Journal
07.04.2025
Design quality
Bamboo scaffolding
The remarkable sight of enormous towers of bamboo scaffolding climbing up into the Hong Kong sky is one of the iconic and enduring images of the city.
It’s typical of a city that effortlessly blends cutting-edge technology, consumerism and globalised trade with local customs, traditions and values, that the most futuristic skyscrapers are built using this natural, sustainable, local material simply lashed together in an apparently ad-hoc fashion.
However the government has announced that it’s going to be phased out over safety concerns in favour of conventional metal scaffolding. Sensible, no doubt, but it will be a shame to see it go.
Postscript: A year after I wrote this, 151 people tragically died in the Wang Fuk housing complex fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong. The bamboo scaffolding and mesh netting, together with the materials being used in the refurbishment are said to have contributed to the spread of the fire.
