MetaChat - "Kowloon Walled City

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23 February 2006

"Kowloon Walled City resembed a living, breathing creature, born from its inhabitants over its long lifespan." "...occupying an area of approximately 200 by 150 metres. Most of the 500 buildings in the City, housing almost 50,000 residents"→[More:]

"...out of all the chaos and apparent lack of real organisation, a sort of society began to flourish."

"...because it's not top-down planning, it's bottom-up, and organizations evolve, they're not planned." Reminds me a lot of our little online communities. "Connectivity in the rhizome is embedded in the following: any point of the rhizome can always be linked to any other point. Moreover, it is not a mere possibility but something that occurs necessarily." I think this may hold lessons for social networking sites.

Jackie Chan made a movie there just at the time of it's destruction.

post by: arse_hat at: 23:20 | 6 comments

arse_hat, this is an excellent post. Dress rehearsal for a Mefi FPP?

Can't find a good link, but William Gibson refers to a Cyberspace version of the Walled City in Idoru.

posted by porpoise 23 February | 23:24

Nah I haven't been to the blue for months and months. Just got tired of it.

I was going to work in a Gibson interview but the one I was thinking of does not seem to be around anymore.

posted by arse_hat 23 February | 23:29

This deserves to be on the blue! Anyone who says it ain't fpp material is itchin for a fight!

posted by pieisexactlythree 24 February | 00:04

it really should be a FPP...i did a Mike Davis/Slums post a while ago and it went really well.

posted by amberglow 24 February | 00:21

OK so I went over to the blue.
But I only looked at the pictures.
I didn't read the articles.

posted by arse_hat 24 February | 00:31

I was in Hong Kong for two weeks in 1998 and I am sad that this had been demolished by then. Even so, Hong Kong is pretty lawless by American standards. Everything is a little ramshackle or haphazard, especially outside the tourist and corporate areas, and people work themselves like crazy.

Even without the walled city, when you flew into Kai Tak the approach took you so close to apartment buildings that you could see right into people's rooms. You could see the pattern on their sofa! Further away from downtown there are dozens of public housing estates where eight, twelve, or even twenty thousand people might live. The Housing Authority has profiles for each.

posted by halonine 24 February | 11:44

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