This morning I came across this drone photo of Hong Kong by @vnthota: I immediately thought it was a good example of the typical Hong Kong tower plan that I have been writing about on this blog. You can see the cruciform plan, the light/air cutouts,… Read More
French photographer and graphic designer François Prost has a new photo series out that I thought I would share with you today. It’s called “Paris Syndrome” and I discovered it via CityLab. What the series does is visually compare Paris to a housing estate in Hangzhou,… Read More
One question that was nagging me after seeing Hong Kong’s “typical” tower typology was: what’s with the cruciform tower plan and all these notches and cutouts? Wouldn’t it be far more efficient to square off the floor plates? I figured that it had to be in… Read More
I came across this Hong Kong apartment listing earlier in the week. Sai Ying Pun is the neighborhood. HK$9.8 million = C$1,554,833 based on today’s exchange rate (1 CAD = 6.30293 HKD). At 432 square feet (net), that’s C$3,599 psf. But I have also been… Read More
This morning I took the mid-level escalators down to Hong Kong station so that I could catch the express train to the airport. At over 800m, it is supposedly the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. If you’ve ever walked the streets of… Read More
One of the pedestrian overpasses in Central has an exhibition running right now called Density 2.0. Here is a photo of one of the posters talking about Hong Kong’s typical “8-units-per-floor” tower plan. Noteworthy is the fact that the floor plates contemplate minimal tower separation… Read More
We went for dim sum (breakfast) yesterday morning. We wanted an authentic experience and found a place in Monocle’s Hong Kong travel guide called Lin Heung Lau. It’s an “institution” in Central that has been around since 1926. Locals would later tell us that the… Read More
Take a look at this photo from Central in Hong Kong and note the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) systems running up the cutout in the middle of the tower. Also note the bamboo scaffolding next door and the epic terrace on top of the… Read More
One of the things that I noticed yesterday morning on my walkabout from Wan Chai to Causeway Bay is that some/many of the buildings in Hong Kong actually step-in, as opposed to step-back, once you get above the base or “podium.” In many cases the… Read More
It’s about 6:30 am on new year’s eve day and I’ve been awake since around 4:00 am because of jet lag. I initially resisted, but now I am up and starting my day. The coffee shop downstairs doesn’t open for another hour so this is… Read More
BRANDON DONNELLY 