German-born, but now Hong Kong based, photographer Michael Wolf, photographs the extreme densities of Hong Kong. In a diverse array of photographic projects Michael Wolf explores the complex cultural identities of China and Hong Kong, where he has lived since 1995.

His series ‘Architecture of Density’ rarely contain images of people, instead letting the extreme scale of the buildings remain the focus.

These are these huge apartment blocks (80 floors or so) in which everyone lives right on top of each other in this urban hyper-density. There is a historical aspect to Hong Kong’s hyperdensity. It is a culmination of a small geographic space (only 85 developable square miles), a rapid postwar economy, a politically and economically situated location, a boom in immigration influx in the 1960s, and a hands off government. Everything sort of just happened all at once, within the span of 40 or so years, starting in the 1960s.

The hyperdensity of Hong Kong is what makes it one of the most accessible, convenient, and vibrant cities on earth. The notion of overcrowded is a term used to denote places that due to its overpopulation, is unable to sustain itself in terms of living space, food, sustenance, and so on. There is a difference between overcrowded and high population density, the latter actually being a phenomenom that has many benefits economically, socially, and environmentally.

This high rise urban living is such a contrast to the Australian suburbia with its huge backyards, wide highways and car dependent lifestyle. From this perspective the early high rise attempts in the inner urban areas of Melbourne for post war migrants who worked in the factories were seen as a social disaster. It is otherwise in Hong Kong.