few years ago, its was interesting but I'd probably not do it again. Waiting 15 minutes for one of the cramped elevators every time you go home gets old quickly.

I stayed there about a year ago, and wrote a bit about it with some photos. Just search this page for "Chungking": https://dabreegster.github.io/prose/dec2023/pt1_hk.html

A slightly more sanitized variety is two buildings away - Mirador Mansion. I still expect to see a fleeing android to come running down the halls when I stay there, a la Zhora chase scene in Blade Runner (less glass though).

A few months ago I had a long layover in Hong Kong, so I did a quick visit - it looked a bit emptyish, though there was still a bunch of budget hostels, food joints and some touting going on. The rats are pretty gigantic though.

good (and cheap) Indian restaurants there.