研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

Kowloon Walled City, once the densest place on earth, is a gigantic empire of little houses stacked on top of each other. Picture 33,000 people living there, within the space of one city block. This was such a dark city that even police were rumored to be afraid of it. 

        Photographer Greg Girard spent years with lan Lambot to document this unique Hong Kong phenomenon before it was demolished twenty years ago. He recalls how he was amazed at the first sight of it. "It was a huge monstrosity of buildings." The Walled City was a kind of historical accident. It never fully came under the regulation of the British colonial government in Hong Kong. Therefore, its residents were free to buiJd their dwellings as they wished, ignoring safety codes. 

        "Quite often houses were built by building onto the next building, punching out walls to use their staircases," said Girard. "Many of them didn't have access to air or open space, because they were enclosed in the center of the structure." A variety of small businesses flourished deep within the building's darkness. "There were pig carcasses laying splayed out on the floor; it was all pretty open and of course there were no health laws governing the place." 

        "It was a really humbling process for me as a designer — when we met this Walled City, we started to see that people could be more intelligent than us — that they could think of ways to solve problems that are beyond the traditional academic world." Despite the ingenuity of the Walled City, by 1994 it was completely tom down by the city government, which was eager to replace the chaotic and unregulated community with a public park. "Seeing the Walled City fall into disuse was sort of melancholic," says Girard. "Every city realizes too late to start caring about their architectural heritage — it's a mistake that gets repeated everywhere." 

        Tan believes the spirit of the Walled City continues to pulse through the heart of Hong Kong itself. "Go to The Peak and look down upon this amazing collection of buildings coming together ~ it's almost like a blown up version of the Walled City, right?" This organic chaos, he says, has been an inspiration for his own work. "Many architects and urban planners like control," he says. "But people like to get lost in the city. In my design process, I always consciously try to allow accidents, to allow others to participate, to surprise me."