Slum deconstruction (sequence)

Bio-mapping

http://biomapping.net/
http://www.softhook.com/




Websites of Christian. Really love his works. I think he is an extremely intelligent person to design such a bio-mapping device. The process is extremely interesting. But more importantly, the way of organizing data that we have collected is not easy. I wanted to repeat the bio-mapping process, but perhaps it is just out of curiosity. I guess presenting the data is also an important issue to discuss.


It is interesting how we like to "read" things that are graphically represented rather than in long text. The same with blogs.


A long p.s.:
We have been such healthy persons and all of a sudden we have these imparied senses for one afternoon. Besides feeling strange, I guess the "healthy" senses would become much sharper than they used to be.

To most people, the feeling of disorientation is intimidating. With the ear defender and the blindfolds on, I really could not imagine how Helen Keller can live in such a world without sight and sound. (Although she was blind and deaf since she was born, and that made her dumb also)

A short p.p.s.:
I still like this map of Stockport best.

Digesting

What will happen when too much information comes to you all at once? Nauseatic? Excited? Confused?

Right now I have that whatever feeling. These days I have jot down so many things in my sketchbook yet I don't have much time to think them over. Sometimes I just hate myself for being such a slow thinker.

Anyway, I just feel doubtful about our discussion this morning on Imperialism. It seems that very often, only the economic sphere is being considered in the post-colonial countries. What about the cultural sphere? This question is bothering me because there is such a phenomenon in Hong Kong that even we have been returned to China for 10 years, we still call ourselves Hong Kong-er instead of Chinese. Some people even reject being connected (in any way) to the mainland. I mean this is definitely an effect on the local people because we have been under colonial rule.

Second doubt of today is: Am I wrong to say that every nation/ country have certain degree of Imperialism (well at least in their attitude)?


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Currently doing a crash course of Heidegger in wikipedia. His thoughts are not that easy to follow, especially for a person with no philosophical bkgd (like me).

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My friend once made a comment that we alsways digest things that we learn from school (literally digest in Chinese), but we never get rid of the waste. I guess I am having a knowledge constipation.

We survived!

cold, sleepy and extremely tired
shall update again later

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1030 pm

It has been 12 hours since I left the backyard of the BK-- our slum settlement. Yet the experience of the past 2 days were still memorable.

The settlement was an accomplishment by the 37 of us. It belongs to us. It is really a pity that not everyone stayed for the night though, because it was particularly that experience that put me into thinking.

Building the informal settlement at the backyard of our faculty is a very good experience, but I would say that the experience is not complete without staying there in your own shelter, which you call "home" for one night. Some people may think that we are crazy to stay for the night. Indeed, without any sleeping bags and fire and the idea of staying out at night in a self-built shelter sounds very insane. (Maybe because of the coldness of last night? What will happen if last night was much warmer?) But the 3 of us-- Stephan, Jasper and I, survived, and I believe all of us were happy that we actually stayed. The experience of staying in such a small, cramp self-built space with two other people who are actually millimetres away from you is simply unforgettable. I would also say that it is a pity that I am kind of overwhelmed by the coldness and I forgot to stay alert to what is happening in the environment. I guess if the security guards/ police come for us, I would not know what to do and I may end up in the prison. But these -- weather, external interference-- are things that slum dwellers need to face every single minute. It is reality in their life (actually I feel like I am in some kind of reality TV show last night). When I come to think of the fact that millions of people through out the world is actually leading such a life, my heart turned sour. I couldn't help but keep thinking what we can do to all these people (NOT in an architectural sense). Money donation? Going there to help as volunteer? Or do they actually need people to help? Are they contented with their situation?

"Everybody is his own architect." This phrase suddenly popped into my mind, when I am looking at the slums and the fact that people actually build their own houses.

Caged houses in HK (II)

from flickr.com

Pirate subdivided apartments in Hong Kong

These photos were taken by me when I went for a visit to these apartments in March 2007.

The conditions in these apartment are better than those in the caged housing, but you can see that it is not really that satisfactory. In these settlements, one apartment with one bathroom and a kitchen is ususally shared by about 10 families. These families, with an average of 3 - 4 people, live in rooms smaller than 10 sq m. Most of these rooms do not have any windows and air conditioning devices. The living conditions are very poor. A lot of the inhabitants are immigrants from mainland China. Some of them could even be illegal immigrants. They came here not to find job, but to get the Hong Kong citizenship. It is very strange because a lot of these immigrants actually live a much better live back in mainland China. Without the citizenship, they cannot actually work in Hong Kong. Therefore I believe the shift in population is more related to the political interest of people.

After reading Mike Davis' , I couldn;t help but ask myself if these could also be called slums, or are they merely low-income housing.

The facade of these buildings would look something like this:

You can see the density of the building and also the additional (illegal) structures that were added in the facade of the building. In fact there was a time that people live illegally at the rooftop houses. I think Davis also mentioned this type of housing in HK somewhere in his book.

Caged houses in HK (I)

Slums

An interesting article from the National Geographic about slums in Mumbai:: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature3/


I remember we were discussing how to define the term "slum" in class. I believe that it is hard to draw a precise definition for it, as slums differs from region to region, I have found sth online which seems to be interesting (and also cleared out a bit of misconception about slums)

The United Nations agency UN-HABITAT defines a slum as a heavily populated urban area characterised by substandard housing and squalor. The term traditionally referred to housing areas that were once respectable but which deteriorated as the original dwellers moved on to newer and better parts of the city, but has come to include the vast informal settlements found in cities in the developing world. The word comes from "back slum," meaning back room and later "back alley."

Although their characteristics vary between geographic regions, they are usually inhabited by the very poor or socially disadvantaged. Slum buildings vary from simple shacks to permanent and well-maintained structures. Most slums lack clean water, electricity, sanitation and other basic services.

Slums may be distinguished from ghettos in that ghetto refers to a neighborhood based on shared ethinicty. Other terms which are sometimes used interchangeably with slum include favela and shantytowns.

Question:
Can slums be ghetto as well or vice versa?

Body Scan :: Place Scan

The walls are cold
The floor is cold, and coldness is somehow hinted by its shade of cool grey.

Wind is blowing. Large white clouds are drifting quickly across the sky.
The willows are bending down into the water,
Their yellow, fragile braches pouring over the restless surface of the pond.

Cars are zooming, wind is blowing;
Yet I could not hear any of these sounds,
Because I can only hear people's talking.

The air is cold, but not fresh.

The heater is keeping my thighs warm.
My body is still cold.
The window is icy.

My mind is fussy, yet my body is refreshed.
I don't know if I am happy about that.

Motivation letter

This is from which everything began...