Under pressure from mainland China, Hong Kong’s elementary schools have to start a new curriculum on “national education.” Recently revealed, its module on the “China model” is full of political propaganda, such as the claim that one party dictatorship is more effective than any other democratic political system.
Read more on Hong Kong’s new red elementary school curriculum flaming concern here.
Inside Hong Kong’s tiny public housing cubes. 10 feet by 10 feet, that’s all you get. Photography by Michael Wolf.
(via Flavorwire)
Hong Kong architect Gary Chang transforms his 344 sq. ft. apartment into 24 rooms. The genius here is recognizing that the functional aspects of a room can all be attached to walls, so adding “rooms” now becomes a matter of adding walls instead of floorspace. The part that still puzzles me is how the services (electricity, plumbing, etc.) are routed into and out of movable walls. The video shows a bathtub, but I presume (and certainly hope) the toilet is really in a separate room instead of being attached to one of the walls.
His ability to live in such tight quarters isn’t unusual when compared to other Hong Kong residents, however; as both this video and a New York Times profile note, Mr. Chang’s family of six was squeezed into this very same apartment while he was growing up. Even though he now gains the space advantage of (apparently) living here by himself, this arrangement still lets him live in much grander style than the square footage normally allows.
