100 pictures tell more than 100,000 words
by Volker Weber
Photographs of residents in their flats in Hong Kong's oldest public housing estate. Amazing pictures by Michael Wolf.
Comments
I speaks a lot, but I'm not sure what it says.
Its public housing. Its clearly crowded and cramped. Its probably noisy, and most likely not a great place to live. On the other hand, there is at least reasonable security if the number and variety of televisions is any indication. It is shelter from the elements. Nobody looked like they were starving in the pictures I saw, and in fact electricity, refridgeration, television, food, and clothing were all prevailant. Most of the units were decorated to some extent, so pride isn't dead either.
I wish everyone could live as I do in a nice house on a bit of my own land with plenty of sky to see and fresh air, however that's not the case. For public housing, this looks like it affords shelter, privacy, and safety.
What you really should see is his "Architecure of Density" series (which made him quite famous). Its sequel is the "Industrial Architecture" series. I also recommend "Back door". See picture 17 for another kind of living situation. All mentioned series can be found in the "Projects" selectbox menu.
It's a nice series. There are many recurring items, not just the television. Every rooms has some kind of ventilatory openings at the top of the wall in the background. There is also one type of metal bed that is present in many of the rooms. Everybody has at least one ventilator, a calendar with a symbol I don't know and a rice cooker.
The "Architecure of Density" series is visually stunning, but I find this one more interesting.
