Hak Nam aka "The Walled City" in "Kowloon" was a compound of small stacked apartments giving housing to around 40,0000 people. Before its demolition in 1993, the photographer Greg Girard, dared to enter this "city of darkness" and took some photos.

"I was shocked and fascinated at the same time", he remembers, "the houses were up to fourteen stories high and stood closely against each other. Instead of streets, there were these very narrow corridors lined with litter. It was dark and humid."

This place was not dreamed up at the drawing board, it had been growing organically. Weirdest result of "oranically grown" architecture ever? Or an option for the future?

Photo series on spiegel.de

slightly bigger picture of the whole "thing"

If you don't mind a German documentary (the pictures are worth it):

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4