Cities of Repetition

Cities of Repetition provides a comprehensive graphic documentation and analysis of the largest Hong Kong housing estates built by private developers from the late 1960’s through the early 2000’s. The original drawings and diagrams illustrate and compare the ultra-dense, mass-produced, highly repetitive built environments in which hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents live. Drawings, diagrams and photographs not only display the immense scale of the housing estates within the city, but also present the hundreds of similarly planned housing units and their subtle differences. Detailed diagrams compare statistical information to show how the planning of these massive estates has evolved over the past decades to efficiently conform to building regulations. The publication and larger research project present a comprehensive analysis of the architectural and spatial realities of some of the most densely populated, urban environments ever built.

While there are many positive aspects of Hong Kong’s housing estates, including remarkable urban density and economic viability, new building codes that allow for and encourage variation and heterogeneity for mass housing developments, must be developed and implemented if cities of the future are to provide humane and diverse modes of housing to sustain socially viable, heterogeneous communities.