Hong Kong Day 7 | Accessibility of Rooftops

HK Day 7 | Accessibility of Rooftops

Starting to notice patterns within Sham Shui Po, and what to look for when trying to identify if a building has rooftop communities, I started to assess how the rooftops are accessed. Focusing on the nine block region I had specified earlier in the week, I began to re-walk the streets and take photos of the different types of staircases and what types of buildings they belong to. I noticed three main types of stairwells: the most common is one that curves away with the structure and wraps back upwards, the second is a setback stairwell that has a short corridor before the staircase further towards the rear of the building, and the final one is one that goes straight up from the street level.

(sketch to come)

The Stairwells | Three Distinct Types

Type A | Curving Staircase

Type B | Setback Staircase

Type C | Straight Staircase

Also, although a few were accessible from the streets, many also had doors in front of them. 

What was interesting was that I quickly discovered that the conclusion in the rooftop book where it says that a secondary staircase is often used was not correct. Most rooftops were accessed from the main stairwell from the streetside. However, as you moved towards central Sham Shui Po you did sometimes find that staircases were moved to the sides of the buildings and accessible via alleyways. The best reasoning for this was because the street side was always given up to the storefronts.