organic anarchy

The Kowloon walled city was a Bladerunner-ish urban fabric of Hong Kong; a solid 2.7 hectare block of unrestrained city. It was the most densely populated place on earth, with 3,250,000 people per square mile.

By the 1980′s the squalid conditions had become too much of a concern for the Hong Kong authorities. Despite protests, the government spent HK$ 2.7 billion on relocating the residents. By 1992, the city was empty.

It has been twenty years since the demolition of the Kowloon Walled City. To mark this, the South China Morning Post has created an info-graphic that details the facts and figures of what life was like inside this architectural oddity.

Hong Kong’s illegal micro-apartments

In Hong Kong the square-meter is expensive, with the world’s third-most expensive housing market, many of the city’s lower-income residents are forced to live in very small apartments.

In an attempt to draw attention to the issue, human rights organization Society for Community Organization recently commissioned a series of photographs showing what a number of unacceptable living spaces look like when viewed from directly overhead.

In each photo is a QR code that directs viewers to a petition to the Hong Kong government.

Photographer: Benny Lam