Fan of Hong Kong films makes replica of old Kowloon building sight unseen, using Google Maps

Australian artist Joshua Smith has watched Hong Kong films and wandered the streets through Google Maps, and now his doll’s-house-sized replica of a dilapidated Yau Ma Tei building has attracted attention he’s planning his first trip to the city.

Smith wants to create more Kowloon replicas to be shown at a Hong Kong gallery, after winning fans with his model of 23 Temple Street, complete with peeling paint, old posters and a tiny shrine with incense.

Smith used Google Maps to help him build the 1:20 scale replica of the four-storey Temple Street building with shops on the ground floor from his base in Adelaide, South Australia.

The model, which was shown this month at the Volta Art Fair in New York, was made using wood, cardboard, plastic card, chalk, spray paint, wire and modelling plastic. It took Smith three months working between eight and 16 hours, six or seven days a week, to finish the model.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Hong Kong cinema ever since I was a child, so the landscape of Hong Kong has always appealed to me,” he told SCMP.com.