Walking along bustling Fleming Road, with its skyscrapers and high-rise commercial buildings, it's hard to imagine the avenue was once lined with tong lau - four-storey Chinese tenement housing that nurtured a close-knit community.
The 300-metre stretch beginning at Johnston Road and cutting through the heart of Wan Chai used to end at Gloucester Road - roughly where the old shoreline was before it was extended by reclamation.
It was a place that, through its architecture, typified old Hong Kong. The tong lau, with their balconies, outdoor verandahs and roofs on which children would gather to fly kites, have been recreated in an exhibition as part of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects' '100 years of Hong Kong Architecture' series.
Writer and professor Lo Wai-luen, the director of Chinese University's Hong Kong literature research centre, and architects Peter Mak Chi-cheung, Clement Wong Kam-luen and Chan Lai-liu - all Wan Chai natives - set out to recreate Fleming Road in the 1950s and 60s. They ferreted out historical photos, newspaper clippings and archive material and interviewed Fleming Road residents and store owners. They also used computer graphics to recreate an overview of the area.
'In the early 70s, the government announced it was turning Wan Chai into a financial centre and that the local residential complexes had to make way for it,' Lo says. 'As Wan Chai gains more commercial and political momentum [symbolised by raising the national flag and chanting the national anthem at Bauhinia Square], the sense of a closely bonded community is waning. We're trying to recapture the ambience of our old neighbourhood and hope others will follow and look into the local history of their immediate environment.'
The researchers say the tong lau fostered better communications and relationships among their occupants than today's modern buildings do. 'A lot of people don't get to know their neighbours these days, even if they've been living next to each other for years,' says Lo. 'In contrast, tong lau have outdoor verandahs which extend from their kitchens. Housewives could shout across the street and talk to their neighbours in the opposite building. The verandah was also a small playground for children.'