The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Part I: Filters
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Shirley Wong
9.3 | Hongkong Shanghai Bank, 1886. Ground floor plan (author’s reconstruction).
upper floors. The concrete ceiling was also intended to contain a fire if one
broke out in the basement, where the kitchens were located. This separation
was also expressed externally in elevation: instead of being built in brick and
clad with polished granite, the basement was built in solid granite blocks
with a rusticated surface and iron bars on the windows. 30
Spatial Segregation
The two cultural groups were also kept apart through spatial segregation. A
clear separation in the city between the European commercial sector and the
native quarter was artificially constructed through the government’s land
sale policy and other regulations. The east-west boundary of the European
commercial sector from Ice House Street to Bonham Strand was formed after
the first land sale in June 1841. 31 At the same time, a land allocation
scheme was set up for the island, and areas to the east of the European sec-