The Cocooned High-Rises Of Hong Kong – Design You Trust — Design Daily Since 2007

The Cocooned High-Rises Of Hong Kong


Cherry Street Cocoon, Hong Kong. Photograph: Peter Steinhauer

A 20+ year collection of photographs documenting Hong Kong’s hauntingly beautiful construction sites encaged (cocooned!) in bamboo scaffolding, draped in brightly hued material.

Since 1993, Peter Steinhauer has documented the many facets of Asian culture, with a keen eye for architecture, urban landscape and man-made structures and environments. On his first visit to Hong Kong in 1994, arriving at the old Kai Tak International Airport, Steinhauer noticed a very large structure encaged in bamboo and swathed in yellow material–standing out beneath a canopy of clouds, glowing against the monochromatic, urban skyline. Hong Kong is the final stronghold of the bamboo scaffolders who once practiced their trade at construction sites throughout Asia.

Reproduced in this collectible book are one hundred remarkable images that reflect Steinhauer’s fascination with these hauntingly beautiful and monumental edifices, their bamboo scaffolding draped in brightly hued swathing. The title Cocoons is a natural choice for this body of work celebrating the giant wrapped, cocoon-like structures, later to be unveiled ceremoniously, revealing for the first time the brand-new façades.

Peter Steinhauer is an award-winning photographer whose work has been published in the monographs, Vietnam: Portraits and Landscapes (2002) and Enduring Spirit of Vietnam (2007; foreword by Michael Kenna), named Best Photography Book of the Year by PDN. Represented by leading international galleries, his work is held in museums and in private, corporate and embassy collections. Born in Boulder, CO, Steinhauer lived in Asia for 20 years. He currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

More: Cocoons by Peter Steinhauer h/t: guardian

Orange Cocoon #2, Hong Kong, 2009

On visiting Hong Kong, Peter Steinhauer was fascinated by the intriguing buildings wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and coloured materials. Buildings would be encased in these “cocoons” for months while construction work was going on, to stop debris from falling on the street below.

Quarry Bay Cocoon, Hong Kong, 2013

Steinhauer says: “A coloured, semi-transparent nylon mesh material of different colours was on buildings being built or under renovation. A solid, dark-green, and opaque material was applied to buildings being demolished.”

Green-Orange Cocoon, Hong Kong, 2013

Four Blue Cocoons, Hong Kong, 2009

White Cocoon and Lights, Hong Kong, 2011

T5-T6 Cocoon, Hong Kong, 2011

Aqua Cocoon Cage #2, Hong Kong, 2012

Cocoon and Cranes, Hong Kong, 2008

Yellow Cocoon #2, Hong Kong, 2011

Green Cocoon Walls, Hong Kong, 2010

Calvin Klein Caged, Hong Kong, 2008

If you want more awesome content, subscribe to Design You Trust Facebook page.

More Inspiring Stories

Creative Architecture Photography By Nick Frank

This Underwater Observatory in Lake Zug in Switzerland Looks Like a Real Life ‘Truman Show’ Door

Amazing Views From These Wave-Shaped Apartment Buildings In Denmark

An Ultra Modern House In Hong Kong With A Glass-Walled Garage

Anagram Architects

Latin American Architecture Firm Gómez Platero Has Unveiled a Design for A Circular Monument in Uruguay to Remember Coronavirus Victims

Architecture And Fantasy In Brutalist France

Gardens of Eden: The Heavenly Horticulture Blossoming on Roofs High above the City

Scariest House In Belarus Has Neighbors On Edge

The Safe House

The Surrealist Cube House as Mountain Retreat

NEOM and The Line: Saudi Arabia Plans to Construct the World’s Largest Building

Incredible Libraries from Around the World

American Radiator Building - The Most Beautiful Skyscraper Of Art Deco Era

An Illusory Swimming Pool By Leandro Erlich

Dystopian Lighthouses By Adrian Labaut Hernandez

Magic Architecture of Stéphane Malka

15 Finalists Of The Art Of Building Architectural Photography 2016

The Buzludzha Monument

World’s Largest Vertical Garden Blooms With 85,000 Plants In The Heart Of Bogota

Futuristic Architectural Dreamscapes by Javier Valero

Man Spends Four Years Growing a Serene Church Made of Trees

Vocklabruck Platform in the Middle of a Lake

Artist Uses 100,000 Banned Books To Build A Full-Size Parthenon At Historic Nazi Book Burning Site

Spectacular Winning Photos Of AAP Magazine Awards “Shapes 2024”

The World's Highest Lego Tower

Mortsafe: Protection from the Living Dead

Rebuilding Notre Dame In Photographs

New York-Based Design Studio LARS BÜRO Has Created The 'Cybunker', An Off-Grid Shelter To House The Recently Unveiled Tesla Cybertruck

Stunning, Futuristic Redesign of IBM's Office Buildings