Political and Social Structure | A Deeper Look at the Hong Kong Rooftop Slums

In Portraits from Above: Hong Kong’s Informal Rooftop Communities, photographer Stefan Canham and architect Rufina Wu investigate the rooftop slums of Hong Kong. The research includes architectural drawings of the homes and personal stories of the residents living within the slums. At the end of the book comes a great essay by Dr.Ernest Chui which gives a nice historical and social context for the rooftops existence.

Rooftops Photograph. In Portraits from Above: Hong Kong's Informal Rooftop Communities, by Stefan Canham and Rufina Wu. Peperoni Books 2008.

The research that I have done over the past week has shown that the Hong Kong slums are quite unique. The rooftop slums tend to exist atop old residential structures built in the 1940’s and 1950’s and are only accessible by staircase. They are built up from scratch out of scrap materials of wood, sheet metal, and sometimes concrete and can best be referred to as “make-shift” structures. Often, the residents build up the structure by themselves.

Detail Drawing. In Portraits from Above: Hong Kong's Informal Rooftop Communities by Stefan Canham and Rufina Wu. Peperoni Books 2008.

Demographically, unlike most slums such as those in Rio de Janeiro, or underground communities within New York, these slums are not necessarily where the eldest or sick people live. The structures within Hong Kong provide alternative housing options within a city dealing with a huge housing crisis. The demographic within the rooftop slums is 95% Chinese migrants and can best be linked to the migrating population of the Chinese into Hong Kong throughout the past century. The other ethnicity found often is Pakistanis and Filipinos from Southeast Asia who were forced to remain in Hong Kong when they were not given right of residency within Britain after 1997. After the handover of Hong Kong, these ethnic minorities struggled to fit in needing to accept the lowest paying jobs and when searching for properties, the Chinese were unwilling to give them the lowest prices of rent. This unfair treatment has created these ethnic communities within the rooftop slums.

Politically, the rooftop communities have a unique dynamic with the government. Although illegal, the government works in what Chui refers to as a “tolerance vs. demolition dynamic.” The rooftop communities are given proper postal codes, tap water supplies, and property tax; essentially similar to all other housing communities within Hong Kong.  Furthermore, there are regulations to who can live within the communities.

Finally, the economic structure of the rooftop communities is also quite complex. The assumption would be that this is indeed the housing for the poorest people who cannot afford other accommodation within Hong Kong. However, the research posed shows different results. The residents of rooftop slums are indeed in the lower-income class of the city. However, they pay higher rents for their “slum” style homes than other residents within the same buildings of the area; a difference recently quoted at 2000 HK$ vs. 1677 HK$. Those who are willing to pay the rent for the homes are often willing to do so because although the conditions are worse than other rental options, the spaces are much larger and able to accommodate their families.

If you are interested in more information check out this REALLY great recent documentary about the Rooftop Slums. "Upon a Rooftop" is filmed by Sybil Wendler and recently won the Social Issue Documentary prize in the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The full film is currently online at the link below. 

Movie Still from "Upon a Rooftop" by Sybil Wendler. 2011. (18:47)

http://caamedia.org/interactive/featured-online-content/

A Lens on My Curiosities in Urban Design

1. Disaster Relief Efforts | The Wrong Solution

Every year since Hurricane Katrina, I have been back to the region to help rebuild. The relief efforts appear to be slower and slower every year, when the need is still dire. Are the large-scale “niche” designs the proper solution? Brad Pitt’s homes in the Lower Ninth Ward and the Habitat for Humanity Musician’s Village appear worthwhile solutions at first glance, but they are in fact quite exclusive and leave many former residents without help.

2. Micro-Urbanism | A Closer Look at Poor Neighborhoods

Can micro-urbanism be the solution? Many Urban and Rural studios are currently focusing on small-scale projects that address poor neighborhoods that are often ignored within city design proposals. The purpose is to try to bring students more “in-touch” with their backyard poverty. Check out Auburn University’s Rural Studio!

http://apps.cadc.auburn.edu/rural-studio/Default.aspx?path=Gallery%2fProjects%2f2000%2fthomastonfarmersmkt%2f

3. Informal Gatherings | Living in Poverty 

I have always had a curiosity in where the “poor” society of a city retreats to. This stems from trying to understand why the Lower Ninth Ward and other areas of New Orleans that have had a history of poorer inhabitants remain un-helped. The informal designs of the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro and the rooftop slums in Hong Kong provide a lens on these issues. The strong divide can best be seen in the famous photos of Brazilian favelas directly adjacent to upper-class resorts, without any form of bleeding between the two social classes. 

Aside from my obsession with disaster relief and rural and urban studios trying to bridge the gap between rich and poor, I have a few other curiosities within the Urban Design field. These interests stem from past experiences of living in different cities around the world, current readings and lectures on Urban Design, and my personal draw towards Street Art.

4. Commuter Paths

Every city that I have lived in, I have chosen to have my home be around twenty minutes away from either my school or work. I feel that there is an essential opportunity within the field of urban design to re-design or re-think the commute. The commute, for me, is a time to relax and be “in-between” my two lives, in an almost euphoric state.  Can we redesign the commute to amplify this feeling of euphoria? This will require careful consideration of commuter paths, patterns of flow, green space and benches along commuter paths, and other issues related to the human scale at street level.

5. The Wrong Mentality | CJ Lim and Food Nations

CJ Lim, in his recent studies, looks at the notions of food distribution on the global scale and how we have lost concern for producing food locally. One interesting point he brings up is the idea that the public square within the city has not changed in two or three centuries. As cities change and new developments are considered, the traditional public squares are not being re-designed. Can the public square provide an opportunity to re-connect citizens to the lost notions of seasonal food growth and simultaneously provide more sustainable living?

6. Street Art + Public Art

I enjoy investigating why people feel the need to express themselves on local streets through graffiti or small art projects. When I went to Brick Lane, I found an art piece that I really enjoyed…. (see below)

This interest stems from local work in Charlottesville by my former professor, Sanda Iliescu. In Downtown Charlottesville, there is a chalkboard wall where children are allowed to draw anything they feel. The images stay until it rains and a new set of drawings is created.

7. Copenhagen, Denmark | Designing for the People

Jan Gehl is interested in designing the city for the people. His interest in the human scale and attention to detail I find very fascinating. I had the opportunity to see, and experience, many of his urban spaces while studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. For me, I am curious if this attention to human scale is what is really missing in the large-scale urban design schemes for cities, and perhaps why I find myself so much more satisfied within his urban spaces.

I am also interested in the work of BIG and Topotek1 in the design of Superkilen in the neighborhood of Nørrebro. This project involves the local community so that they can feel more connected to the new urban space. I find this a strong aspiration for design. At Superkilen, every nationality located within Nørrebro is represented through furniture from cultures around the world present within the park.