Why can’t Hongkongers resist illegal home improvements?
- The phenomenon claims everyone from government officials and public figures to New Territories villagers, and the owner of one Lohas Park flat
- While safety is paramount, the practice may reflect a need to update Hong Kong’s building codes and regulations to offer reasonable room for creativity
Perhaps out of respect for people’s homes and privacy, the Buildings Department rarely carries out inspections for illegal construction, unless there are reasonable grounds to do so. Yet, illegal construction is a common practice in the city and the department tends to investigate only when illegal conditions are reported.
The most common “petty crimes” committed by designers and contractors include changing non-load-bearing-wall partitions, adding windows to balconies to seal them off as interior spaces, installing oversized awnings and overhangs at the building’s perimeter, and erecting rooftop structures.
While knowingly violating the building codes and regulations, in general, designers and contractors uphold a “code of honour” that any works should not pose a danger to others, and that structural components are untouchable.
Demolishing part of a structural wall to make way for a door was ludicrous on many levels. It takes collective stupidity, for lack of better words, for the designer to propose, the owner to approve, and the contractor to execute such irresponsible work without statutory review and approval.
One cannot claim ignorance, either, as it does not take an expert to identify structural walls on a floor plan and contractors had to cut through a lattice of steel rebar to create an opening.
It would certainly take an expert to perform the proper calculations and add a steel subframe to transfer the vertical loads above the doorway for a safe modification. Even if this was technically possible, given the safety concerns, it would be a rare developer or homeowners’ association that would agree to such a modification, much less the Buildings Department.
The citywide phenomenon of illegal construction covers all walks of life, building types and locations. The Lohas Park flat caught our attention because of critical safety concerns. Other incidents have been worth reporting because the offenders were political or public figures – any illegal act affects their integrity and reputation.
Why do people find it so acceptable to illegally expand or modify their homes? One may argue that the practice, both casual and abusive, is a result of Hong Kong’s congested living conditions and expensive property. Yet the phenomenon applies to high-end villas as much as to tenement buildings and subdivided flats.
Regardless of education, income bracket or social stature, Hongkongers seem to subscribe to the culture of maximising the potential of their homes, large or small. Some even feel disadvantaged if they have not expanded their homes or sealed off their balconies because, it seems, everybody else gets away with it.
Architects and designers have a professional responsibility to educate owners to keep renovations within legal parameters, to define good design, to cultivate an appreciation of quality over mere quantity, to teach that balconies let in daylight and air, and that rooftops are great places for gardening and solar panels.
Meanwhile, the omnipresence of unauthorised building works may also reflect a need to update our building codes and regulations, to offer reasonable room for creativity.
We need our statutory bodies to consciously and continuously review modern-day living habits, customary changes, cultural shifts, construction technology improvements, and new materials and methods, so that building codes and requirements can keep up.
But no matter the circumstance, all design and construction works must hold safety in the highest regard. Which is why offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, without exception.
Dennis Lee is a Hong Kong-born, America-licensed architect with years of design experience in the US and China