Choi Hung Estate, Hong Kong
Choi Hung Estate is a public housing complex in Hong Kong housing approximately 43,000 residents. Finished construction in 1964 by P&T Architects it was a new start to the housing chapter in Hong Kong with the fitting name of Choi Hung (彩虹) meaning rainbow in Cantonese.
Location: Choi Hung, Hong Kong
Number of Dwellings: 7,000
Residents: 43,000 approximately
Building Height: 7-20 Storey
Completion Date: 1964
Designed By: P&T Architects (Formerly Palmer & Turner Hong Kong)
Type of Ownership: Public Housing
Existing Site/Building Conditions:
Initial Site Analysis of Choi Hung Estate
Existing site conditions at Choi Hung estate reflects a relatively good living environment at first glace with ample public transport connections to other districts in Hong Kong, and having good local retail shops around and within the estate. However, upon closer inspection, living quality within the units reflects the opposite.
Choi Hung Estate Original Floorplan
Original plans show that each unit only has one openable façade with the units adopting a cookie cutter approach with only living room spaces altered to accommodate different amounts of people. Each unit was sold with a kitchen, bathroom and open plan design. Each floor contained 40 units each sharing a single communal corridor.
History of Choi Hung Estate
Hong Kong Public Rental Housing Waiting Time
Choi Hung Estate is one of Hong Kong's biggest public housing project both in capacity and scale. It runs on a public rental housing (PRH) agreement meaning residents do not actually own the units but are rented from the government through an application and screening process. As years go by and Hong Kong's housing prices continue to stay number one around the world, the waiting time to receive a rental offer from the government has soared from the targeted 3 years to now a realistic 6.1 years wait (HKFP, 2022) up 0.7 years from 2019. As a result, many new lower income families are forced to continue living with their parents during their application process for their own PRH. This causes a multi-generation household environment where stress and other problems may surround the residents.
Hong Kong PRH waiting times in 2019 Source: Research Office Legislative Council Secretariat, 2019
This has caused the problem where new alterations of the toolkit has to accommodate various generations of people living within Choi Hung estate, requiring increased flexibility and versatility of the toolkits. However, as all opportunities are created from problems this allows the toolkit to be developed with enough versatility to fit into any location, typology and scale of buildings around the world.
Building Aesthetics
Choi Hung Estate (彩虹邨) finished construction in 1964 as a new beginning to Hong Kong's growing population, economy, and housing demand had a very fitting name applied to it. Choi Hung meaning rainbow in Cantonese symbolised happiness and hope, in addition it was built at the foot of Lion Rock, a mountain symbolising hope and the spirit of Hong Kong. Along with the building façade finished in a pantone colour scheme the estate was a glimmering hope for its residents.
Original Unit Layouts
Two main unit floorplans were used:
Type 1: 5m x 3m = 35m² unit area
Type 2: 8.6m x 3m = 26m² unit area
Both units were initially providing a kitchen, bathroom, indented balcony and open plan living space.
Choi Hung Estate Original Floorplan
Exploded Choi Hung Estate Floorplan
Each unit has slightly misaligned door ways to the opposite unit creating slight privacy in such a densely packed layout. Unit sizes were separated by the communal corridor meaning all 4 people units would be on one side and 6 people units on the opposite side of the corridor creating easy separation of units and family sizes.
Choi Hung Estate Elevation
Identified Issues at Choi Hung Estate:
Individual units at Choi Hung estate have poor internal light access as there is only one openable façade due to its slab typology. In addition windows are relatively small in today's Hong Kong standards only spanning half height, and the original wall between internal living spaces and balcony block majority of sunlight access into the depths of each unit.
Individual units at Choi Hung estate have poor natural ventilation, this is due to each unit having no cross ventilation accessibility as there are no openings facing the communal corridor. Furthermore, due to the open plan layout, many parallel walls were added by residents to create individual rooms for family members resulting in more blockage of wind flow causing poor ventilation.
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Outdoor spaces at Choi Hung estate such as ground floor retail areas are old and have not seen new additions since its reveal in 1964, this resulted in many pipes and services being left exposed due to cost and convenience resulting in a run down area for residents. These spaces also lack the building's identity.