
Kowloon Walled City - relham
http://projects.wsj.com/kwc
======
incision
I've been fascinated by KWC since the first time I saw Bloodsport. I dug the
depictions [1] in Gibson's bridge trilogy too.

There's something that draws me to that kind of organic human architecture
whether it's Kowloon, Brazil's favelas [2], Torre David in Venezuela [3] or
Ponte Tower [4] in Johannesburg.

1: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru)

2: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela)

3: [http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/feb/12/la-
tor...](http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/feb/12/la-torre-david-
vertical-slum-caracas-venezuela-tower)

4: [http://vimeo.com/51295174](http://vimeo.com/51295174)

~~~
state
I imagine you would also appreciate the work of Lebbeus Woods.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebbeus_Woods](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebbeus_Woods)

~~~
oofabz
You can see some of his artwork here:

[http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/lebbeus-
wo...](http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/lebbeus-woods-
radical-reconstruction/)

[http://architizer.com/blog/lebbeus-woods-
sfmoma/](http://architizer.com/blog/lebbeus-woods-sfmoma/)

~~~
rsync
He had a blog, while he was alive, which is still up and running:

[http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/](http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/)

Very, very interesting work and commentary.

NOTE: there is actually a lot more content on that blog than the (bad)
navigation suggests. If you look at the right-hand "monthly archives" column,
it looks like there is only 12 monthly headings going back to Sept. 2011 - but
if you manually plug in a URL like:

[http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2008/11/](http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2008/11/)

... you can see there is a lot more content there...

~~~
alexqgb
"Rules of the Game" is among his best posts.

[http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/the-design-
game...](http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/the-design-game/)

And if you have the money, _New City_ is well worth the price.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-New-City-Lebbeus-
Woods/dp/06717681...](http://www.amazon.com/The-New-City-Lebbeus-
Woods/dp/0671768123)

I got a used copy (softcover / not in super condition) for $70 several years
ago and the price has only gone up. Astounded to see that pristine copies are
now going for $800, with hardbacks north of $1,000.

------
SeanLuke
When I was 20 years old, I worked in the Kowloon Walled City at its height.
I've recently been back to Hong Kong to see it now replaced by a park and an
excavated, restored garrison (they did a great job). In the original KWC, the
garrison courtyard -- I had thought it might be a temple -- was never built
on, making a small "hole" in the middle of the city. I remember the original
garrison walls. Now they're all that's left! It's a very strange experience
going back.

I know this isn't reddit, but AMA.

~~~
aaron695
Hmmmm any story would be pretty cool.

Do you think it was a positive place given the real world we live in?

Do you think it should have been knocked down?

Realistically was the sense of community strong?

How did the kids inside go? Did they just leave for walks or did they spend
lots of time inside.

~~~
SeanLuke
\- It was a horrible, hellish place that desperately needed to be destroyed.
The people living there were in pretty desperate straits, many of them illegal
immigrants trying to escape China.

\- There was solidarity but little sense of community I think. It was everyone
for himself.

\- I honestly do not know how the plumbing in the place worked, but expect the
answer could well have been "not at all". Most people did not spend a lot of
time there: you couldn't, it was too horrible inside.

Fun fact. The street-facing shops of the KWC, all the way around it, were
dominated by unlicensed Chinese dentists trying to hawk their services in Hong
Kong against the law. They all had skeletons and skulls in the shop windows
with their dental handiwork applied to show off their dental mojo, completely
oblivious to the irony of doing this.

~~~
deerpig
I lived in HK during this period, and the only three times I visited KWC was
for dental work.... intense place... like mongkok or samshuipo on on crystal
meth... I've been in places worse, but it was not a place for the feint of
heart...

~~~
meric
What made you pick KWC for dental work, and how are your teeth?

------
michaelx
I‘m also fascinated by Kowloon Walled City since the first time I saw it in
the Dreamcast game Shenmue 2.

One of the best documentaries IMHO is the following 4 part series from 1989
which shows the everyday life in KWC:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lby9P3ms11w)

I also recommend the already mentioned book City of Darkness and movie
Chungking Express. Additional Jackie Pullinger‘s books "Crack In The Wall:
Life & Death in Kowloon Walled City"
([http://amzn.to/1nNKkuq](http://amzn.to/1nNKkuq)) and "Chasing the Dragon"
([http://amzn.to/1kd9zWc](http://amzn.to/1kd9zWc)) are worth a read.

------
hxrts
Here's the full architectural rendering from the book they mention – they seem
to have adapted part of it for their splash page. You can definitely sink
quite a bit of time looking at what's going on in each room.

[http://www.deconcrete.org/wp-
content/uploads/2010/03/Kowloon...](http://www.deconcrete.org/wp-
content/uploads/2010/03/Kowloon-Cross-section-low.jpg)

------
resu
You can get an idea of what it might have been like, although at a much more
modern, safe, and smaller scale by exploring the Chungking Mansions in
Kowloon:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions)

~~~
ANTSANTS
Thanks for reminding me that I never got around to watching Chungking Express:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Express](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Express)

~~~
aneisf
The first half of the movie gives a really great image of the Chungking
atmosphere, so definitely check it out. I highly recommend it on its own
narrative strengths too of course.

------
acdanger
A successfully backed Kickstarter project for a 2nd edition of the book City
of Darkness, which features really great documentary photographs of Kowloon
Walled City:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1060791749/city-of-
dark...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1060791749/city-of-darkness-
revisited)

~~~
morsch
Wow. I bought the book on the used market after reading about it -- I think
here on HN, in fact. Probably the most expensive book I've bought so far!

They're selling prints on their website, and I'd love to get one, but they're
charging 200 (two oh oh) GBP for a medium sized print which is preposterous,
or in any event way out of my comfort zone. Too bad.

PS: If you enjoy City of Darkness, you may enjoy the film Dark Days (different
subject, similar theme). Much like Kowloon Walled City, I've never seen
anything else quite like it:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_%28film%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Days_%28film%29)

------
Renaud
I arrived in Hong Kong in 1996, too late to see the KWC but I would certainly
have taken the risk to experience it had it still be there.

Hong Kong is still filled with weird little wonders that you can only uncover
by chance if you take the time to look around and explore. My favourite
pastime is to lose myself in the city, taking every little back-alley,
climbing stairs, slopes, paths, trails that I can find.

I'm always reminded though that these little hidden treasures have a tendency
to disappear fast here, without a trace. Conservation of heritage is
unfortunately not a big thing in Hong Kong, although it has gotten a little
better.

~~~
steveklabnik
I know next to nothing about Hong Kong, but I would have safety concerns while
doing this. Is that just not an issue?

~~~
ddeck
If you mean with respect to crime, then no. Hong Kong has one of the world's
lowest crime rates and what violent crime does exist, is typically targeted
(e.g. organized crime, domestic disputes).

For example, the intentional homicide rate is 0.2 per 100,000 people, vs 4.8
in the US. [1]

I have lived here for many years, and I can't think of any area that i would
feel uncomfortable going at any hour of the day or night.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentiona...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)

~~~
steveklabnik
Yes, that's what I was thinking of. That's awesome.

------
psgbg
No Shenmue? What a shame

Here a Postmortem on Shenmue I & II and some brief explanation of the
generation of the Kowloon scenario.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4J...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4JMxDFZhp9Y#t=2089)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue_II)

~~~
platz
Shenmue was great, one of the few mind-expanding video games, at least for a
westerner

~~~
psgbg
My point was... if in the info-graph they featured Call of Duty, it would be
awesome if they also included a good game.

------
jpatokal
The "Japanese theme park" mentioned in the lead is this video arcade (!) in
Kawasaki, Japan, not far from Tokyo:

[http://randomwire.com/kowloon-walled-city-rebuilt-in-
japan/](http://randomwire.com/kowloon-walled-city-rebuilt-in-japan/)

------
rainboiboi
The kowloon Walled City is a park right now, drop by if you have chance to
visit Hong Kong. The rich description and historical display there is simply
awesome. And don't forget to check out the delicious dim sum stall nearby. ;)

------
dkasper
This was another good article about KWC I saw recently
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-
insig...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insight-
Kowloon-Walled-City.html)

------
ddw
There's an episode of 99% Invisible about it:
[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-66-kowloon-
wal...](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-66-kowloon-walled-city/)

~~~
cdelahousse
99% PI is what introduced Kowloon. The show did an amazing job of conveying
just how special that place was. It is an great pod cast that captures the
majesty of day to day design and architecture.

It is unfortunate that the images don't work on the episode page.

------
the_cat_kittles
I don't know why, but I think that people that are fascinated by Kowloon and
the like would really enjoy the movie Samsara. Really, I think everyone one
earth would enjoy it.

~~~
frozenport
I felt the locations were too exotic.

"Some of the connections made are too obvious, like following images of
ammunition with a portrait of a severely wounded veteran, while others are
completely elusive. Shots of the devastation Katrina left behind in New
Orleans are beautifully spooky, but does it say anything useful to follow that
with images of Versailles? The makers of 'Samsara' want to free our minds, but
their technique makes us their prisoners more often than not." ~ Kenneth Turan

------
ekianjo
This article does not EVEN mention Shenmue 2 as one of the major games
inspired by the walled city. Did they do their job?

------
cromwellian
Jean Claude Van Damme's Bloodsport immediately leaps to mind when this is
mentioned.

------
coherentpony
Jesus Christ. I tried loading this in Firefox 28 and it just shit a brick.

Anybody else have this problem?

~~~
ersii
I'm using Firefox 28.0 on Ubuntu, I'm not having any sort of trouble loading
the page and browsing around, viewing videos and what not.

