INNOVATION

The Beautiful Life Hacks in Hong Kong’s Back Alleys

In a new book, photographer Michael Wolf captures the ways inhabitants of the ultra-dense city carve personal space out of grim alleyways

Emily Matchar

Innovation Correspondent

January 29, 2016

“Nothing is thrown away here,” Wolf says. “Anything they find is just kept somewhere, because you might use it.” Here, an alley pipe becomes a stash spot for plastic bags. Michael Wolf

“You’ll always find chairs [in back alleys],” Wolf says. “Even three-legged ones.” Here, old chairs turn an alley into a sitting area, something Hong Kong's tiny apartments often lack. Michael Wolf

"[Back alleys] are just an interesting place to study how the working class people store things," Wolf says. In this alley arrangement, people—perhaps workers from a nearby restaurant or food stall—have turned water pipes into a drying rack for plastic bowls and water bottles. Michael Wolf

“The back alleys are a must-see,” Wolf says. “It’s a creative side you don’t see in museums.” Someone in this alley is using the side of the building to store an umbrella and a few snacks, an entry hall for an apartment that has none. Michael Wolf

“String is just saved because you’re always opening up stuff. You just jam the string behind pipes,” Wolf says. The resulting “beautiful flowers” of packing string are one of his favorite subjects. Michael Wolf

“Coat hangers are never used only for clothes,” says Wolf. Here, hangers are used to store and dry dish gloves and towels. Michael Wolf

“I’d never go into a back alley in Berlin or Manhattan,” Wolf says. “It’s not like that at all here.” In this alley, a resident has found a creative use for coat hangers: to make hanging planters for orchids. Michael Wolf

In many cities, the term “back alley” conjures unsavory images—drug deals, muggings, rat infestations. But in Hong Kong, with its high population density and low crime rate, working class citizens use back alleys as a sort of extended living space.

Michael Wolf, a German-born photojournalist turned fine art photographer who has lived in Hong Kong for two decades, has been chronicling these back alleys for years. Now, his new book, Informal Solutions, provides a record of just how innovative Hong Kongers can be when it comes to urban space.

Informal Solutions by Michael Wolf

Observations in Hong Kong Back Alleys

I meet Wolf at his studio in Chai Wan, an industrial area on the eastern edge of Hong Kong Island, its warehouses and factory buildings slowly becoming populated by artists and designers. Though Wolf originally settled here to use Hong Kong as a base for assignments in mainland China, he's come to be fascinated with the city's aesthetics and culture of density—tower blocks so m assive and symmetrical they look computer-generated, plants growing from cracks in the cement, one-room apartments packed to the gills with all their residents' earthly possessions. Hanging on the studio wall are various photos from Informal Solutions, detail shots of creative alley use in action.

“You have so little private space here you tend to make public space private by repurposing it,” Wolf says. “[Back alleys are] a unique aspect of the Hong Kong identity.”

In this city of 7 million, the average person has just 160 square feet to his or herself, compared to 832 in the United States. The space shortage is driven by exorbitant housing prices. Hong Kong was recently named the most expensive housing market in the world for the sixth year in a row, with the average apartment costing 19 times the annual median income. With young people unable to afford to rent or buy their own places, many are forced to live with their parents or other family members well into their 20s and 30s. Some of the city’s poorest residents live in so-called “cage homes,” subdivided apartments barely large enough for a bed and a hot plate.

In such conditions, space-starved citizens look outward for breathing room and solitude. Hong Kong’s vast network of narrow alleys, a vestige of 19th century Southern Chinese urban design, provide just that. Workers use the alleys for smoke breaks, stashing plastic stools behind air conditioning units and hiding cigarette packs in grates. Residents use their alleys as extra closet space, balancing pairs of shoes on pipes or hanging laundry from coat hangers suspended from window grates. People also beautify these often grimly gray and tiled alleys with flowerpots, turning unloved public space into makeshift gardens.

But these back alleys are at risk, Wolf says. The government is trying to clear some alleys to create better pedestrian flow in some of the city’s most dense districts. A recent HK $1 million (about US $128,000) pilot project in Hong Kong's Kowloon area involved hiring artists to paint alley walls to make them more attractive as thoroughfares. Though the murals will make the alleys more appealing to some, Wolf worries they're losing their character and utility for the city's working class.

“They [the government] call it face lifting. I call it sterilizing,” Wolf says. “Once they’re cleaned up, they become boring.”

Emily Matchar | | READ MORE

Emily Matchar is a writer from North Carolina. She's contributed to many publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic and many others. She's the author of the novel In the Shadow of the Greenbrier.