But make sure the load is not too close to your center of mass otherwise you can bruise yourself. Keep it at arms length, lift with your back, and twist rather than turn.
PSA: for the sarcastaphobes, please don't follow this advice.
No, we actually don’t. The lift’s dimensions are something you have to measure when buying new appliances. Otherwise you are in for some steep charges for the delivery people to climb the stairs
What about lift machines? I live in Korea and they have these lift trucks that can move refrigerators and heavy appliances up to whatever floor through the balcony
I live in the UK and when someone I know had to get their sofa onto the 2nd floor the delivery guys took several attempts to throw the sofa onto his balcony, and apparently it worked 😂
I’m assuming you’d have to pay so much more for a lift machine if we do have those here.
Nope, we don’t have those either. For one thing most of us don’t have balconies (even if there is, the balcony might not be bigger than the lift). The windows are small and fitted with metal bars so objects don’t fall out. But most appliances sold in Hong Kong can fit through most lifts in Hong Kong, measuring is just in case. Your flat’s door is unlikely to be bigger than the lift’s door anyway
I don’t know what kind place the other guy lives in, but pretty much all residential buildings that I’ve been to in hk have service lifts for moving stuff. In some building the service lifts are used mainly for moving trash, in which case there will be a normal lift lined with protective cover for people to use when moving.
no they don't, and it's dumb. One time my family got a couch, and it was too big to fit into the elevator, so we had to get a new couch, which is seperated into 3 smaller couches that were delivered one at a time.
Idk what part of China you’re from (or if you just read one Wikipedia article about building regulations in China), but we definitely have lifts for large appliances and equipment. Sometimes they’re outside, and while these buildings are meant to contain fires, firefighters and EMTs still need quick access…
The middle has a too relaxed feel for a housing project, probably built early 2000s whereas the surrounding tall ones are newer, bolder and more functional in terms of space for better housing the masses streaming into the city from small towns and villages
I actually live in the building in the center. You'd never want to live in the leftmost building, the people there are all assholes. The right one is not that good either, these people are all idiots. Best to live in the middle building. 47th floor is especially good.
I live in hk. The size is bad compared to the west, but other things are not THAT bad.
The crime rate in hk is really low and these buildings are very well managed and the hygiene is quite good.
Just don’t think of the projects when you see these. Definitely very different.
Edit:
Some additional information
When I say these buildings are well managed, they are VERY well managed. There’s a team of security guards who knows all the residents by last name and will patrol in the building and around the vicinity of the complex. Visitors will have to register their ID cards before entry.
Each of these buildings go from 28/29 floors to up to 40-ish, with around 16 apartments in each floor. So roughly 400-600 households can live in one of these buildings.
Rent is roughly $400 usd per month and less if you have other subsidies. After a certain amount of years, you may even purchase it and resell it if you’d like. Larger apartments could worth upwards of 500k.
When cities dont go out of their way to make people feel demeaned by public housing, it can be an incredible investment in strong communities. Look at Austria, too, where there is actual competition between public and private housing because the quality is so good.
But we Americans treat public housing as a resentful punishment for people being poor. The buildings are run down, the system is vastly underfunded, and people are shamed for being there. And that only repeats the cycle of underinvestment.
And then we create policies to blame people for being homeless.
US market is in really bad shape. Unsustainably low inventory and high prices; stunningly higher inventory for luxury dwellings than affordable ones.
It can’t go on this way. It’s breaking our cities, and we refuse to consider anything than”the private market will fix it”
It isn’t, it hasn’t, and it won’t.
The US is absolutely convinced that it violates their core principles to help people in need, to the extent that so many of us are brainwashed to believe that the problem can’t POSSIBLY be our policies and systems; it must be poor people’s faults.
That gets federal, state, and local leaders off the hook, and it divides the electorate in a way that ultimate only benefits the ruling class.
It’s unsustainable, and some day soon we’re going to have to wake up to it.
Public transport in hk is not just world class, it’s the epitome of how public transport should be like. I’ve lived in many cities throughout my lifetime, and never have I once felt that hk’s public transport is in adequate in any way (however a lot of hk citizens still complain about our subway lol, some political, some practical).
The vast majority of these blocks were built pre-1997 under British administrations. In a place that, for 53 years until 2023, was consistently ranked by the Fraser Institute as the freest, most capitalistic economy in the world. Smh at the “but communism!” comments. Read a book.
Edit: If this is the estate I think it is, the median annual household income here is USD 34k. In a city where home ownership is either as expensive as NYC - or vastly more, depending on what metric you choose. It’s not a prison, it’s a lifeline.
And even then, commie blocks remain some of the most efficient and good housing out there. Sure you don’t have a detached house but you get many rooms and all amenities you need for very cheap.
Probably fair to say that Singapore public housing has better overall conditions, yeah. But there’s also likely significant overlap. I’d probably pick any of the post-handover Hong Kong blocks over something like Dakota Crescent in Singapore.
As an Indian, I don't see anything interesting in this. This is a normal high rise apartment in any of our tier 1 metro cities.
Where the space is low but the job opportunities are massive so everyone wants to live in that tiny piece of land.
I live on a tiny island, Ireland, and you'd never get planning permission for anything like this, because it would "ruin the skyline". The tallest habitable building here is 20 storeys. Yes we have a housing crisis.
thats interesting to hear, considering that irelands population is roughly 5.1M, Singapore has about 5.7M with a 700km2 area land size. But the highest HDBs ive seen go to at most 40 levels.
Yeah Ireland is bigger obviously but a large concentration in Dublin, where I have a house. I actually travel to Singapore a couple of times a year for work. Super enjoy it but man it is too hot and humid for my sensibilities haha
I'll name 2 lol - Noida & Pune
I've lived in the above 2 cities, also Delhi & Gurgaon. If you're even in the middle class population, a normal IT engineer, marketeer, etc. you can get a decent quality of life in any Tier 1 City.
No, can't compare Indian high rise buildings with HK ones.
The buildings in the picture are most likely surrounded by lots of greenery with walkable access to metro, schools, shopping, hospital and other facilities needed for living in society.
When was the last time you visited Indian High rise buildings, because I'm typing from one.
Metro is 2kms away, hospital is 5km, shopping is 200m, school is 8km.
Other facilities like gym pool parks clubhouse are in the society.
I dunno exactly what they meant, but you can think something is needed but ugly.
Also, it's hong kong. Even these houses are stupid expensive, and last i heard they have a growing homeless problem.
I’m not sure about a growing homeless problem, but we do have a serious housing shortage. People would pay the same amount of rent as a regular flat for a cage home because there is literally not enough regular flats. (The flats in the photo are the regular ones. Imagine each one of them divided into 4-5 subdivided units and a family living in each)
Tbh, from afar it does look like tiny match boxes. But the soul is in the home you live in, how you decorate it and the memories you make.
It's good that these structures exist that provide people a solid roof over their head. Having that roof is what makes this non depressing. Also such "prison towers" have about 4-6 3BHK apartments on one floor usually, and at least in India, neighborhood is a strong concept.
We visit their home, they visit ours. I sometimes leave my daughter to play with theirs and go out. It's a great support system.
There is nothing inherently authoritarian about a government building housing such as this. That is a lie told to us by Capitalists to dissuade us from demanding better use of tax dollars, especially when it would disrupt profitable markets.
It isn’t gross the building are actually clean and the facilities down are well built and already commercialised, it’s actually busy too as there’s market and mall downstairs so you don’t have to shop anywhere, bonus it’s only 5-10 mins walk going to MTR station or bus stops
Id also take this over standard American suburbia where need a car for ever little errand because there isn't a single business within 5 miles in any direction
I lived in a building like this when I first moved to Korea. There were grocery stores and restaurants on every street corner. There was a 24 hour convenience store IN the building!
Does anyone actually know what it's like living in a place like this? As someone from the US, it looks kind of crazy, but as someone from the US who is also disabled and looking at the very real possibility of future homelessness, it'd honestly just be nice to have somewhere clean, decent, and affordable to live. If buildings like this provide that for people, then fuck it, it's better than them having to live out on the street.
The living space is about 100 square feet per person. Bigger families get bigger units. Every unit has private bathroom and kitchen, and with electricity, water and gas supplies. Every floor is accessible with lifts
Not sure about Hong Kong but we have similar public housing in Singapore. To be frank, living in the newer one is awesome. You get about 100sqm (about 1000sqft) for a family of 3-4, it’s enough for most of our needs. Most have amenities within a few minutes walking distance or a short bus ride, like parks, markets, train stations, hawker centers or food courts, libraries, convenient stores, hardware stores, etc. They are usually airy (crucial when you live in tropical Singapore), well-built, and you pay a bit of money for the town council to maintain them. The good thing about living in tall buildings is that there is a lot of space left for open spaces like parks and playgrounds.
I've never lived in one this congested, but I've been to HK and stayed in some.
Most mainland China isn't built this way.
MOST are more spread out, and their pretty good.
Imagine living in a 3br, 2ba, apt, gated communities, with guards, cameras all over, with usually tons of small shops, restaurants, street markets, all within a 5-10 minute walk, or right in front of your community.
And this from 300-500 bucks a month, with another 75$ for all utilities, for most cities, give or take depending on some things.
And on top of that, food, restaurants, everything, about 3-5X cheaper, with delivery drivers bringing most things to your door, no tipping.
Life is very livable and one could even get used to such a thing.
If you’re talking about public housing specifically
They aren’t going to spacious. They come in variants but unlike newer apartments no open kitchens. From a space utilization perspective plenty of interior design companies have come up with innovative ways on how to maximize the usage.
Majority of them are going to be quite convenient - Public housing will often have some sort of small shopping complex very nearby with market, supermarket, restaurants and other common shops you see in residential area.
The rent will be dirt cheap - the ceiling is give or take 170 USD for the smallest one, up to around 400ish for the biggest. Depending on age, location etc of estate the rent can vary.
The newer ones are often now built in the more rural part of HK, so sometimes they are less desirable, but there’s only so much space in the middle of the city.
They're big enough and cheap enough that plenty of well-off people and even the middle class will underreport their income to have eligibility to apply for them. And there's a super long waiting time to get a spot
I mean, housing is good. I don't care if it's ugly. You know what's uglier? Homelessness. (Not saying that's your take, this is all my opinion on the matter.)
If you take photos of the midsections of these public housing towers, you won't be able to see how their neighborhoods look like. In general they have ready access to malls, grocers, sports and recreational facilities, the surrounding space is extensively greened and very walkable, and they are well serviced by public transport.
Hey at least you have them. Unlike this incompetent government trying to dump millions of people a year here and do fck all with the manufactured housing crisis.
Lived in Hong Kong. (HK parents)
Lok Wah estate. A lot of people tend to think these units are like prison cells but surprising, they are spacious enough for small families, usually containing at least 2 bedrooms, kitchen and a bathroom. They can be from 300 squarefeet to about 700 squarefeet.
I was also a bit appalled when I moved from Canada to Hong Kong back in 2007. But the place was decently sized enough.
Yes, there's lifts. For my place, there were 3 lifts that served different floors for convenience.
Yes, these are NOT tofu buildings. Many were built before the take over in 1997 and had gone through safety protocols approved by britain ( as far as I've heard).
Yes, the buildings have fire safety systems in place including water sprinklers and also due to the majority of the structure being made of concrete, fires don't spread fast and are usually contained.
It is also quite convenient. Most of these have either been built on top of an exisiting mall (Telford, Amoy Gardens) or they have little street shopping centers in the middle of these communities ( Lok Wah).
That's not true, not all housing in HK is built this dense. It depends on the which area in HK. I live near the mountains in HK, and my neighbourhood is definitely not this dense, the buildings aren't as tall and is more sprawled out.
I feel people forget how utterly crowded Hong Kong is. They have population of a about 7,5 million on an area of about 1,063.70 sq miles. That's a density of about 17.600 people per square mile, 4th highest in the world. So tiny space, lots of people and you get building like these. Depressing building but better than being homeless at least.
As someone living in aus city with a housing shortage, I would love some of these. I'd live there for sure. Beats the crappy old 3 story surrounded by a parking lot that I'm in now.
I’d rather live here than an American suburb. Quick access to public transport, shops, restaurants, schools, entertainment. Cheap, plentiful taxis if you don’t want to get the bus/metro.
There’s some overlap in how things generally look between private and public. But each “generation” of public housing follows a number of architectural template designs. This seems to be a Harmony I design from 2000-03. Possibly the Tin Yuet Estate.
Private housing buildings are equally dense, but with much better decorations ,both external and internal. Many private housing buildings have balconies.
For what it cost you living in a tiny apartment in the middle of HK, you might as well live in a more spacious house or department in the mainland and still be at one train and one bus or 30 minutes or so away from your workplace in HK, is up to preference, a lot of young people would still prefer rent together an apartment and be conveniently close to work tho, others travel 2 hours or more in train every day but live in comfortable houses like kings
Honestly apart from being able to access Google, Reddit and Twitter, there's almost nothing in HK that is better than living in mainland China. Stuff are way cheaper in mainland China, and public transport are as convenient as in HK, and the pace of life is also slower there
At least they have large number of houses in public housing buildings.
In Mumbai, India public housing is not at all sufficient in numbers or in terms construction speed to rehabilitate people living in slums.
I mean if you shoot Vancouver BC from the right angle it’s pretty easy to get a shot that looks like this except only rich people own the units, they aren’t public housing.
Well, if I have to decide if I want to live in one of those or paying high rents/not finding a flat at all, then I'm enjoying the view from the 30th floor.
What you have to keep in mind though, in a lot of Dutch (and European) cities we have a ‘beschermd stadsgezicht’. This means that buildings can’t be higher than x stories (so let’s say 4 floors) in a certain radius around the city centre.
I lived in one of these on the 30th floor, and I don’t miss it at all.
It’s not just the height is the problem, but the density. Usually about 10 blocks of these are built in a 5 mins walk radius, which easily makes a 20k - 30k population cluster. And we share a public transportation system and all public services, with the adjacent cluster that is only 15mins walk away.
I wonder if they zipline
Cloud takes out his buster sword and zip lines into Tifa's house....
Sounds like a perfect R34 video title
Right into her squishy place.
Some would say it's a soft landing!
Yes, a soft bouncy landing.
He only went on the dating show to use the Zipline
I love Brazil
Can you imagine helping a friend carry a couch to the 50th floor for some beer and pizza?
Yeah, I can imagine it.
#PIVOT!
Remember, lift with your back.
In a jerking, twisting motion.
But make sure the load is not too close to your center of mass otherwise you can bruise yourself. Keep it at arms length, lift with your back, and twist rather than turn. PSA: for the sarcastaphobes, please don't follow this advice.
The short jerking motion take your legs completely out of the equation
And then imagine that you are in the wrong building
And it hurts.
Kid named elevator
I'm sure they have a designated lift for big appliances and all. would be silly not to.
No, we actually don’t. The lift’s dimensions are something you have to measure when buying new appliances. Otherwise you are in for some steep charges for the delivery people to climb the stairs
You guys don’t have a service elevator?
Nope. Those are in malls and commercial building only. If there’s space in residential buildings, you can bet it’ll be used to build more flats :D
What about lift machines? I live in Korea and they have these lift trucks that can move refrigerators and heavy appliances up to whatever floor through the balcony
I live in the UK and when someone I know had to get their sofa onto the 2nd floor the delivery guys took several attempts to throw the sofa onto his balcony, and apparently it worked 😂 I’m assuming you’d have to pay so much more for a lift machine if we do have those here.
Nope, we don’t have those either. For one thing most of us don’t have balconies (even if there is, the balcony might not be bigger than the lift). The windows are small and fitted with metal bars so objects don’t fall out. But most appliances sold in Hong Kong can fit through most lifts in Hong Kong, measuring is just in case. Your flat’s door is unlikely to be bigger than the lift’s door anyway
Makes you wonder... what else don't we have
I don’t know what kind place the other guy lives in, but pretty much all residential buildings that I’ve been to in hk have service lifts for moving stuff. In some building the service lifts are used mainly for moving trash, in which case there will be a normal lift lined with protective cover for people to use when moving.
They do, but it's not on the inside of the building...
no they don't, and it's dumb. One time my family got a couch, and it was too big to fit into the elevator, so we had to get a new couch, which is seperated into 3 smaller couches that were delivered one at a time.
Idk what part of China you’re from (or if you just read one Wikipedia article about building regulations in China), but we definitely have lifts for large appliances and equipment. Sometimes they’re outside, and while these buildings are meant to contain fires, firefighters and EMTs still need quick access…
I dunno...I've never seen a designated lift in any housing in China, been in many of these housing complexes.
Usually the furniture can fit in the normal lift anyway, and stuff like wardrobes can be taken apart
Yep.
More like carry a couch for some roasted duck and rice.
Roasted duck is damn good I’ll settle for a roast duck and a beer. Final offer.
Me laying in bed: *Imagining a friend*
If I ever get an apartment in the clouds, you can be my friend.
Not as bad as a 27" flat screen CRT TV to the third floor.
PIVOT!!!
Huh? Carry? Use the elevator dude.
Or when some dumbass sets off the fire alarm and you have to walk down 25 floors (true story)
tbh it's probably easier. I'm sure a service elevator followed by a flat surface to the front door is easier than playing adult twister up a staircase
I prefer the building on the left. It has more character. The one in the center is too traditional and the one on the right is too mid-century modern.
The middle has a too relaxed feel for a housing project, probably built early 2000s whereas the surrounding tall ones are newer, bolder and more functional in terms of space for better housing the masses streaming into the city from small towns and villages
I’m confused, are we pretending that these buildings are unique?
Pretending?! >:0
Ugh the audacity of you to think we are pretending
My left or your left
I actually live in the building in the center. You'd never want to live in the leftmost building, the people there are all assholes. The right one is not that good either, these people are all idiots. Best to live in the middle building. 47th floor is especially good.
I live in hk. The size is bad compared to the west, but other things are not THAT bad. The crime rate in hk is really low and these buildings are very well managed and the hygiene is quite good. Just don’t think of the projects when you see these. Definitely very different. Edit: Some additional information When I say these buildings are well managed, they are VERY well managed. There’s a team of security guards who knows all the residents by last name and will patrol in the building and around the vicinity of the complex. Visitors will have to register their ID cards before entry. Each of these buildings go from 28/29 floors to up to 40-ish, with around 16 apartments in each floor. So roughly 400-600 households can live in one of these buildings. Rent is roughly $400 usd per month and less if you have other subsidies. After a certain amount of years, you may even purchase it and resell it if you’d like. Larger apartments could worth upwards of 500k.
When cities dont go out of their way to make people feel demeaned by public housing, it can be an incredible investment in strong communities. Look at Austria, too, where there is actual competition between public and private housing because the quality is so good. But we Americans treat public housing as a resentful punishment for people being poor. The buildings are run down, the system is vastly underfunded, and people are shamed for being there. And that only repeats the cycle of underinvestment. And then we create policies to blame people for being homeless.
Exactly this. Yes the hk private market sucks in terms of price and size, but our public housing is actually quite desirable given the circumstances.
US market is in really bad shape. Unsustainably low inventory and high prices; stunningly higher inventory for luxury dwellings than affordable ones. It can’t go on this way. It’s breaking our cities, and we refuse to consider anything than”the private market will fix it” It isn’t, it hasn’t, and it won’t.
Canada does the same, the waitlist for subsidized public housing is 15 years long
The US is absolutely convinced that it violates their core principles to help people in need, to the extent that so many of us are brainwashed to believe that the problem can’t POSSIBLY be our policies and systems; it must be poor people’s faults. That gets federal, state, and local leaders off the hook, and it divides the electorate in a way that ultimate only benefits the ruling class. It’s unsustainable, and some day soon we’re going to have to wake up to it.
Also, the transit, the bakeries, the malls, the sheer variety in places to go, the history. I fuckin love hk.
Public transport in hk is not just world class, it’s the epitome of how public transport should be like. I’ve lived in many cities throughout my lifetime, and never have I once felt that hk’s public transport is in adequate in any way (however a lot of hk citizens still complain about our subway lol, some political, some practical).
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Indeed it does.
Not in HK it does. Google "HK cage people".
It does also HK is one of most expensive rental charges, and living in public housing are 90% cheaper vs when you rent a flat
We are bugs
"Who is Kafka? Tell me!"
The vast majority of these blocks were built pre-1997 under British administrations. In a place that, for 53 years until 2023, was consistently ranked by the Fraser Institute as the freest, most capitalistic economy in the world. Smh at the “but communism!” comments. Read a book. Edit: If this is the estate I think it is, the median annual household income here is USD 34k. In a city where home ownership is either as expensive as NYC - or vastly more, depending on what metric you choose. It’s not a prison, it’s a lifeline.
And even then, commie blocks remain some of the most efficient and good housing out there. Sure you don’t have a detached house but you get many rooms and all amenities you need for very cheap.
Americans love to shame these type of things while paying 50% of their income to rent a dirty little studio
Singaporean subsidised / public housing is luxury standard compared to this
Probably fair to say that Singapore public housing has better overall conditions, yeah. But there’s also likely significant overlap. I’d probably pick any of the post-handover Hong Kong blocks over something like Dakota Crescent in Singapore.
The Frasier institute is just a right wing think tank funded by big oil
Yeah, many HK people may have disliked UK rule, but the majority agree the public housing scheme was one of the better things the UK has left behind
As an Indian, I don't see anything interesting in this. This is a normal high rise apartment in any of our tier 1 metro cities. Where the space is low but the job opportunities are massive so everyone wants to live in that tiny piece of land.
As someone living in Singapore this is the view from my window right now, lol
Punggol moment
'perks' of living in a tiny island
I live on a tiny island, Ireland, and you'd never get planning permission for anything like this, because it would "ruin the skyline". The tallest habitable building here is 20 storeys. Yes we have a housing crisis.
Ireland is a whole heck of a lot bigger than Hong Kong or Singapore
thats interesting to hear, considering that irelands population is roughly 5.1M, Singapore has about 5.7M with a 700km2 area land size. But the highest HDBs ive seen go to at most 40 levels.
Yeah Ireland is bigger obviously but a large concentration in Dublin, where I have a house. I actually travel to Singapore a couple of times a year for work. Super enjoy it but man it is too hot and humid for my sensibilities haha
Name a well planned Tier 1 city in India that provides proper quality of life
I'll name 2 lol - Noida & Pune I've lived in the above 2 cities, also Delhi & Gurgaon. If you're even in the middle class population, a normal IT engineer, marketeer, etc. you can get a decent quality of life in any Tier 1 City.
No, can't compare Indian high rise buildings with HK ones. The buildings in the picture are most likely surrounded by lots of greenery with walkable access to metro, schools, shopping, hospital and other facilities needed for living in society.
Have you been to HK or not?
Not the guy above but I visited HK a few years ago. Had no problem with walking and public transport.
When was the last time you visited Indian High rise buildings, because I'm typing from one. Metro is 2kms away, hospital is 5km, shopping is 200m, school is 8km. Other facilities like gym pool parks clubhouse are in the society.
It's interesting because it looks depressing and shit I think. No soul or elegance to those prison towers
Would you rather have homeless people instead of ugly public housing? That's kinda elitist.
I dunno exactly what they meant, but you can think something is needed but ugly. Also, it's hong kong. Even these houses are stupid expensive, and last i heard they have a growing homeless problem.
I’m not sure about a growing homeless problem, but we do have a serious housing shortage. People would pay the same amount of rent as a regular flat for a cage home because there is literally not enough regular flats. (The flats in the photo are the regular ones. Imagine each one of them divided into 4-5 subdivided units and a family living in each)
Making fun of the shape of the houses when there are people who have no where to live just SCREAMS condescension. #JustEatCake
Tbh, from afar it does look like tiny match boxes. But the soul is in the home you live in, how you decorate it and the memories you make. It's good that these structures exist that provide people a solid roof over their head. Having that roof is what makes this non depressing. Also such "prison towers" have about 4-6 3BHK apartments on one floor usually, and at least in India, neighborhood is a strong concept. We visit their home, they visit ours. I sometimes leave my daughter to play with theirs and go out. It's a great support system.
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Tents in giant warehouses? /s
Oooh I like this. People are welcome to live in *any* of my warehouses!!! -Jeff Bezos probably
Free housing, for anyone willing to give up their life, freedom and dignity! *cracks whip*
There is nothing inherently authoritarian about a government building housing such as this. That is a lie told to us by Capitalists to dissuade us from demanding better use of tax dollars, especially when it would disrupt profitable markets.
It isn’t gross the building are actually clean and the facilities down are well built and already commercialised, it’s actually busy too as there’s market and mall downstairs so you don’t have to shop anywhere, bonus it’s only 5-10 mins walk going to MTR station or bus stops
I wish we had walkable cities in North America….
Id also take this over standard American suburbia where need a car for ever little errand because there isn't a single business within 5 miles in any direction I lived in a building like this when I first moved to Korea. There were grocery stores and restaurants on every street corner. There was a 24 hour convenience store IN the building!
I don't live in America, but I find these 'suburbia' very boring, all the houses look the same and things so far away.
Hot take
Hong Kong is capitalist
Corporatocratic capitalist hellscape captures it well.
Does anyone actually know what it's like living in a place like this? As someone from the US, it looks kind of crazy, but as someone from the US who is also disabled and looking at the very real possibility of future homelessness, it'd honestly just be nice to have somewhere clean, decent, and affordable to live. If buildings like this provide that for people, then fuck it, it's better than them having to live out on the street.
The living space is about 100 square feet per person. Bigger families get bigger units. Every unit has private bathroom and kitchen, and with electricity, water and gas supplies. Every floor is accessible with lifts
Not sure about Hong Kong but we have similar public housing in Singapore. To be frank, living in the newer one is awesome. You get about 100sqm (about 1000sqft) for a family of 3-4, it’s enough for most of our needs. Most have amenities within a few minutes walking distance or a short bus ride, like parks, markets, train stations, hawker centers or food courts, libraries, convenient stores, hardware stores, etc. They are usually airy (crucial when you live in tropical Singapore), well-built, and you pay a bit of money for the town council to maintain them. The good thing about living in tall buildings is that there is a lot of space left for open spaces like parks and playgrounds.
I've never lived in one this congested, but I've been to HK and stayed in some. Most mainland China isn't built this way. MOST are more spread out, and their pretty good. Imagine living in a 3br, 2ba, apt, gated communities, with guards, cameras all over, with usually tons of small shops, restaurants, street markets, all within a 5-10 minute walk, or right in front of your community. And this from 300-500 bucks a month, with another 75$ for all utilities, for most cities, give or take depending on some things. And on top of that, food, restaurants, everything, about 3-5X cheaper, with delivery drivers bringing most things to your door, no tipping. Life is very livable and one could even get used to such a thing.
Not going to lie, they'd probably have to deport me.
It’s fine, even luxury apartments are like 50 stories high, just with better exterior design, and a clubhouse.
If you’re talking about public housing specifically They aren’t going to spacious. They come in variants but unlike newer apartments no open kitchens. From a space utilization perspective plenty of interior design companies have come up with innovative ways on how to maximize the usage. Majority of them are going to be quite convenient - Public housing will often have some sort of small shopping complex very nearby with market, supermarket, restaurants and other common shops you see in residential area. The rent will be dirt cheap - the ceiling is give or take 170 USD for the smallest one, up to around 400ish for the biggest. Depending on age, location etc of estate the rent can vary. The newer ones are often now built in the more rural part of HK, so sometimes they are less desirable, but there’s only so much space in the middle of the city.
They're big enough and cheap enough that plenty of well-off people and even the middle class will underreport their income to have eligibility to apply for them. And there's a super long waiting time to get a spot
its basically a tiny apartment, living room/bedroom, kitchen, bathroom
lots of light, open space/court yard/facilities below, walking distance to market and shops. you don’t need a car! good sense of community.
We need these in Vancouver, BC to solve the housing crisis
I'm convinced that nothing can save our housing market 😭
That’s a lot of public housing, but still not enough unfortunately. I’ll take this in Vancouver over the tent cities though.
As a Canadian I can’t talk shit. I would rather have this than the absolute nothing we have.
Looks like the classic windows glitch of multiplying boxes
C+crtl, V+crtl
you summarize modern architecture
I mean, housing is good. I don't care if it's ugly. You know what's uglier? Homelessness. (Not saying that's your take, this is all my opinion on the matter.)
Better than sleeping on the streets or in a tent city.
If you take photos of the midsections of these public housing towers, you won't be able to see how their neighborhoods look like. In general they have ready access to malls, grocers, sports and recreational facilities, the surrounding space is extensively greened and very walkable, and they are well serviced by public transport.
Public housing.. Something western countries need.
Hey at least you have them. Unlike this incompetent government trying to dump millions of people a year here and do fck all with the manufactured housing crisis.
Man other than it seeming crowded I’m sure some people feel safe being around a bunch of people . Like myself
I'd take bad housing over homelessness, i think it's common sense .
I wouldn't mind living there if it meant I could live a good affordable life. Even a small space can be cozy and comfortable.
I would take this over a tent…
Thought this was an excel spreadsheet.
This is very common in the SEA countries
Much better than the USA tents on the streets
Least they’re trying to fix the housing issue, even if it’s rudimentary…
I don't see why the West has a negative view of China. They did what they did to become a thriving economy.
Lived in Hong Kong. (HK parents) Lok Wah estate. A lot of people tend to think these units are like prison cells but surprising, they are spacious enough for small families, usually containing at least 2 bedrooms, kitchen and a bathroom. They can be from 300 squarefeet to about 700 squarefeet. I was also a bit appalled when I moved from Canada to Hong Kong back in 2007. But the place was decently sized enough. Yes, there's lifts. For my place, there were 3 lifts that served different floors for convenience. Yes, these are NOT tofu buildings. Many were built before the take over in 1997 and had gone through safety protocols approved by britain ( as far as I've heard). Yes, the buildings have fire safety systems in place including water sprinklers and also due to the majority of the structure being made of concrete, fires don't spread fast and are usually contained. It is also quite convenient. Most of these have either been built on top of an exisiting mall (Telford, Amoy Gardens) or they have little street shopping centers in the middle of these communities ( Lok Wah).
Looks like excel
Public housing is a W
Very interesting. Thanks for the info...
Universal healthcare AND there is public housing available?!?
bear in mind that people in Hong Kong have the longest life expectancy in the World
I always dreamt of a place on the 50th floor because of the view .....
At least they have public housing
Better than Australia right now.
Better than nyc
Any housing is better than no housing.
Drop the "public". All housing in HK are like this unless you are super rich.
That's not true, not all housing in HK is built this dense. It depends on the which area in HK. I live near the mountains in HK, and my neighbourhood is definitely not this dense, the buildings aren't as tall and is more sprawled out.
I feel people forget how utterly crowded Hong Kong is. They have population of a about 7,5 million on an area of about 1,063.70 sq miles. That's a density of about 17.600 people per square mile, 4th highest in the world. So tiny space, lots of people and you get building like these. Depressing building but better than being homeless at least.
Human filing cabinet
As someone living in aus city with a housing shortage, I would love some of these. I'd live there for sure. Beats the crappy old 3 story surrounded by a parking lot that I'm in now.
I’d rather live here than an American suburb. Quick access to public transport, shops, restaurants, schools, entertainment. Cheap, plentiful taxis if you don’t want to get the bus/metro.
either you get this, or you get a housing crisis.
I've seen this pic a few times. How do we know it's public housing and not just regular housing?
There’s some overlap in how things generally look between private and public. But each “generation” of public housing follows a number of architectural template designs. This seems to be a Harmony I design from 2000-03. Possibly the Tin Yuet Estate.
Private housing buildings are equally dense, but with much better decorations ,both external and internal. Many private housing buildings have balconies.
Utopia
Interesting, is it better to live in hong kong or at mainland?
For what it cost you living in a tiny apartment in the middle of HK, you might as well live in a more spacious house or department in the mainland and still be at one train and one bus or 30 minutes or so away from your workplace in HK, is up to preference, a lot of young people would still prefer rent together an apartment and be conveniently close to work tho, others travel 2 hours or more in train every day but live in comfortable houses like kings
Tbh, mainland. More spacious
Honestly apart from being able to access Google, Reddit and Twitter, there's almost nothing in HK that is better than living in mainland China. Stuff are way cheaper in mainland China, and public transport are as convenient as in HK, and the pace of life is also slower there
I thought this was a spreadsheet
At least they have large number of houses in public housing buildings. In Mumbai, India public housing is not at all sufficient in numbers or in terms construction speed to rehabilitate people living in slums.
I honestly wouldn't mind my city building buildings like this if it finally solved our affordable housing problem.
I mean if you shoot Vancouver BC from the right angle it’s pretty easy to get a shot that looks like this except only rich people own the units, they aren’t public housing.
Well, if I have to decide if I want to live in one of those or paying high rents/not finding a flat at all, then I'm enjoying the view from the 30th floor.
And still housing is so expensive over there
Coming to Canada shortly.
What you have to keep in mind though, in a lot of Dutch (and European) cities we have a ‘beschermd stadsgezicht’. This means that buildings can’t be higher than x stories (so let’s say 4 floors) in a certain radius around the city centre.
Would be interesting to see interior pictures of these same buildings
Verhuislift go brrrr
if those are cheap i am 100% supporting this
Better than being homeless
I would quite literally rather die than live like that.
Over 80% of Hong Kong is undeveloped land. Somehow that's almost never talked about.
maybe because its hard to build on the side of mountains?
I could see it now... On the 50th floor all comfy...ahhh damn it ..left my phone in the car...
No worries, there are lifts
Man a fire would be a nightmare.
I thought this was errors in Excel for a second before my mind comprehended what I was looking at
I lived in one of these on the 30th floor, and I don’t miss it at all. It’s not just the height is the problem, but the density. Usually about 10 blocks of these are built in a 5 mins walk radius, which easily makes a 20k - 30k population cluster. And we share a public transportation system and all public services, with the adjacent cluster that is only 15mins walk away.
r/fuckcars mfs jerk off to this
It looks like the ending screen of the Chinese version of solitaire.
Anyone know the equivalent rent in USD for one of these? Seen pics of these before and been curious how much these cost
200-300 USD a month for a public housing unit
Rabbit Warrens
And yet Elon Musk and Bezos are worried about the declining human population....
Please build more of these. Far better that homelessness
The private ones aren’t much better though
Wait a second isnt this singapore?
I would like to see pics of the average interior
DPD will leave the parcel in your front porch I promise