scholarly journals From Cyberpunk to Cramped Dweller: The Peculiar History of Hong Kong ‘Heterotopias’

Histories ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Daniel McCoy

75.6% of land comprising Hong Kong remains undeveloped according to the special administrative region’s planning department. In turn, Hong Kong’s constricted real estate, now estimated to be the world’s costliest, has created eye-popping living arrangements historically and contemporarily. Denizens’ colorful reputation and imagination for flouting city ordinances, zoning laws, and spatial management stand emblematic of tenacious self-sufficiency and a free-spirited brand of runaway capitalist initiative. Why is this conspicuous trademark of Hong Kong’s societal fabric very much alive in the 21st Century? Why does this matter in a rapidly urbanizing world witnessing the ascension of mega-urban centers alongside ever-widening socioeconomic chasms? This paper intends to illuminate the peculiar origins and longevity of the Kowloon Walled City, an urban monolith of notoriety and autonomy that blossomed in a semi-legal grey zone unencumbered under British protectorate rule for nearly a century. Parallels will connect the linear trajectory between Kowloon’s hardnosed living to today’s comparable Chungking Mansions and the hundreds of thousands of cage homes appearing in all corners of the city. This paper aims to answer why these residential paradoxes continue to function with efficiency and relevancy, posing solutions for indigent housing while exacerbating the stigma of social and economic ostracism.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel McCoy

75.6% of land comprising Hong Kong remains undeveloped according to the special administrative region’s planning department. In turn, Hong Kong’s constricted real estate, now estimated to be the world’s costliest, has created eye-popping living arrangements historically and contemporarily. Denizens’ colorful reputation and imagination for flouting city ordinances, zoning laws, and spatial management stand emblematic of tenacious self-sufficiency and a free-spirited brand of runaway capitalist initiative. Why is this conspicuous trademark of Hong Kong’s societal fabric very much alive in the 21st Century? Why does this matter in a rapidly urbanizing world witnessing the ascension of mega-urban centers alongside ever-widening socioeconomic chasms? This paper intends to illuminate the peculiar origins and longevity of the Kowloon Walled City, an urban monolith of notoriety and autonomy that blossomed in a semi-legal grey zone unencumbered under British protectorate rule for nearly a century. Parallels will connect the linear trajectory between Kowloon’s hardnosed living to today’s comparable Chungking Mansions and the hundreds of thousands of cage homes appearing in all corners of the city. This paper aims to answer why these residential paradoxes continue to function with efficiency and relevancy, posing solutions for indigent housing while exacerbating the stigma of social and economic ostracism.


Author(s):  
Daniel McCoy

75.6% of land comprising Hong Kong remains undeveloped according to the special administrative region’s planning department. In turn, Hong Kong’s constricted real estate, now estimated to be the world’s costliest, has created eye-popping living arrangements historically and contemporarily. Denizens’ colorful reputation and imagination for flouting city ordinances, zoning laws, and spatial management stand emblematic of tenacious self-sufficiency and a free-spirited brand of runaway capitalist initiative. Why is this conspicuous trademark of Hong Kong’s societal fabric very much alive in the 21st Century? Why does this matter in a rapidly urbanizing world witnessing the ascension of mega-urban centers alongside ever-widening socioeconomic chasms? This paper intends to illuminate the peculiar origins and longevity of the Kowloon Walled City, an urban monolith of notoriety and autonomy that blossomed in a semi-legal grey zone unencumbered under British protectorate rule for nearly a century. Parallels will connect the linear trajectory between Kowloon’s hardnosed living to today’s comparable Chungking Mansions and the hundreds of thousands of cage homes appearing in all corners of the city. This paper aims to answer why these residential paradoxes continue to function with efficiency and relevancy, posing solutions for indigent housing while exacerbating the stigma of social and economic ostracism.


Author(s):  
Н. Н. Грибов ◽  
Т. А. Марьенкина ◽  
Н. В. Иванова

В статье представлены предварительные результаты первых масштабных археологических исследований в нижней части Нижегородского кремля. Раскоп, заложенный в зоне воссоздания храма Святого Симеона Столпника, вскрыл культурные отложения двух периодов - XIII - начала XV в. и XVI - середины XVIII в. Впервые средневековая усадебная застройка Нижнего Новгорода зафиксирована на таком элементе волжской долины, как береговой склон. Выдающееся значение для нижегородской археологии имеют обнаружение стратифицированных культурных напластований XIII - начала XV в. и зафиксированный на стратиграфических разрезах перерыв в активном освоении городской территории, соответствующий большей части XV в. Предложена реконструкция истории освоения раскопанного участка. Выяснилось, что связанный с храмом малоизвестный нижегородский Симеоновский монастырь вряд ли существовал до строительства Нижегородского кремля. Наиболее раннее, предположительно, монастырское сооружение, возникшее после исчезновения усадебной застройки XIII - начала XV в., датировано концом XV - серединой XVI в. С этим периодом связано строительство деревянного моста, обеспечивавшего транспортное сообщение между «нагорным» и приречным районами города. Обнаружение остатков этого свайного сооружения существенно корректирует известную реконструкцию застройки кремлевской территории начала XVII в., выполненную по письменным источникам. Дано обоснование времени функционирования обнаруженного некрополя Симеоновского монастыря в пределах середины XVI - начала XVIII в., приведена общая характеристика изученных погребений. В общеисторическом контексте материалы исследований представляют интерес для изучения процессов, сопровождающих превращение удельных городских центров в города Московской Руси. The article presents preliminary results of the first large-scale archaeological research in the lower part of the Nizhniy Novgorod Kremlin. The excavation, laid in the area of the reconstruction of the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite, uncovered cultural layer of two periods - the XIII - early XV centuries and the XVI - mid XVIII centuries. For the first time, the medieval estate development of Nizhniy Novgorod was recorded on such an element of the Volga valley as the coastal slope. The discovery of stratified cultural strata of the XIII - early XV centuries and the break in the active development of urban territory recorded on stratigraphic sections, corresponding to most of the XV century, are of outstanding significance for Nizhniy Novgorod archeology. The reconstruction of the history of development of the excavated site is proposed. It turned out that the little-known Nizhniy Novgorod Simeon monastery associated with the temple hardly existed before the construction of the Nizhniy Novgorod Kremlin. The earliest, presumably, monastic structure that arose after the disappearance of the manor buildings of the XIII -early XV centuries., dated to the end of the XV - mid XVI centuries. This period is associated with the construction of a wooden bridge that provided transport links between the «Nagorny» and riverine districts of the city. The discovery of the remains of this pile structure significantly corrects the well-known reconstruction of the Kremlin territory of the beginning of the XVII century, made according to written sources. The justification for the functioning of the necropolis discovered Simeon monastery in the middle of the XVI century - beginning of the XVIII centuries, the general characteristics of the studied burials. In the general historical context, the research materials are of interest for studying the processes that accompany the transformation of specific urban centers into cities of Muscovite Russia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Javier Aldecoa Martínez-Conde ◽  
Ángeles Ruíz Lázaro

The public transport, as we know it today, originates from the end of the 18 th and beginning of the 19th Centuries. Initially a privilege for the aristocratic and bourgeoisie classes, public transport saw a surge in development once communication between Madrid and others distant urban centers became a necessity that demanded a more economical and accessible transport system. The increase of these services, along with the diversification of the means of transportation, quickly caused congestion problems at transfer points. Throughout the last century, these same problems have been confronted with a variety of diverse strategies and solutions. All in all, the history of intermodality in Madrid tells the story of an evolution that has allowed the urban web to unite all of its branches extending from the main gates that are now being converted the interchanges in relation with the city. From its creation in 1985, the CRTM (transport authority of Madrid), considered the intermodality to be a main priority within the following different fields of action: infrastructure, ticketing and whole image and information. Within the interchanges is where the integration efforts of the different transport modes best become a reality. In essence, interchanges play the same role in today`s cities as the gates in the walls of a centuries-old medieval city. At this moment, interchanges are the gates to the cities of the 21st Century.ResumenEl transporte público, tal como lo conocemos hoy, se origina a finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XIX. Inicialmente fue un privilegio para las clases aristocráticas y burguesas. El transporte público vio un aumento en el desarrollo una vez que la comunicación entre Madrid y otros centros urbanos distantes se convirtió en una necesidad que exigía un sistema de transporte más económico y accesible. El aumento de estos servicios, junto con la diversificación de los medios de transporte, causó rápidamente problemas de congestión en los puntos de transferencia. A lo largo del siglo pasado, estos problemas se han enfrentado con una variedad de diversas estrategias y soluciones. En definitiva, la historia de la intermodalidad en Madrid cuenta la historia de una evolución que ha permitido a la red urbana unir todas sus ramas y convertir sus accesos principales en los principales puntos de intercambio con la ciudad. Desde su creación en 1985, el CRTM (autoridad de transporte de Madrid), consideró la intermodalidad como una prioridad principal dentro de los siguientes campos de acción: infraestructura, emisión de billetes, imagen corporativa e información del sistema. En los intercambiadores es donde los esfuerzos de integración de los diferentes modos de transporte se convierten en realidad. En esencia, los intercambiadores de transporte desempeñan actualmente en Madrid el mismo papel que las puertas en las murallas de una ciudad medieval de siglos


Los Romeros ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Walter Aaron Clark

The Romero family was from the mountainous area north of the seaport of Málaga, in the province of the same name. This chapter surveys the origins and history of the city and traces the family’s beginnings as agricultural workers in the rural settlements of Jotrón, Totalán, and Moclinejo and its eventual movement to urban centers on the coast, especially Gibraltar, where they worked in the building trades.


2021 ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Alexander I. Yakovlev

The article follows the main stages in the development of Riyadh — the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The history of Riyadh is viewed in the context of the history of traditional Arabian cities and the new urban centers of Arabia. The great role of the creator of Saudi Arabia, King Ibn Saud and his sons in the development of the capital is indicated; in particular, the innovations of the current King of Saudi Arabia Salman ibn Abdel Aziz, who was the governor of Riyadh for about half a century. It was under Abdel Aziz that a large-scale reconstruction of the city began, as a result of which the city acquired its modern features. In addition, the article describes the layout of the city, shows its functions as the capital’s political, financial, economic and cultural center of the kingdom. Particular attention is paid to the modern architecture of the city, represented by the tower of the Radio Center, the water tower, the Faisalia towers and the “Center of the Kingdom (Burj al-Mamlaka)”. The author concludes that the city justifies its name, which in Arabic means “gardens”, differing from other cities by the presence of squares and parks with green lawns, greenery, and date palms.


PMLA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-134
Author(s):  
William Schaefer

The foundations of global cities of the present and of cities striving to become global are firmly rooted in the colonial past—whether one considers a metropolitan center like London or cities that developed under colonialism, like Bombay, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Yet questions of foundations, roots, and the past are arguably most problematic in the formerly colonized cities. In Shanghai, for instance, the multiply colonized past has of late become a kind of virtual reality in the present remaking of the city; such redevelopment initiatives as the recent Xintiandi project, in which an entire neighborhood was emptied of its residents, restored to its colonial-era appearance, and transformed into a shopping and entertainment complex, offer the visitor nostalgic fantasies of the past as drained of critical understanding as the marshy ground beneath the project was of water. Tis perception of Shanghai and its past as a virtual reality produced out of a history of colonialism is, however, hardly new and indeed was a perception that haunted selfrepresentations of Shanghai at the height of the colonial era, during the first half of the twentieth century. As the modernist writer Mu Shiying put it in a 1933 text, Shanghai's streets were “transplanted from Europe” and “paved with shadows” (568).


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e021
Author(s):  
Emilio José Luque Azcona

This article analyses aspects related to the development of the paving, lighting, sewerage and cleaning of streets and squares in the city of San Juan de Puerto Rico, during Miguel de la Torre’s government of the island (1823-1837). With this research we intend to offer a new and complementary view to the existing one on the management of this governor, who, along with the Cabildo, had powers in these matters, while at the same time deepening the analysis of the urban history of the city of San Juan for that period. The information on the experience that other relevant urban centers of the period, such as Madrid, Mexico or Havana, had in this type of actions is also included, with the purpose of contextualizing both the measures applied and their scope.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibiana Duarte Abadía ◽  
Rutgerd Boelens ◽  
Lucas du Pré

Just as in other parts of Spain, the Guadalhorce Valley, Málaga, has a long history of policies based on ‘hydraulic utopianism’ (regenerationist and Franco-ist), bent on ‘reorganizing’ political, geographic, and human nature. Residents of the neighboring sub-basin, the Río Grande valley, have seen how these policies, designed to transfer rural water to modern urban centers, have turned the Guadalhorce hydrosocial territory into a ‘hydraulic dystopia’. In this article, we examine how Río Grande valley residents mobilized to maintain control over the development and use of their resources, livelihoods, and knowledge systems, when modernist-urbanist policies planned to take their water from a major dam on the Río Grande. Interviewing actors at different scales we examined how this anti-dam movement organized massively in a creative, multi-actor, and multi-scale network. Our results also show that this unified, successful fight against the ‘common enemy’, the mega-hydraulic construction, has become more complex, as threats crop up not only from the ‘city over there’ but also from ‘internal’ hydro-territorial transformations. These sprout from policies to modernize traditional irrigation systems, supposedly to ‘save water’, but critical voices assume that it is all about passing on the ‘surplus’ to Málaga city, or using that water to expand agribusiness. We conclude that the challenge lies in critically integrating multiple forms of knowledge, stakeholders, and scales to both defend collective water management and creatively construct anti-hegemonic alternatives.


2017 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Marcela Croce

ResumenEl propósito de este artículo es retomar el pensamiento sobre la ciudad como sede espacial, disparador de ideas, iniciativa política y social y manifestación cultural, enfatizando aquellas producciones discursivas típicas del fenómeno urbano como la crónica de la metrópolis, el rastreo antropológico que define los estratos culturales que coexisten en la sede urbana y el relato policial que restituye el entramado de vínculos que operan en el perímetro ciudadano. A esta última formulación se añaden las actividades delictivas que aprovechan un conjunto de disposiciones y servicios urbanos como infraestructura, tal como destacó Saskia Sassen.Con ese objetivo se propone un recorrido por un corpus de textos que se detienen en diversos núcleos urbanos y no se restringen a estudiar sus características geográficas y edilicias sino que las inscriben en el conjunto de cada nación, en la historia de los países que integran América Latina (remarcando la tensión entre ciudad y nación que atraviesa la historia occidental) y asimismo en una serie continental que establece una jerar- quía de ciudades. Las antiguas capitales virreinales que son México y Lima aparecen confrontadas a la capital del virreinato menor que es Buenos Aires, y a la sede imperial de Río de Janeiro en este recorrido.Palabras clave: Ciudades latinoamericanas - Historia urbana - Crónica ciudadana - Géneros urbanos - Utopía latinoamericanaAbstractThis article considers the thinking about cities as space headquarters, an idea nest, a political and social initiative and a cultural manifestation, empha- sizing those discursive productions typical of the urban phenomenon, as the chronicle of the metropolis, the anthropological search that define the cultural strata coexisting in urban headquarters and the police story that restores the linking network that operate in the city perimeters. This latter statement is followed by criminal activities that exploit a set of provisions and urban services such as infrastructure, as Saskia Sassen pointed out.With this objective, we propose a tour through a text corpus that deepen in several urban centers and are not restricted to study their geographical characteristics and buildings, but inscribe them in the set of each nation, in the history of the countries that integrate Latin America (highlighting the tension between city and nation now experienced by Western history) and also in a continental series establishing a hierarchy of cities. The old viceregal capitals, i.e. Mexico and Lima face the minor viceroyalty capital –Buenos Aires– and the imperial headquarters of Rio de Janeiro in this route.Keywords: Latin American cities - Urban history - Citizen chronicle - Urban genres - Latin American utopiaResumo:O objetivo deste artigo é voltar a pensar a cidade como uma sede espa- cial, desencadeador de ideias, iniciativa política e social e manifestações culturais, enfatizando aquelas produções discursivas típicas do fenômeno urbano, como a crônica da metrópole, o reconhecimento antropológico que define os estratos culturais que coexistem na sede urbana e no relato policial que restitui o tramado de ligações que operam no perímetro da cidade. Nesta última formulação integram-se as atividades criminosas que se aproveitam de um conjunto de disposições e serviços urbanos como a infraestrutura, assim como destacou Saskia Sassen.Com este objetivo é proposto percorrer por um corpus de textos que vão parar em diversos núcleos urbanos e não só estarão restritos a estudar suas características geográficas e de construção, mas bem estas se inscrevem no conjunto de cada nação, na história dos países que integram América Latina (destacando a tensão entre a cidade e nação através da história ocidental) e também numa série continental que estabelece uma hierar- quia de cidades. As antigas capitais do vice-reinado colonial: México e Lima são confrontados a capital do vice-reino menor que é Buenos Aires, e a sede imperial do Rio de Janeiro nesta turnê.Palavras-chave: Cidades latino-americanas - História Urbana - Crônica cidadã - Gêneros urbanos - Utopia latino-americana.


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