Density and precarious housing: overcrowding, sensorial urbanism, and intervention in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper offers an approach to understanding high-density living in precarious housing. Developing a conception of housing density based on ‘density expressions’ and ‘density modalities’, we argue for a focus on how domestic density is experienced and intervened in by residents and other groups. This approach builds in existing work in Housing Studies and Urban Studies on domestic over-crowding by demonstrating the value of attending to its sensorial experiences, and practices that seek to alleviate those experiences. Drawing on fieldwork in Hong Kong, one of the densest and more unequal housing markets in the world, we identify ‘infiltration’ as a key form of density expression. We go on explore two density modalities through which residents and other groups, including civil society organisations and the state, practice modest forms of intervention in the struggles of precarious housing: ‘improvisation’ and ‘transition’. We conclude by considering the implications both on housing in Hong Kong and for future research on precarious housing.