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[RICO] Hong Kong Public Housing - Non-Standard Y-Shaped Block

Mei Sang House is a 40-storey Non-Standard Y-Shaped Domestic Block¹ situated in Shek Kip Mei Estate (Phase 5). The estate is the first public housing estate² in Hong Kong, first constructed in 1953 to settle the people who lost their homes due to a big fire in the shantytown. Phase 5 Redevelopment was completed in 2012.


Non-standard blocks are residential buildings built with respect to site constraints (i.e., site-specific design approach) instead of standard plans. Although these blocks are still composed of standard flat units just like their predecessors, they broadly vary from each other in terms of layout (i.e., unit arrangement), structure and appearance. The flexibility provides also allows more variations in design and hence introduces architectural uniqueness to the system. And ever since non-standard blocks are more able to make better use of space, they have gradually replaced standard blocks as the major type of blocks for building public housing estates after 2000.


Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates are the most common type of public housing estates in Hong Kong, housing up to 28% of the city's population. Under the PRH scheme, the government offers rental flats with basic amenities to eligible tenants at an affordable price.




Public housing blocks in Hong Kong are really machines for living in! They're always designed in the most pragmatic manner - fully exploiting the site's potential (i.e., more units, more people), while fulfilling all the basic quality, safety and livability standards as mandated by the law. Housing machines are very well needed here in Hong Kong because we have some very serious housing problems.



Le Corbusier proposed that apartments are some kind of machine that efficiently houses people altogether in a place, with all the basic necessities of life within reach. Tenants should, by theory, feel "comfortable" and "productive" if their apartments are sufficiently functional.

The principles behind may look simple. But is it always the case? To come up with an effective design, one has to consider many factors throughout the process. Just imagine you're the architect and you have to figure out a solution for all the requirements below:

- You are given a limited budget and a tight deadline.
- You must abide by the development requirements as mandated by the law.
- You don't have any single piece of land to waste since lands are precious resources.
- You still have to meet the minimum housing goal no matter how bad the site is.
- You have to make sure the rental income can cover the cost after "some" years.
- You have to make things fast to build and easy to maintain.
- and many more...




And if you try to address these issues in an overly rational way, you might overlook humanity. Let's not forget that apartments are actually made for people, so people's feelings are also important. That's why a good design has to be people-centred, and that means we have to include human calculations in our designs as well. Similar to what we say, a good machine shall also be "user-friendly".

That's what makes architects one of the hardest jobs in the world. Naive solutions are not going to work here in Hong Kong because people are damn smart and they're not going to be fooled by your little tricks. See the illustration below and you will learn how the professionals balance out all these factors to achieve the optimal development outcome.




And that's how all these calculations end up - a perfectly engineered tool for housing people in the most economic and efficient way. Not to mention, this building will never fail to suit your laze! It's made to be plopped everywhere in your city ever since its birth!

Specifications

- Scale: 1 : 1
- Name: HK Non-Standard Y Block (Find it! keyword: HK)
- Footprint: 7 x 4, with the longer side facing the road
- Category (Without RICO): Unique Buildings → Level 6
- Category (RICO): Residential High → Level 5
- Color Variations: Use Repaint Mod
- Road Connection: Required

Property

Value

Milestone

Always Unlocked

Fire Hazard

Disabled

Construction Cost

50,000¢

Maintenance Cost

500¢/w

Electricity Consumption

560kw

Sewage & Water Usage

1,600m³/w

Households (RICO)

560

Tourists

250 / 500 / 250

Workers

10 / 10 / 5 / 1

Entertainment Radius

500m

Triangles

Vertices

Texture Size

Mappings

Loading Weight ²

Main

24,314

55,199

2,048 x 2,048

d / s / i / c

117.9

LOD

1,738

4,491

1,024 x 1,024

d / s / i / c

8.43

Sub-Mesh ¹

88

176

256 x 256

d / c

0.5

¹ LOD of this sub-mesh will be auto-generated by the game.
² Loading weight is an indicative value from Mesh Info Mod. The lower the number, the better the performance.

Special Notes

1. This asset has over 20k tris. It may affect performance.

2. The required items are optional. You may subscribe to them if you want better nighttime lighting.

3. This asset is RICO-ready. You will need Ploppable RICO Revisited to plop this asset as a residential building.

4. Use Repaint Mod to add a colour overlay on top of those yellowish modules.

5. Mods were used when taking the screenshots. Your mileage may vary with different lighting conditions, LUT used, choice of visual mods, and other factors.

6. This replica is not necessarily an exact recreation of the real object. The building is trimmed to 35 storeys in this project for ease of execution.

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