BOOK LAUNCH – Mass Housing and New Towns in Hong Kong and Scotland
Schedule
Sat Nov 08 2025 at 05:30 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC+08:00Location
WYNG Commons | Hong Kong, HK
About this Event
Description
This event marks the recent publication of three books that consider aspects of 20th-century (and early 21st-century) housing and planning history, in Hong Kong and beyond. The first, Hong Kong Public Housing: an Architectural and Policy History, is a landmark study by Miles Glendinning, whose Mass Housing: Modern Architecture and State Power sets developments in Hong Kong into wider contexts. The broader narrative of modern public housing is also a focus in the third title being launched, Building Modern Scotland: a Social and Architectural History of the New Towns, 1947-1997, by Alistair Fair and co-authors. Alistair and Miles will discuss the books, showing how they offer new insights into the history of modern planning and architecture, and thinking about the lessons for the future.
About the Authors
Miles Glendinning is Director of the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies and Professor of Architectural Conservation at the University of Edinburgh. He has published extensively on modernist mass housing and modern architecture in a comparative global context: his books include the award-winning Tower Block (1994, with Stefan Muthesius); Mass Housing – Modern Architecture and State Power – a Global History (2021), and Hong Kong Public Housing – an Architectural and Policy History (2025).
Alistair Fair is Reader in Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh. A historian of modern architecture in Britain who has written about subjects including theatres, universities and hospitals, his recent work includes the Open Access book Building Modern Scotland: a Social and Architectural History of the New Towns, 1947-1997, co-written with Miles Glendinning and others (2025), as well as work on Milton Keynes in England. He is currently editing a book on the late-1940s generation of new towns across England, Scotland and Wales, which will be published in 2026, and is researching a book on the later (1960s/70s) new towns.
Co-organizer
Society for Hong Kong Studies
Docomomo Hong Kong
Where is it happening?
WYNG Commons, 23-29 Wing Wo Street, Hong Kong, Hong KongEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
HKD 0.00
