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Kai Tak City London & Hong Kong, 2002

During its peak in the 1980s, Kowloon Walled City used to be the most densely populated area in the world with 35.000 inhabitants crammed into a virtually solid 14-storey high mass of building in the centre of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The city was a squatter settlement protected from the colonial authorities by the special legal status of the land it occupied. Hardship and lack of drinking water forced the inhabitants - often imigrants from mainland China - to negotiate with the colonial authorities. This brought about a quasi - democratic organisation of its residents. In the years running up to the return of the British colony to China, the mainland finally agreed to the demolition of the city and the decanting of its population.

Kai Tak City is located on the runway of the now disused Kai Tak Airport in the centre of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The runway is situated on top of a reclaimed strip of land which stretches into Kowloon Bay. The urban design proposal consists of a number of catalyst delements to provide the infra-structure for the growth of a new city: The Wobbly Bridge for Kai Tak City links the new city with the mainland. It is made from bamboo ropes. The swaying caused by pedestrians crossing the bridge sets a number of generators into motion which translate the resonance forces into electric energy which is used to power the street lighting of the city. The model of the bridge was awarded a Royal Academy Architecture Award in 2003. The Shrine is an 8m heigh steel tower with vertical rails on which run a small teak shrine which is painted red on the inside. A windmill and a gear mechanism allow the shrine to ascent and descend at a rate which is dependent on wind speed and direction. The Shrine and Wobbly Bridge were exhibited at the Entwistle Gallery in London as part of the Material Intelligence Exhibition. The project was recently published in Bartlett Designs edited by Iain Borden.