Architectural cross-section of Kowloon Walled City

I think of kowloon as a preview to the hyperdense cities of the future in a way. Acrologies would be a more workable vision of hyperdense cities, as you also need green spaces rather than just a bigger version of dense concrete jungles that is defacto state of many cities.

Right now, space is criminally underused in cities or allocated so inefficiently that we don't really need acrologies yet. We can get more green in cities and making these places more pleasant and human space to live.

Maybe it's non-normative ways of living? In many places, people are not allowed to live in whichever way they please - there are rules and regulations, mostly in the name of safety (from crime, fire/flood, infection, etc).

Kowloon seems to exist outside/before these restrictions, and might therefore feel more "free" in some way. It might also be why fantasy/science fiction fantasy tends to take place in a slightly more "lawless" and uninhibited world.

It’s the sci-fi death star cyberpunk dystopia aesthetic. The place was demolished before most of us ever heard about it, and yet we feel like we’ve been there, crawling through its air ducts, picking up a health boost at its meat markets, buying ammo from its shady traders, escaping from the cops through its windows, getting an achievement for doing it all without injuring the civilians…

By the way, 8 year old me loved Glider! Nice work.

It's basically the inspo for every cyberpunk dystopia ever from Blade Runner on forwards. Right down to the black markets, prostitutes, drugs, unlicensed doctors and dentists plying their trades, etc.

Most recently, the setting of the video game Stray is basically Kowloon with the serial numbers filed off.

Wow, how much fun times my friends and I had with Glider. We probably could not possibly thank you enough for making something that caused us to spend so much time together. If only I had more rubber bands...

I am not sure why I am continually fascinated by this place.

Nominative determinism?

Thanks for writing Glider! I adored that game as a kid and was part of how the possibilities of computing began to captivate my attention.

I think it's because it's inspired so much fiction. Blade runner, there's references to it in Ghost in the Shell, in the game Stray, and many others. Many people are fascinated by it.

It‘s because to the domesticated observer, the walled city symbolizes an idealized vision of chaos. A place you could have inhabited where you would finally be free from the dictates of society. The ideal space of opportunity where you could have forged your own path, the realities of KWC be damned.

In the same way that people living in Chaos yearn for a Franco or an old King because they symbolize order, regardless of the realities of their reign. Just a projection space that is sufficiently ill-defined that it becomes a canvas.

Nothing can beat a Glider PRO house in terms of surrealism and trickery, though! And cozy charm. In fact, I think it's time I downloaded a copy of SheepShaver and reinstalled it – and all the extra houses...

Thank you for glider!

I share your fascination and perhaps from the same genome; I haven't figured out what yet, but I've always thought some MMORPG game based on the city would be spectacular.

It's where the kumite was held.

https://youtu.be/smGHdOU4Qu4

Yes, I’m rereading Young Lady’s Primer right now and although Dr. X’s lair is far northward, my mind’s eye sees Kowloon photos tinted by Kar-wai and Doyle’s works.

Thank you for Glider! I enjoyed it immensely as a kid.

"I am not sure why I am continually fascinated by this place."

If you're into technology - like anyone on Hacker News - you're probably fascinated by seeing high complexity in a small space. That's one of the things about tech that makes it exciting to me. Look at my smartwatch - so much complexity crammed into something so small. Such high entropy. It's just fundamentally interesting because there's so much there.

I know it was no treat for the people that lived there, tho. Conditions sucked.

(Bit of a tangent, but I also wonder if there's a link between this and my (very bad) social media addiction. There's just so much stuff to look at on a place like reddit or tiktok. Such high information density.)

This diagram sort of reminds me of playing Sim Tower, or those books of cross sections of things that were popular entertainment when I was a kid. I guess they hit the same part of the brain.

What has happened to Hong Kong? I've never been

And not just cockroaches :D

It's always bothered me how yellow-tinted this image is. I guess there was a heat wave or maybe they had just finished reseeding the grass or something.

Note the "hole" in the center - that's where the alms house was/is.

That link doesn't work at the present time.

And the main article doesn't show any interesting parts of the image on mobile; just the left side with a lot of white space and some words that I cannot read.

Can't scroll to the right. Can't zoom out. Can't long-press and open the image separately.

tl;dr, can't see shit.

Thanks, this is great. The people alone make this like Where's Waldo: find the mahjong parlor, the elementary school, the dude taking a dump, the couple having sex, etc.

None of the apartments had running water. People emptied their chamber pots out the window so the streets and walls were literally covered in shit. There were no elevators despite many buildings going up 14 floors.

Now on top of all that imagine sharing your apartment, which is not much bigger than a car, with your entire family.

And create a housing crisis which is deadly - I cannot imagine the carnage that a major fire or earthquake would cause in a Kowloon Walled City like environment.

But I do think that some building regulations need a rethink - I believe there is a requirement in many American cities/states to have two staircases in apartment buildings, which really restricts how you can organise the building

I own this photo book, and I can't recommend it enough. Full of glimpses into life in the KWC, interviews with loads of its tenants.

If you find the idea of the KWC even vaguely fascinating, you could do worse than ordering this book. (No affiliation except as a very happy customer!)

Can you visit them and live to tell it? :)

Ps: I said that in a joking way but it's a serious question: Is it safe? I would really like to see such a living environment, it is fascinating.

Call of Duty has a pretty lame Walled City level. I wonder if there's surviving blue prints for the apartment blocks and enough archival information to faithfully recreate it virtually one day.

I will never forget that part of Shenmue 2. It blew my 14 yo mind at the time when I found out that not only Kowloon city was real but it was also 10x more depressing in real life.

Project Highrise is a relatively new clone/successor to Sim Tower. It was okay to good when I last played and didn't suffer from the issue I always had with Sim Tower which was the waves of people leaving.

It's not a temple but an alms house. It still exists. All of KWC was taken down except for this building which was preserved in-situ.

The alms house is the center of present day Kowloon Walled City Park. It's a nice place, I've been there. I learned a fair bit about KWC I didn't know before, like there were only 2 standpipes for water for 35 fucking thousand people!

The labels are in Japanese if you want to try with your phone. The intro through Google Translate:

"The survey conducted by the "Kowloon City Expedition" first produced an east-west cross-sectional view. This panorama depicts life when Kowloon City was at its most lively on top of that cross-sectional view. Based on the remnants of life that remained in the area, we have added documentary materials and the results of interviews. If you look at Kowloon City as a whole, where each room was colored by its own lifestyle, you will see that it was a dense city where "anything goes", embracing both the sacred and the profane."