Development of housing forms in SSP

50s~60s
1.Tong Lau with Arcade before World War Two

Tong Lau is essentially a balcony-type tenement building for residential and commercial use. The ground floor portion is reserved for commercial use, mostly by small businesses like food vendors. The upper floors were for residential use.Most of the exsiting Tang lau locate in SSP,a special view of old HK.

2.Squatter Village

After the war,thousands of  refugees came to HK and most of who cannot afford the rent of a room in the building,so they use wood and iron sheet to build squatters,and the Squatter Village in SSP was made up of thousands of them,but it was destroyed in the big fire in 1953.

60s~70s
3.Public Housing

Public Housing Project started after the big fire,the first Mei-Ho House was built in 1954 ,after that more public housing with better conditions were built，like the So Uk Estate.

Mei Ho House

So Uk Estate

70s~80s

4.Private Housing for middle class 

Bigger and better private housing were desiged for middle class,like Mei Foo Sun Chuen which was the first private housing estate  in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99 tower complex was considered the largest private housing development in the world,accommodating some 70,000 - 80,000 people in 13,500 apartments.

Mei Foo Sun Chuen(Mei Foo Estate)

5.Rooftop Slums

Poor residents or new immigrants built rooftop slums,because the special community cannot afford a appartment,most of the slums were built on the Tang Lau

 80s~00s

 6.Luxury Private Housing

There were many private estates be built after the Mei Foo Estate,more supporting facilities were included like private club or gardens,much better living conditions than the public housing,but also,more expensive rent,only for upper and middle classes,and low income families still live in rooftop slums and old Tang Lau.