Abstract
The objective of this thesis is to understand the housing needs of the poor in Sham Shui Po, the neighbourhood with the highest rate of urban poverty in Hong Kong. Renowned for its cramped living conditions, the thesis seeks to examine the different typologies of living spaces within the neighbourhood. With every inch of gross floor area optimized and costing a premium, the thesis aims to understand how an occupant would negotiate with the physical architecture of his living space to improve spatial qualities such as daylighting and thermal comfort. Furthermore, it aims to uncover the different ways one would capitalize on his skills to interact with the environment as his resource for survival. It thus necessitates for an ethnographic study to understand the everyday lives of the poor in Hong Kong which could potentially uncover the communities and informal relationships that are essential to their survival. The thesis further envisions how Sham Shui Po would evolve 50 years into the future and yet continue to appeal to the poor under the extreme effects of gentrification. The thesis aims to investigate the historical evolution of living spaces for the poor in Hong Kong over the past century. From squatter villages in the 1950s to the caged and coffin houses in the current times, Hong Kong has seen a diverse range of living space typologies that has developed over the years to cater to the demand for housing for the poor. The thesis further delves into precedences on how informal communities adapt their urban environment to their needs, such as the infamous Kowloon Walled City and Torre David. The aim is to understand the systematic logic to how such informal communities are organized and how the built architecture allowed for economic activity to flourish, resulting in self-sustaining communities which provided an opportunity for the poor to combat poverty. Nonetheless, the thesis intends to hypothesize if informality in architecture could be a social solution to the growing needs of the housing market.