Architecture — and the question of how to build space for humans — is a recurring theme on this website (see posts). I gather visionary approaches that strive for harmony and sustainability. But the reality looks very different for millions of people on this planet, and we also have to look at the dystopia we are actually moving toward.
One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats within high-rise buildings, some of which house as many as 10,000 people.
Michael Wolf’s view of these towering facades confronts us with a brutality that feels unreal — a world I almost can’t believe is the one I’m living in. Every time I revisit these images, my first reaction is disbelief — they feel like digital montages. Then that disbelief gives way to a strange sense of entrapment and vertigo at the same time. The strictly serial surface denies the gaze relief, any glimpse of sky or horizon that reminds us we are still on earth. Our home, shaped in our own image — the human being reduced to a function, a resource to be contained, rather than the soft, feeling animal we are.
Another series by Michael Wolf I shared some time ago:
Tokyo Compression
