[HN Gopher] Architectural cross-section of Kowloon Walled City
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Architectural cross-section of Kowloon Walled City
Author : hampelm
Score : 110 points
Date : 2024-07-01 15:27 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (cohost.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (cohost.org)
| mrtimo wrote:
| Don't miss the link to the full res cross-section:
|
| https://staging.cohostcdn.org/attachment/11357255-b6b9-4a57-...
| ssl-3 wrote:
| That link doesn't work at the present time.
|
| And the main article doesn't show _any_ interesting parts of
| the image on mobile; just the left side with a lot of white
| space and some words that I cannot read.
|
| Can't scroll to the right. Can't zoom out. Can't long-press and
| open the image separately.
|
| tl;dr, can't see shit.
| hedgehog wrote:
| Seems ok from here in iPhone Safari.
| teractiveodular wrote:
| Thanks, this is great. The people alone make this like Where's
| Waldo: find the mahjong parlor, the elementary school, the dude
| taking a dump, the couple having sex, etc.
| refurb wrote:
| If you want to see something similar to Kowloon Walled City, just
| visit the old parts of Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi.
|
| There are plenty of illegal buildings, modified for residence in
| a haphazard manner with shoulder-width roads passing underneath
| them.
| gsuuon wrote:
| This is super cool - would love to see a version with
| translations
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| The labels are in Japanese if you want to try with your phone.
| The intro through Google Translate:
|
| "The survey conducted by the "Kowloon City Expedition" first
| produced an east-west cross-sectional view. This panorama
| depicts life when Kowloon City was at its most lively on top of
| that cross-sectional view. Based on the remnants of life that
| remained in the area, we have added documentary materials and
| the results of interviews. If you look at Kowloon City as a
| whole, where each room was colored by its own lifestyle, you
| will see that it was a dense city where "anything goes",
| embracing both the sacred and the profane."
| pram wrote:
| Something thats missing from this that I think is interesting was
| a temple on the ground floor that everything was built around:
|
| https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cd/ed/93/cded9349a59088ff02dcf6017...
| actinium226 wrote:
| It's not a temple but an alms house. It still exists. All of
| KWC was taken down except for this building which was preserved
| in-situ.
|
| The alms house is the center of present day Kowloon Walled City
| Park. It's a nice place, I've been there. I learned a fair bit
| about KWC I didn't know before, like there were only 2
| standpipes for water for 35 fucking thousand people!
| freitzkriesler2 wrote:
| Hong Kong was always one of my favorite cities and it breaks my
| heart what has happened to it.
|
| I also wish I had a chance to visit his megastructure. Sure it
| was a slum but an epic one at that.
| novagameco wrote:
| What has happened to Hong Kong? I've never been
| kurthr wrote:
| https://apnews.com/article/47-activists-explainer-
| national-s...
|
| Rule of law has been abandoned.
|
| More generally, all economic growth has been moved to
| mainland China. This started to be true around 2016, but was
| very clear by 2019, and is fully complete now. This is true
| of construction, shipping, travel, and finance.
|
| https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/wbr.html?ecode=B10200082023QQ.
| ..
| MisterTea wrote:
| This is from the Japanese book that is called something along the
| lines of Great Illustrated Kowloon City which I have a copy of.
| https://www.amazon.com/Kowloon-large-illustrated-ISBN-400008...
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I am not sure why I am continually fascinated by this place.
|
| I suppose, having written the old Mac computer game Glider, it
| might be obvious why I am drawn to it since it kind of looks like
| an insanely large "house" that someone might have created for the
| game.
|
| On the other hand I feel like I have had dreams in spaces that I
| imagine are like this -- and I feel like these dreams may have
| pre-dated the game I wrote?
|
| Or maybe it's a kind of _Blade Runner_ vibe of the future that
| the city gives off -- or like the early police chase scene in
| _Chung King Express_ ... [1]
|
| I imagine it as having both good and bad qualities. I imagine
| crime is always present -- but that too exploration is always
| there too. A younger me would have loved to try to get lost, try
| to find my way home.
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/0uMekCFDnkI
| kiba wrote:
| I think of kowloon as a preview to the hyperdense cities of the
| future in a way. Acrologies would be a more workable vision of
| hyperdense cities, as you also need green spaces rather than
| just a bigger version of dense concrete jungles that is defacto
| state of many cities.
|
| Right now, space is criminally underused in cities or allocated
| so inefficiently that we don't really need acrologies yet. We
| can get more green in cities and making these places more
| pleasant and human space to live.
| mbrubeck wrote:
| > I am not sure why I am continually fascinated by this place.
|
| Nominative determinism?
| jl6 wrote:
| It's the sci-fi death star cyberpunk dystopia aesthetic. The
| place was demolished before most of us ever heard about it, and
| yet we feel like we've been there, crawling through its air
| ducts, picking up a health boost at its meat markets, buying
| ammo from its shady traders, escaping from the cops through its
| windows, getting an achievement for doing it all without
| injuring the civilians...
|
| By the way, 8 year old me loved Glider! Nice work.
| creer wrote:
| "Death star"?! To me that evokes "designed", "manufactured"
| and "no need to think too much about human scale". See
| Seattle Central Public Library - especially at night when
| it's open to interstellar space.
|
| https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5749/23487975024_13a1504a6b_c.
| ..
|
| https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1584/24008226682_5f6c6d1f6c_c.
| ..
|
| https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1570/23820565720_559b380eb2_c.
| ..
|
| ("Stormtrooper!")
|
| As opposed to cyberpunk, because yes on that: spend money on
| wiring, computers and noodles, not on wall paint.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmqlxjTSc8w
| jl6 wrote:
| True. I guess the "Death Star" aspect came to me in the
| sense of dense construction in all directions around; a
| place where flat maps may fail you.
| creer wrote:
| Okay. It's interesting that most of the Death Star's
| interior views failed on that. Yes a droid is useful to
| make sense of the plans but most of it seems... flat
| floors and vertical elevators and "vertical" shafts.
|
| Even the Seattle Central Public Library - a real building
| - did it better, with tilted multi-floor window planes,
| escalators, multi-floor corkscrew walking path with
| numbering on the floor, unexpected openings overlooking
| big open spaces, etc.
| creer wrote:
| There was a subway station in Paris - Etoile I think -
| that was like that: No need of 90 degree angles, stairs
| here and there in unpredictable locations, and colorful
| and brightly lit underground "strip mall". A bowling
| alley or something. Most subway stations are mostly
| corridors populated only with people and wall poster
| advertising, while that one because it had a bunch of
| stores and other venues, felt so much larger and
| confusing from a navigation point of view.
|
| Some glimpses of it in the movie Subway I think? It's not
| the main station in that movie, which is Chatelet Les
| Halles - vast spaces where it's hard to keep track of
| orientation yes, but seemingly very simple vertically:
| flat. Which is misleading: most Paris subway stations are
| complex vertically because of the need to straddle and
| connect different sides of rail tracks crossing at
| different levels, while leaving intact different sides of
| other tunnels, sewers, etc.
| creer wrote:
| Here are some 3D models of Paris subway stations that
| illustrate that:
|
| First how people think of subway stations:
| https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-
| photo/illustration-o...
|
| And then how they are. Except these diagrams do not show
| the businesses...
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/v6v4n
| o/3...
|
| https://preview.redd.it/axr7x8yi9x391.png?width=960&crop=
| sma...
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/InfrastructurePorn/comments/v6ax
| qk/...
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/transit/comments/1aw7ht7/why_are
| _so...
| martiancookbook wrote:
| Maybe it's non-normative ways of living? In many places, people
| are not allowed to live in whichever way they please - there
| are rules and regulations, mostly in the name of safety (from
| crime, fire/flood, infection, etc).
|
| Kowloon seems to exist outside/before these restrictions, and
| might therefore feel more "free" in some way. It might also be
| why fantasy/science fiction fantasy tends to take place in a
| slightly more "lawless" and uninhibited world.
| bluGill wrote:
| sort of - most of the people there also didn't have good
| options to leave. I suspect most would leave if given a
| better option. Note however that better option needs to
| somehow include your friends and family.
| martiancookbook wrote:
| Agreed! Fantasy tends to assume your basic needs are
| satisfied, especially the unsexy ones. E.g. you rarely see
| someone use the restroom in space, and I bet that the
| "fantastical" nature of Kowloon is interrupted in reality
| by waste management
|
| When I say "free" and "uninhibited", I am talking only
| about the mind playing with fantasy, not the actual lived
| experience of residents
| bitwize wrote:
| It's basically the inspo for every cyberpunk dystopia ever from
| Blade Runner on forwards. Right down to the black markets,
| prostitutes, drugs, unlicensed doctors and dentists plying
| their trades, etc.
|
| Most recently, the setting of the video game Stray is basically
| Kowloon with the serial numbers filed off.
| fuelfive wrote:
| Thanks for writing Glider! I adored that game as a kid and was
| part of how the possibilities of computing began to captivate
| my attention.
| thworp wrote:
| It's because to the domesticated observer, the walled city
| symbolizes an idealized vision of chaos. A place you could have
| inhabited where you would finally be free from the dictates of
| society. The ideal space of opportunity where you could have
| forged your own path, the realities of KWC be damned.
|
| In the same way that people living in Chaos yearn for a Franco
| or an old King because they symbolize order, regardless of the
| realities of their reign. Just a projection space that is
| sufficiently ill-defined that it becomes a canvas.
| jonfk wrote:
| Since finding out about Kowloon walled city, I have been
| fascinated with it. Most cities have sections (usually older
| parts of them) that are maze like, and they are often my favorite
| parts of those cities.
|
| It reminds me of the hive cities of Warhammer 40k.
|
| Another analysis of Kowloon I enjoyed is this one by the
| architect Dami Lee [1].
|
| [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLn_QTFVZgE&pp=ygUFIzJhYWI%3D
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| This is an interesting video. Does the presenter have a vision
| problem?
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Kowloon was a sizable locale in the videogame Shenmue 2. I don't
| know how true to life that section was, but it was honestly one
| of the most depressing environments I've ever encountered in a
| videogame. It was racing up and down dozens of identical floors
| featuring nothing but dank, claustrophobic apartments.
| temporarely wrote:
| Bird's eye view
|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Kowloon_...
|
| atm battling roaches in my apt so first thought looking at that ^
| was wondering how many millions of cockroaches lived in that
| thing.
| actinium226 wrote:
| And not just cockroaches :D
|
| It's always bothered me how yellow-tinted this image is. I
| guess there was a heat wave or maybe they had just finished
| reseeding the grass or something.
|
| Note the "hole" in the center - that's where the alms house
| was/is.
| antisthenes wrote:
| > It's always bothered me how yellow-tinted this image is. I
| guess there was a heat wave or maybe they had just finished
| reseeding the grass or something.
|
| It's literally just a sunset (which adds a rose-yellow tint).
| You can tell by the building shadows.
| chavesn wrote:
| Reminds me of the lower levels of both the tv series Silo or
| Foundation. Both do a pretty good job of illustrating the grungy,
| dystopian, but resilient underbelly of an economically polarized
| society living literally above and below one another.
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(page generated 2024-07-03 23:00 UTC)