This Minecraft map that recreates one of history’s most notorious slums made me reconsider what’s important in 3D level design – PC Gamer

Report on the Digital Reconstruction of Kowloon Walled City and its Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

1.0 Introduction: A Case Study in Urban Development Challenges

The historical Kowloon Walled City serves as a critical case study in unplanned urban development, highlighting significant challenges directly related to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). This report analyzes the city’s historical context through the lens of the SDGs and examines a recent digital reconstruction in the Minecraft platform as a tool for understanding the complexities of unsustainable urban environments.

2.0 Historical Context and Sustainable Development Goal Deficiencies

Kowloon Walled City’s existence was characterized by a near-total absence of state governance, leading to conditions that starkly contrast with the targets of numerous SDGs.

2.1 Governance and Institutional Failures (SDG 16)

The city’s unique legal status as a Chinese enclave within British Hong Kong, largely ignored by both nations, resulted in a vacuum of governance. This failure to establish effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions (Target 16.6) led to the proliferation of organized crime and a lack of basic public services, undermining peace and justice for its inhabitants.

2.2 Socio-Economic and Environmental Conditions

The living conditions within the Walled City represented a failure to meet several fundamental development goals:

• SDG 1 (No Poverty) & SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth): Classified as a slum, the city was marked by destitution and an informal economy based on illegal trading and unregulated workshops, failing to provide decent work or social protection systems.
• SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) & SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation): The report of poor sanitation, alongside unregulated clinics and dentists, indicates a severe lack of access to essential health-care services and basic hygiene, contributing to poor health outcomes.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): At its peak, the city was the most densely populated place on Earth. Its development was entirely unplanned, resulting in inadequate and unsafe housing, a lack of public spaces, and non-existent infrastructure for water, sanitation, and waste management.

3.0 Digital Reconstruction as an Analytical Tool

A project by architect and Minecraft builder ‘Sluda Builds’ has meticulously recreated the Kowloon Walled City, offering a unique platform for spatial analysis and education on urban planning failures.

3.1 Project Methodology

The reconstruction process provides valuable insights into the city’s structure:

1. 3D Modeling: A foundational 3D model was created to ensure the accurate placement of each unique, unregulated building. This highlights the organic yet chaotic nature of its growth, a key lesson for urban planners focusing on SDG 11.
2. Topographical Accuracy: The model revealed a significant 45-foot elevation difference across the site, a feature obscured in historical photographs by a uniform building height restriction. This underscores the importance of topographical considerations in urban density planning.
3. Structural and Facade Recreation: The project focused on recreating the city’s imposing external facades and labyrinthine alleyways, effectively visualizing the physical reality of extreme urban density.

3.2 Analysis of the Digital Model

The Minecraft map serves as a powerful visual aid for understanding the challenges to creating sustainable communities.

• Spatial Experience: The model effectively conveys the imposing scale and disorienting layout of the city’s narrow, illogical alleyways, illustrating the negative psychological and social impacts of poorly designed urban spaces.
• Infrastructure Visualization: While not fully detailed, the representation of interconnected buildings and rooftop access points provides a tangible sense of the ad-hoc infrastructure that residents created in the absence of formal planning, a critical aspect of informal settlements relevant to SDG 11.
• Limitations: The digital model’s primary limitation is its inability to represent the human and social dynamics—the poverty, the informal economy, and the sanitation crises. It captures the form but not the socio-economic functions that define a community’s sustainability.

4.0 Conclusion: Lessons for Achieving SDG 11

The history of Kowloon Walled City is a stark reminder of the consequences of neglecting the principles outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. Its digital reconstruction, while limited, is a valuable educational tool. It allows planners, students, and the public to visualize the physical outcomes of institutional failure and unplanned development. By studying such historical examples, stakeholders can better appreciate the imperative to build inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities (SDG 11) that provide adequate housing, basic services, and effective governance for all residents.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The article’s description of the historical Kowloon Walled City connects to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by highlighting issues of extreme poverty, poor living conditions, lack of sanitation, unplanned urbanization, and the absence of law and order. The relevant SDGs are:

• SDG 1: No Poverty
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the detailed description of the Kowloon Walled City, the following specific SDG targets can be identified:

1. SDG 1: No Poverty

   • Target 1.1: Eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere. The article mentions that the city “suffered from destitution,” which is a state of extreme poverty, directly connecting to this target.

2. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

   • Target 6.2: By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. The article explicitly states that the city “suffered from… poor sanitation,” indicating a complete failure to meet this target for its inhabitants.

3. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

   • Target 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums. The article directly classifies the Kowloon Walled City as a “slum” and describes its “rapid, unplanned urban development,” highlighting the lack of adequate and safe housing for its residents.
   • Target 11.3: By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries. The city is described as having been constructed with “no real municipal oversight,” representing the antithesis of sustainable and planned urban development.

4. SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

   • Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all. The article explains the city’s “peculiar legal status left it largely ignored by both nations,” leading to a lawless environment where the rule of law was absent.
   • Target 16.4: By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime. The text states the city was “rife with illegal trading, prostitution, and at various points, organised crime,” directly relating to the failure to combat these issues.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

The article provides several qualitative and quantitative descriptions that can be interpreted as indicators for measuring the conditions related to the identified targets:

1. Indicators for SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities)

   • Indicator related to Target 11.1 (Proportion of urban population living in slums): The article explicitly classifies the entire Kowloon Walled City as a “slum,” implying a 100% proportion for its population. The specific data point that “More than 35,000 people lived in an area of six and a half acres” serves as a stark indicator of inadequate housing conditions.
   • Indicator related to Target 11.3 (Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate): While not providing a direct ratio, the article gives a powerful proxy indicator for unsustainable urbanization by stating it “was the most densely populated place on Earth” with “a density ten times that of Earth’s most tightly packed cities.” This extreme population density is a clear measure of unplanned and unsustainable settlement.

2. Indicators for SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation)

   • Indicator related to Target 6.2 (Proportion of population using safely managed sanitation services): The article provides a qualitative indicator by stating the city “suffered from… poor sanitation.” This implies that the proportion of the population with access to safely managed sanitation was extremely low or non-existent.

3. Indicators for SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)

   • Indicator related to Target 16.4 (Combatting organized crime): The article implies a high prevalence of organized crime as an indicator of institutional failure. The description of the city being “rife with illegal trading, prostitution, and at various points, organised crime” serves as a qualitative measure of the absence of law and order.

4. Summary Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: pcgamer.com