Author: Claire Selvin / Source: Atlas Obscura
Amid the skyscrapers that comprise Hong Kong’s dense skyline, one might spot a few structures shrouded in vibrantly colored mesh and encased in grids of bamboo.
These spectral scaffolds have been used for construction, renovation, and demolition in China for thousands of years, and they’re also objects of enduring fascination for scholars and artists.One of the first photographs of this distinct, dynamic process is an image created by John Thomson in Hong Kong in 1871. It shows a man climbing up an intricate network of bamboo surrounding a building. The scene, rendered in black and white, reveals the apparent durability of a seemingly delicate support system.
Bamboo scaffolding is one of the strongest, lightest, and most sustainable construction techniques practiced today. The bamboo and nylon mesh are recycled and reused for other developments, and the plants themselves are some of the fastest growing in the world.
It’s easy to imagine why, when he visited Hong Kong in 1994, photographer Peter Steinhauer was immediately captivated by a building swathed in a bright yellow covering. It was a vision that he couldn’t quite shake, and the extraordinary scaffolds would become the subject of an artistic project that lasted over two decades, as well as a new, robustly sized monograph titled Cocoons.
Within its pages are images of fantastical bamboo scaffolds around the city. Close-ups focus on the…
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