Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption

A deep dive into the density of Hong Kong - from megastructures to mall skyscrapers to "expresscalators" - and how it points to a new way of urban living.

Reviews of Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption

“Chock-full of information and imagery... a great book for those who want to get lost in the shopping meccas of a fascinating world city, without actually getting lost." .
—Sky High City: The Skyscrapercity Magazine

"Hong Kong has already proven a model for urban development in China and might prove a model for elsewhere... Mall City is a book of considerably more general interest than its apparently academic origins and purpose would indicate."
—Asian Review of Books

 "This book will delight specialist scholars as well as current and future town planners, who would find in it matters for reflection and comparison on the evolution of key elements in the urban development of Hong Kong and beyond. Those interested more in Hong Kong and China than in the making of cities will find in the book keys to understanding the city spaces and sociabilities associated with them and to examining a model that is a major source of inspiration for urban development in mainland China."
—China Perspectives

"This fantastic book decodes and graphically depicts an environment both apart and ubiquitous, a convulsive form of public space in a liquid territory where intensely contested politics, commerce, and sociability weirdly merge in a city like no other.”
—Michael Sorkin, distinguished professor of architecture of the City University of New York

“A sharp lens on radically new urban forms that are emerging in China. …the phantasmagoria of the enormous interconnected free-trade shopping zone of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Mall City dissects the basic unit of this climate-controlled consumer landscape—the mall. This ongoing experiment in a continuous architecture of consumption reaches its horizontal tentacles to all corners of the mountainous island city through an efficient mass transit system, and ascends vertiginous heights through towering expresscalators climbing vast atria. This beautifully illustrated book is a must-read for those who wish to understand the future of public space in high-density cities.”
—Brian McGrath, professor of urban design and dean of constructed environments, Parsons School of Design

“Hong Kong may be packed with the most shopping malls per square kilometer in the world, but Mall City is packed with the most drawings, information, and fascinating mall facts. The book dissects, categorizes, and displays all kinds of intriguing data on the city-state’s shopping complexes and culture. Its richly layered analysis perfectly matches Hong Kong’s multi-story machines for consumption.”
—Clifford Pearson, director of USC American Academy in China

Synopsis of Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption

Hong Kong is the twenty-first-century century paradigmatic capital of consumerism. Of all cities, it has the densest and tallest concentration of malls, sandwiched between subways and skyscrapers. Its malls are also the most visited and have become cities in and of cities in and of themselves, accommodating tens of thousands of people who live, work, and play within a single structure.

Mall City features Hong Kong as a unique rendering of an advanced consumer society. Retail space has come a long way since the covered passages of Paris, which once awed the bourgeoisie with glass roofs and gaslights. It has morphed from the arcade to the department store, and from the mall into the “mall city”—where “expresscalators” crisscross mesmerizing atriums. Highlighting the effects of this development in Hong Kong, this book raises questions about architecture, city planning, culture, and urban life.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Mall City: Hong Kong’s DreamWorlds of Consumption, by Stefan Al

Part 1 : Essays

1. Predisposed towards Mall Cities, by Barrie Shelton
2. A Short History of Hong Kong Malls and Towers, by David Grahame Shane
3. The Rise of Tall Podia and Vertical Malls, by Tung-Yiu Stan Lai
4. Restructuring Urban Space: The Mall in Mixed-Use Developments, by Carolyn Cartier
5. Mall Cities in Hong Kong: Chungking Mansions, by Gordon Mathews
6. Narrating the Mall City, by Cecilia L. Chu
7. It Makes a Village, by Jonathan D. Solomon

Part 2 : Catalog

The Prescience of Malls: A Glimpse Inside of Hong Kong’s Unique ‘Public’ Spaces, by Adam Nowek
Footprints
Cross-sections
312 Malls in Hong Kong
17 Mall City Case Studies
F.A.R. (Floor Area Ratio)
Blank Wall Ratio

Type 1: Residential / Commercial
Chungking Mansions

Type 2: Mall / Residential
Golden Shopping Centre
Tuen Mun Town Plaza
Lok Fu Plaza
Citywalk

Type 3 : Mall / Office
Sino Centre Argyle Centre The Landmark Shun Tak Centre Times Square Megabox

Type 4 : Hybrid
Harbour City
Cityplaza
Pacific Place
IFCL
Langham Place
Elements

See here for a list of Stefan Al’s other books

Press

All under one roof: how malls and cities are becoming indistinguishable
The Guardian

How Hong Kong became a ‘city of malls’
CNN

The Mall isn’t Dead - It’s just changing 
CityLab

The Story of Retail is the Story of Urbanization. So What’s Next?
Brink Magazine

Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption
China Perspectives

Hong Kong is the Most Shopping Mall Crazy City on Earth. Is that a Bad Thing?
Zolima City Magazine

Non Fiction in Brief: Mall City, Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption
Asian Review of Books