450
HOUSING OF POPULATION IN
· HONGKONG.
In a Government Gazette Extraordinary issued yesterday there was published a report. signed by Messrs. Osbert Chadwick and W. J. Simpson, on the question of the housing of the population of Hongkong. The report, with a draft Bill and numerous appendices, is very | long. We make the following extracts ---
The insanitary areas in Hongkong have been formed, first, by the crowding together of too many houses on too small a space; secondly, by sanitary defects in the design of dwelling houses; and thirdly, by overcrowding of the inhabitants in these houses. CROWDING TOGETHṚR (F TOO MANY HOUSES
ON TOO SMALL A SPACE,
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The crowding together of houses on too small a space is well exemplified in Plate I, which represents an area, bounded by Hollywood Road, Queen's Road Central, Wellington Street, and Aberdeen Street. The area of the block is 171,224 square feet, equal to 3.93 acres. It contains 142 bonses comprising 470 floors. The area of streets upon which buildings front within this block is 19,890 square feet, equal to 0.45 acre. The area of the back-yards and other open spaces around the buildings is 5,516 square feet, equal to 0.13 acre. Thus no less than 85 per cent. of the total area is roofed over, and if the open space of the streets and lanes be excluded, that around buildings only amounts to 3.2 per cent. It is obvious that the crowding together of houses in this block could hardly be greater, and resumption for the purpose of opening out wider streets and im proving the sanitary condition of the houses is urgently need d.
Examples of the crowding together of houses under the existing regulations follow.
SANITARY DEFECTS IN THE DESIGN OF CHINESE HOUSES.
time
(June 16, 1902.
worst features of both kinds of houses and none of their best. The tenement houses in Hongkong, consist of several stories, sach storey-containing one long room lighted at each end by a window but without lateral windows. Each room is subdivided into cabins called cubicles which accommodate an entire family. The room on each floor communicates - in the rear by a bridge with the kitchen which is separated from the house by a small yard; and in front with a masonry verandah which encroaches on the public street and which being separated by partitions from the adjoining houses is used as an additional room, for the house. The length of room without lateral windows, the kitchen buildings in the rear and the smallness of the back-yard, by obstructing the free access of light and air cause the two lower stories at least to be dark and badly ventilated. The verandahs in front still further increase this undesirable condition and the cubicles in the room intensify it to such an extent that none of the rooms are healthy habitations. The cubicle system leads to overcrowding in its worst form and, with the absence of light and fresh air, under its worst conditions, for with the existing design of buildings whenever there are more than two cubicles in a room even in
the upper stories the compartment is dark and devoid of fresh air. With darkness, absence of fresh air and overcrowding it is impossible to keep them clean.
OVERCROWDING.
The crowdin together of too many houses, on too small a space has been effected by the construction of narrow streets and laues and by the omission to provide adequate open space in the rear of houses in the shape of back-yards and of back-lanes. The houses have thus been brought into close proximity to one another The defects in design of houses which instead of being well separated with ample contribute to their unhealthiness, are caused by space between them! The conditions vary in their great depth without lateral windows, the intensity according to the age of the built-over position of the kitchen in relation to the dwell- areas. The worst conditions are to be found ing-honse, the position of the back-lane in where back-to-back houses have been constructed relation to the kitchen and the dwelling-house, or where the lane between the rear of houses is the construction of rooms or basements against not more than 6 or 8 feet wide. In either case or too close to the side of the hill and the divi-
There are two kinds of overcrowding in neither light nor ventilation is accessible sion of rooms into cubicles. All of them serve to from the back, while only a very inade-obstrnet the light and free circulation of air so Hongkong-one produced by the close proxim- quate amount is obtainable from the narrow necessary for a healthy dwelling. Besides the ity of the houses, crowding the occupants of street or lane in front owing to the height of close, narrow and ill-ventilated streets and the houses ou a small area; the other by too the houses being out of all proportion to the width lanes, formed by the process of erecting too many inmates occupying one house. Both of of the street or lane! Similar unhealthy con- many houses on too smallja space. the structure these may occur apart from one another but it ditions occur when the rear of the house abuts of the houses and of their, interior is not in is usual for them to be found together, producing on the hillside with the additional circumstance accordance with sanitary principles. The conditions of the worst kind. Plate I, showing that the house is rendered damp during the newer houses are often worse in this respect a block of houses in Health District No. 5,
one the older, for at !rains from percolation of water from the hill than
the farnisbes an example of both kinds, for not The best conditions are to be seen in the tendency was to build shallow houses from only are the houses crowded together, thus newest localities, more especially in Kowloon which sunlight and fresh air were excluded in raising the density of population on the area, - where the houses are separated from one another consequence of other houses being built later but the houses themselves are overcrowded The interior of this blook by wider streets and where back-yards or back-in 100 close proximity to them. As time has with people. lanes, and in some cases back-yards and back- gone on, houses bare generally become deeper lanes are provided; but eves here, though a and deeper, until there are being erected on the great improvement on the old areas has been Praya Reclamation back-to-back buildings of effected and, in that respect, the conditions are from 7 to 9 feet each in depth with an extra more healthy, yet as will be shown later the 10 feet of verandah in each encroaching on the separation is not to snob an extent as to prevent public street. the areas when completely built over becoming more or less insanitary and bearing a resemblance in a minor degree to the insanitary areas of the old period. Between the old and the new localities there is every variety of density, and as the density of the houses approximates more to the one or to the other, so do insanitary conditions vary. Houses, like individuals, require a certain amount of space to themselves to be healthy, and if that space is encroached upon in any way and the houses are brought in close proximity to one another without com- pensating arrangements for adequate ventila- tion and exposure of the rooms-to sunlight, it is only a matter of time for the locality to become unhealthy.
The necessary amount of separation of houses where property is valuable and where a large population is to be housed is usually secured by regularly laid-out streets which bear a propor- tion in their width to the height of the houses facing them and by a definite proportion of back yard and back-lane in the rear which also bear in their width a relationship to the height of the house as well as to its roofed-over area. The importance of the width of the street is readily appreciated because it facilitates traffic, and for that reason there is of recent years no dificulty as a rule in obtaining ample separa- tion of houses facing a street, but the import ance of the space behind houses and the neces- sity for a similar amount of space as exists in the street before another house is permitted to be built in the rear, is not so manifest and consequently there is always a tendengy on the part of property owners to curtail this space; the greater their success in curtailment the more unhealthy does the locality become. Wide
in front of houses, without wide spaces behind to separate them from the houses in the ar, do not provide sufficient air space to ecure a healthy locality.
report then proceeds to give a number of xamples of crowding together of houses under old Regulations, from which we select one :---
i
In future houses, all basements should be abolished. There are many houses built with out them so that there is nothing impracticable in demanding, in all new houses, the abolition
of the basement.
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Verandahs. The large masonry verandahs three, and four stories high encroaching on the public streets to the extent of 10 feet on each side lessen the width of the streets and at the same time darken the rooms of the houses, especially of the two lower floors. In all new streets, verandahs encroaching on the public way should not be allowed. Many houses have not these masonry verandahs, but have small balconies of a lighter structure on their ow land. Plate XIII shows a row of houses in the same street with balconies on their own land and another row with masonry verandahs encroaching on the public street. The houses with the balconies get their rooms better lighted and ventilated than those with the verandahs. There is no encroachment on and narrowing of the public way. Masonry verandahs projecting on to the street were first constructed as a concession and privilege. Now it is almost looked upon as a right which permits the builder to construct in a three or four-storied house 2 or 3 extra rooms at the expense of the Govern- ment, i.c., on Government land, because the verandahs become practically rooms of the house. If a builder desires to attach verandahs to his house he should be allowed to do so only on condition that the verandahs do not encroach on Crown land. Eimilarly so in regard to balconies. The erection of balconies on narrow streets only renders these streets narrower and should be discontinued.
From the foregoing it will be gathered that the Chinese tenement houses in Hongkong differ in style from the European. They also differ from the ordinary Chinese houses in Canton or other Chinese city, where the build ings are not more than two stories in height, and often not more than one. By some gradual: process of evolution they have taken on the
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should be resumed and one or more streets cut through it so that the remaining buildings can be laid out on sanitary principles. [Since this report was drafted a number of the houses in this area have been destroyed by fire and it is very important that advantage should be taken of the opportunity thus afforded to carry out the peccessary reforms, says Professor Simp. son in a footnote.] There are many smaller areas like it, which can be rectified only by removing every other row of buildings. The latter process would reduce the surface but it would not affect overcrowding,
people in the the overcrowding of the houses, which still remains. To prevent over- crowing it is accordingly necessary not only to limit the number of houses to be built on a given area, but also to limit the number of The present people that shall occupy a room. limit of not less than 30 square feet is too low a standard and should be raised to 50 square feet.
*
No definite rules in regard to cubic space per head are laid down in England except with reference to common lodging-houses which are required by the byelaws to be vacated. the windows freely opened, and beds stripped dur ing certain hours of every day. But the Imperial Public Health Ant dfines as
Nuisance" any house or part of a house so over- crowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates and it is left to the discre- tion of the Sanitary Authority on the advice of the Medical Officer of Health to determine what constitutes overcrowding; their decision is of course subject, in the event of legal proceed. ings, to the decision of the Magistrates who would be naturally guided by expert evidence. In a tropical country and with an- Eastern population whose tendency is to herd together, the conditions are so different from those obtaining in England that it is desirable not only to have definite rules laid down for all classes of native dwellings but also to fix the minimum at'a proportionately higher level. view was taken by one of us in 1882 then recommended that 600 cubic fen space should be the minimum, head; 50 square feet of floor ans the minimum recognised in Indi In order that the unbuilt over and the New Territory shall
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