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In 1925, Le Corbusier proposed the high-density Plan Voisin to address urban housing needs, it was never built. Similarly, Minoru Yamasaki's Pruitt-Igoe project, a dense, urban housing solution of the post-war era, built, but demolished due to social issues. While these large-scale, utopian housing schemes promised much, they often created more problems than they solved.
In post-war Asia, with rapid urbanization, the "blank slate" approach to urban design and the Corbusian typology for cities were seen as potential solutions. However, the implementation of these ideas wasn't uniform across Asia, and some countries adapted them more than others, to address their needs.
Pic. Le Corbusier's Plan Voisin. 1925
Minoru Yamasaki, Pruitt Igoe, 1955
The Mou Bei (無比 ) Story
The Mou Bei (無比 ) Story
Mobil (Mou Bei in Cantonese) has had a chequered history with Hong Kong, they had their oil depot at the Mei Foo site. When this depot became redundant, Mobil redeveloped this as a private housing between 1968-78. It was built to the latest housing standards, a High-Tech residential development of its time, with piped gas connections, central TV feed, etc.
'Mei Foo Sun Chuen was conceived to meet the housing needs of Hong Kong's middle-income families, an emerging and growing group at the time. At the time, a flat in Mei Foo cost around HK$40,000', Wikipedia.
When released, it was eagerly lapped up by buyers, This is still considered to be one of the largest housing developments in the world.
Pic. The Mei Foo lamp
Pic. First phase of Mei Foo development
Designed by Wong Tong and Partners, the Mei Foo Sun Cheun was a huge success, and made a strong case for high density housing that came to define Hong Kong. Despite integrating of the MTR stations much later, this was an Archetypal future ToD project, with more than 90 residential towers located on top of a podium deck, that supported commercial development, below, including schools, kindergarden, clinics, etc.
Pic. Then Mei Foo, fully developed, had a harbour front view, which was later reclaimed. It must have been a nice time to live there then?
Pic. Podium level, with residential block behind, daylight stream to the shops below
Around the mid 1960 and afterwards, Wong Tong and Partners, & other Hong Kong Architects were then perfecting the cruciform housing blocks, which housed up to 8 units on the floor plate (Or more) and reached the sky. All of these developments were for the private sector, fully fuelled by the uber rich developers such as Sun Hung Kai, Henderson land, Hong Kong Land, etc. All these units were hyper effecient and counted the units by the square feet, as land in HK was sparce and expensive
Fig. A simple cruciform plan, developed into highly efficient residential units
This typology was critical for the hyper-dense, Property + Rail projects that was to dot the landscape of Hong Kong.
After the opening of China, post WTO, the same HK Architects then took these cookier cutter models into China and reshaped the landscape there too!
Mei Foo, a self-contained hybrid of garden city development, & Corbusian modernism, embodies the principles of a successful Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) model. Notwithstanding, the MTR station only arriving in 1982. The pre-existing design, with its walkable layout and potential for transit integration, likely influenced the consultants FREEMAN, FOX, WILBER SMITH & ASSOC, who were working on the early MTR study around the same time. By the time the same consultant undertook the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Initial System (MIS) study, the "Property + Rail" model based on property design like Mei Foo may have been considered a proven model to emulate. Which, indeed it was, a roaring successful approach for both the MTR Corporation and the colonial governments of Hong Kong then, & after.
As a foot note, this (Uber) high density, model of housing is something that is unique to Hong Kong, enabling an easier, self-funding rail transport system!
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