Kowloon Walled City

[traxx]

So it's now been 20 years since this city was torn down and a park was put in its place.





I thought it'd be interesting to take a look back at it. I think it would be especially interesting to look at from an urban perspective as we often talk about urban density on these forums. The city is such an interesting case study as it happened by accident. The buildings were built by the tenents themselves and followed no codes. On the one hand, it was a lawless place of prostitution and drugs. But on the other hand, residents recall living there as good with a strong sense of community and helping one another.

Neither Britain or China would police the city and police were often afraid to enter the city. The people living there operated autonomously with no intereference by authorities. At its peak, it was the densist place on earth. I've read estimates as high as 50,000 people living there at one time. When they evacuated the city in order to demolish it, they counted 33,000 people living there. And they were all living in an area about the size of a city block - rougly 6 acres.

Even after the demolition the city has lived on in videogames and movies. The Narrows in Batman Begins was based on the Kowloon Walled City. It's an interesting study in urbanization without the involvement of architects, planners, codes or authorities.

[warreng88]

I had never heard of this before your post and now I am absolutely fascinated. I am curious how people got around and even knew where their home was in that place. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the inspiration for Mega-City One in the Judge Dredd comic book series.

[traxx]

I had never heard of this before your post and now I am absolutely fascinated. I am curious how people got around and even knew where their home was in that place. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the inspiration for Mega-City One in the Judge Dredd comic book series.

I had the same thought about Mega City. Although I have not run across anything that says that it was the ispiration for Mega City, but the similarities are there.

It is a fascinating phenomenon. They say that you could walk the entire length of the city without ever having to touch the ground because of the labrynth of walk ways and railings etc. It just looks like a confused mess. To think people lived inside there and had business inside there is unbelievable.



An even larger version is here: https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/f...ckart1_1_0.jpg

[traxx]

Bump

I thought others on here would certainly have some interesting input on this.

[Just the facts]

Very interesting.

This is Shibam, Yemen. This city is 1700 years old.

[Midtowner]

This is a great project for MAPS IV, right?