ABSTRACT
Vertical expansion and intensification are two processes that have dominated Hong Kong’s urban growth. Both follow from the need to survive through adaptation and reconfiguration. Vertical expansion results in ever taller buildings, while intensification brings greater concentration of activities and modes of movement across more levels of the city. Vertical change is something readily apparent – essentially perpendicular extrusions forming new elements in the skyline. Intensification is less obvious, as it is a process concerning use, movement and often the incremental transformation of existing space: above all, it concerns multiple levels and volume. It is therefore easy to appreciate why the popular image of urban Hong Kong is of towers and verticality. However, the even more defining characteristic is that of volumetric intensity – a condition exemplified in the seething mega-structure of Kowloon’s Walled City during its final decade, when some 35,000 people lived and worked in the approximately one million cubic metre volume over its modest 2.7 hectare site (see Chapter 3).
