Choi Hung Estate

This guide to Choi Hung Estate in Hong Kong starts with the Christmas 1953 fire that left tens of thousands of Shek Kip Mei residents homeless, and the cramped emergency blocks that followed. From there it follows how Palmer and Turner, Hong Kong's oldest architecture firm, designed a new kind of estate on the fields of Ngau Chi Wan, and how it opened in the early 1960s to house tens of thousands of families in pastel-painted, rainbow-named blocks. You'll hear about the visiting dignitaries the estate was once proud to show off, and how its rooftop basketball court later became a magnet for photographers. Look up at the pastel blocks around the car park as you listen.