rocker-lange blog

We are excited to share that Christian J. Lange will be speaking at a special Book Talk hosted by ORO Editions and Axiomatic Editions during the opening weekend of the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Palazzo Bembo, the event will explore the continued relevance of architectural books in our digital era, drawing inspiration from Victor Hugo’s famous line, “Ceci tuera cela”. Christian will be joining an exceptional group of authors to discuss the work on his book “Cities of Repetition”, the role of authorship as activism, and how those ideas intersect with the Biennale’s theme, “Intelligens.”

Location and time:
Palazzo Bembo
Saturday, May 10, 2025, 4:00 PM

Featured Speakers include:
– Adèle Naudé Santos (Santos Prescott and Associates)
– Alan Ricks (MASS.)
– Charles Waldheim (Harvard University)
– Christian J. Lange and Jason Carlow (HKU and American University of Sharjah)
– John Marx (Form4 Architecture)
– John Lin (HKU)
– Jordan Rogove & Wayne Norbeck (DXA Studio)
– Susan Jones (atelierjones)

Moderators: William Richards (Team Three) & Ashley Simone (Axiomatic Editions)
Presented with the support of the European Cultural Centre.

If you’re attending the Biennale, I hope you’ll join us for this afternoon of critical discussion and exchange.

We are pleased to announce that Christian J. Lange will be delivering a lecture, alongside co-author Jason Carlow, as part of the Future Human Habitats Lecture Series 2025 at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. In this talk, Lange and Carlow will share insights from their recent book, Cities of Repetition: Hong Kong’s Private Housing Estates. The lecture will explore the urban logic, architectural patterns, and socio-spatial dynamics of Hong Kong’s large-scale residential developments, offering a critical lens on the city’s high-density living environments.

The lecture will be held on April 1st 2025 at 5:00pm in the lobby in Building H Future Human Habitats, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School.

We’re pleased to share a recent article by Christopher DeWolf in the South China Morning Post, which highlights the research and insights behind Cities of Repetition, the book co-authored by Christian J. Lange and Jason Carlow on Hong Kong’s private housing estates. 

Please visit SCMP website to read the article:
https://amp-scmp-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3286743/design-secrets-hong-kongs-private-housing-estates?

I am thrilled to share the upcoming book launch at HKU of “Cities of Repetition,” co-authored by Christian J. Lange. The book launch is part of HKU’s discussion series and will be held on 23 October, 2024.

Abstract:
Housing is one of the most fundamental elements of urban growth, and Hong Kong has for decades hosted some of the most intense built environments on the planet. The city’s urbanization has produced unparalleled living conditions in terms of building scale and density. Due to lack of space, topographical constraints, political conditions, and extremely high population density, Hong Kong became an incubator for the development of housing models and tower typologies for high-density living.

“Cities of Repetition provides a comprehensive graphic documentation and analysis of the largest Hong Kong housing estates built by private developers from the late 1960’s through the early 2000’s. The original drawings and diagrams illustrate and compare the ultra-dense, mass-produced, highly repetitive built environments in which hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents live. Drawings, diagrams and photographs not only display the immense scale of the housing estates within the city, but also present the hundreds of similarly planned housing units and their subtle differences. Detailed diagrams compare statistical information to show how the planning of these massive estates has evolved over the past decades to efficiently conform to building regulations. The publication and larger research project present a comprehensive analysis of the architectural and spatial realities of some of the most densely populated, urban environments ever built. Overall, the project presents an investigation and analysis of how hundreds of residential towers in Hong Kong, built in the final decades of the twentieth century, were shaped by regulatory and economic forces that radically standardized the city and limited architectural specificity in relation to context.

Fall 2024 Discussion Series
Date: 23 October, 2024
Time: 18:30-20:00
Venue: KB419, Knowles Building, The University of Hong Kong

Speakers:

Christian J. Lange, Associate Professor (Teaching), Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong

Jason F. Carlow, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Department of Architecture, American University of Sharjah

Discussants:
– Eunice Seng, Head, Department of Architecture, HKU
– Juan Du, Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto
– Gary Chang, Managing Director, EDGE Design Institute Ltd. HKU MArch 1987⁠
– Lam Lai Shun, Associate, Thomas Chow Architects HKU MArch 2013

We’re pleased to share Christian J. Lange’s recent participation, alongside co-author Jason Carlow, in an international webinar exploring urban density and repetition in architecture, featuring a cross-cultural dialogue between New York and Hong Kong.

New York and Hong Kong are dense, intense vertical cities. In this truly international webinar, architects and educators Jason Carlow, a professor of Architecture at the American University of Sharjah, UAE and Christian Lange, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, described their joint study Cities of Repetition. Their book provides a powerful, comprehensive, graphic documentation and analysis of the largest Hong Kong housing estates built by private developers from the late 1960’s through the early 2000’s. Their images both illustrate the ultra-dense, mass-produced, highly-repetitive built environments in which hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents live but also capture the subtle differences in the variations of repetition.

After their presentation, the speakers were joined in dialogue with NYC housing scholar Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, and Museum director Carol Willis for a discussion of the comparative housing models of New York, Hong Kong, and other cities where repetition is both a development and a housing strategy.

We are happy to share that Cities of Repetition: Hong Kong’s Private Housing Estates, co-authored by Christian J. Lange and Jason Carlow and designed by Kay Bachmann is printed and up for sale!

Cities of Repetition provides a comprehensive graphic documentation and analysis of the largest Hong Kong housing estates built by private developers from the late 1960’s through the early 2000’s. The original drawings and diagrams illustrate and compare the ultra-dense, mass-produced, highly repetitive built environments in which hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents live. Drawings, diagrams and photographs not only display the immense scale of the housing estates within the city, but also present the hundreds of similarly planned housing units and their subtle differences. Detailed diagrams compare statistical information to show how the planning of these massive estates has evolved over the past decades to efficiently conform to building regulations. The publication and larger research project present a comprehensive analysis of the architectural and spatial realities of some of the most densely populated, urban environments ever built.

While there are many positive aspects of Hong Kong’s housing estates, including remarkable urban density and economic viability, new building codes that allow for and encourage variation and heterogeneity for mass housing developments, must be developed and implemented if cities of the future are to provide humane and diverse modes of housing to sustain socially viable, heterogeneous communities.

For more information on the book, please visit:
https://appliedresearchanddesign.com/product/cities-of-repetition