HealthWhy looking after your skin is so crucial to your long-term healthEmerging evidence suggests a surprisingly strong connection between keeping your largest organ healthy and staving off age-related conditions like diabetes, heart disease and dementia 23 December 2024 Sofia BonatiThe skin is by far the bodys biggest organ. Depending on your height and body mass, it covers an area of around 1.5 to 2 square metres and weighs between 3.5 and 10 kilograms around 15 per cent of your total body mass.Think of it as a kind of intelligent armour. It helps you sense the world around you, protects your internal organs and defends you from pathogens. This would be reason enough to take good care of it, especially because premature ageing of skin can degrade its ability to fulfil all these functions, leaving you at higher risk of infection. The latest research, however, suggests that the consequences of skin health may go much deeper.To understand why, we need to examine its structure. Skin is composed of three layers: the outer, waterproof epidermis that is constantly regenerating; the dermis beneath, packed with fibres of collagen and elastin; and the underlying subcutis, or hypodermis, made of fat and connective tissue and filled with cavities that help to buffer the rest of the body from shock. Damage to these layers can trigger skin cells to pump out inflammatory proteins. In the short term, this results in more blood flowing to the area of injury, which can speed up healing. But if high levels of inflammation are maintained over longer periods, those chemicals may build up and, with the help of a vast network of blood vessels in the dermis, spread to other organs and damage them.AdvertisementAccelerated ageingAgeing can accelerate this process. As we get older, our skin loses collagen, water and fat making it more fragile. Worse still, many skin cells enter a state called senescence, in which they ramp up the production of inflammatory chemicals. This potentially toxic cocktail seems to amplify the risk of age-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia. Although we dont yet have definitive proof of this hypothesis, various lines of evidence now support it. Animal studies, for instance, have shown that skin damage can trigger widespread inflammation. Researchers from the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, meanwhile, found that whether someones face looked older or younger than their actual age was linked to their overall risk of developing cataracts, osteoporosis, hearing loss and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as their general cognitive functioning.In the future, we may well have senotherapeutic drugs to either clear away senescent cells, including those in the skin, or stop them releasing inflammatory proteins. These are still under development, but progress is promising. In the meantime, there is a host of lifestyle changes that can help us all to care for this crucial and fascinating organ. Read on to find out more.Explore key questions about skincare in our latest special series:Topics:

Jimmy Carter has died at 100: the average life expectancy for men in the US is 73.5.Carter's 77-year marriage could have been key to his long life, longevity expert Dan Buettner said.Research suggests married people, especially men, live longer than their unmarried counterparts.Former President Jimmy Carter, who died at age 100 on Sunday, said marrying his wife Rosalynn at age 21 was the "best thing" he ever did.The couple were married for 77 years before Rosalynn died at age 96 last year making their union the longest of any presidential couple. Rosalynn was diagnosed with dementia months before her death.Together, they shared four children and 22 grandchildren. They resided at their modest family home in Plains, Georgia.The former president surpassed the average US male life expectancy of 73.5 by more than 20 years, and his committed, loving relationship could have played a major role in his longevity, research suggests.Marriage can have serious health benefits especially for men Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at 100. Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images When researchers looked at the life expectancy and marital statuses of 164,597 Americans over age 65, they found that married men and women lived, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts.Even marriages that end can have a beneficial effect on our longevity. People who were divorced or widowed also tended to live longer than those who had never been married, according to the same 2020 study. (Important caveat: Unhappy marriages in which partners constantly criticize one another or are too demanding and controlling can erase these health benefits.)Experts say the reasons marriage has great health benefits are numerous and complex, and the exact reasons why are still poorly understood. But there does seem to be something protective about the social bonds and support that a healthy union can provide, with more built-in opportunities to socialize and connect. What we do know is that the health benefits of marriage seem to be greater for men than for women. Another study, published in March 2023, found that bachelors with heart failure were twice as likely to die within five years, compared to married men with the same heart issues. Decades of other research point to similar findings. Being married can decrease a person's risk of heart disease, cancer, and other life-shortening health conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol.Author and longevity expert Dan Buettner, the man who pioneered the idea that there are five "Blue Zones" for centenarians, told Business Insider that "investing in a spouse is a core value in all Blue Zones," whether a couple lives in Okinawa, Ikaria, Nicoya, Loma Linda, or Sardinia."Staying in a committed relationship is absolutely associated with about two years of extra life expectancy (and more for men) over being divorced or single," Buettner said.It's a key part of the way that some of the world's longest lived people connect with their tribe, and put their loved ones first, reducing inflammation in the body, promoting healthy behaviors, and keeping loneliness in check.

Never in the history of work has anyone actually enjoyed looking for it. But the frustration, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, and despondence I've heard from white-collar job seekers over the past year have been unlike anything I've encountered in my 15 years of reporting on the economy. They went to good schools. They worked at reputable companies. They've looked for jobs before, and they thought they knew the drill. But now, in the current job market, they're utterly baffled. None of their tried-and-true approaches to the job hunt seem to work anymore. It's as if they went to sleep in one world and woke up in a scarier one.In a sense, they have. We're in the midst of a deep white-collar recession, which is generating more unemployed professionals than job openings. And technology has simplified job applications to a single click, flooding employers with way more candidates than they can possibly hope to process. Those two forces have combined to create the mother of all traffic jams, breaking the job market as we know it. Sticking with the same old job-search techniques is a surefire recipe for disappointment. "Do not just apply and hope to get a callback," says Kyle Minton, a longtime recruiter in tech and manufacturing. "I promise you are being buried. We are living in a new age."But there are ways you can break through the gridlock. To assemble the best job-search advice, I spoke with two dozen experts recruiters, HR executives, career coaches, rsum writers, and those who run applicant tracking systems and job boards. I asked them for every pro tip they could think of, for every stage of the hiring process the kind of insider insights they would offer their best friend. They debunked common myths, explained the mindset of recruiters and hiring managers, and provided specific tools for getting ahead. Taken together, their advice offers a concrete guide for navigating the chaos of today's job market. Call them the new rules for job searching a blueprint for standing out in a world that makes you feel like giving up. "In this environment," Minton says, "I cannot stress enough how imperative it is to go above and beyond."LAY THE GROUNDWORKStart by looking within.If you're still employed, don't assume that the only good jobs are outside your current company. According to data from Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system, internal applicants are five times likelier to land a job than external applicants who have a referral and 41 times likelier than external applicants without a referral. To get a leg up on your competition, scout out jobs at your company before they're publicly posted. Invite colleagues who are doing the job you want out for coffee and ask them to let you know if they hear of any openings on their team. Networking begins at home. Tyler Le/BI Make a list of your dream companies.Given how terrible the job market is, you might assume it's best to play the volume game to spray and pray, as they say in the marketing business. But that's exactly the wrong approach. Paradoxically, the fact that the market is bad right now means you have to be extra intentional about narrowing your scope. If you're at the entry level, then yes apply for everything in sight. But if you've got more than a few years of experience, you need to start by thinking hard about the companies you actually want to work for, because you're going to funnel a lot of your time and energy into landing a job at those places.Keep the list short.Matt Tague, a tech recruiter turned career consultant, tells his clients to aim for a surprisingly short list of five dream employers, max. "It takes a lot of time to properly research a company," he says. "More dream companies = lower quality research."Don't be afraid to cold call. Look at the companies on your list and identify the managers running the teams you hope to join. Even if there are no job openings posted, message the managers and ask to have a quick call with them. The goal is not to ask them for a job it's to learn about their team and establish a rapport. Not sure what to say? Try using this sample DM created by Tague: BI Enlist the help of everyone you know.Friends. Former colleagues. Neighbors. College classmates. Dog park acquaintances. That guy you met in line for coffee two months ago at that really boring industry conference. Everyone.GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER ON LINKEDINEmbrace the cringe. No one wants to be that person who spends all their time on LinkedIn. ButSmash that subscribe button.Remember that list of dream companies you made? Make sure you follow every single one of them on LinkedIn. Recruiters often filter for people who already follow the company, so this is an easy way to make sure you pop up on their radar. "It shows a bit more of that initiative, that resourcefulness, that motivation," says Jenny Diani, a senior director of global technical recruiting at Autodesk. "We want to look at who's really motivated and interested in working at our company." Tyler Le/BI Optimize your profile with these 4 simple tricks.List your skills. Recruiters want to see more than job titles. Choose five skills to highlight in each job you've had.Fill in the "About" section. Yes, it really matters. Summarize your key qualifications and list the top five skills that are most relevant to the kind of role you want to land.Make the visuals pop. First impressions are key. Post a good headshot, set a cover photo, and make sure the logos of your employers show up.Hide your age. Age discrimination sucks, but it's real. If you're over 40, don't specify the year you graduated from college.Let your Open to Work flag fly.Worried recruiters will think something's wrong with you if you use LinkedIn's green banner to signal your availability? Think again. Recruiters not only don't mind #opentowork, but some even prioritize candidates who use it. So turn it on and then post about it. Do's: articulate the kind of role you want; highlight your skills and key accomplishments; be positive. Don'ts: disparage your previous employer or former colleagues; mention your fear of losing your house.PUNCH UP YOUR RSUMHire a professional rsum writer."I don't think anybody came out of the womb good at writing a rsum," says Jon Stross, a cofounder of Greenhouse. So hire an expert who knows how to do it right. Prices range from a few hundred dollars for a basic makeover to a few thousand dollars for help with networking strategy and interview prep. I've spoken with quite a few successful job seekers who credit their new gig to their professional rsum writer. But there are a lot of scammy ones out there, so do some Googling to see whether the person is legit and knows what they're talking about.Beat the AI bots by customizing your rsum for every single job you apply to.Companies are increasingly using AI to score candidates based on how well their rsums match the job description. And recruiters often prioritize rsums by filtering them for keywords from the job posting. So make sure you use those exact same words in your rsum, and list achievements that demonstrate you've already done what the company says it's looking for. "If you don't take the extra time to tailor your rsum to the job listing," says Avani Prabhakar, the chief people officer at Atlassian, "you stand no chance."Use a bot to beat the bots. Customization is time-consuming, but there are online tools that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Teal, for example, compares your rsum to job listings and suggests new bullet points to make them match up more.But for God's sake, don't put the keywords in white. For some reason, the internet has become convinced that you can game applicant tracking systems by sneaking extra keywords onto your rsum in a white font that will be visible only to the software. There's apparently a small chance it might work. But some recruiters actually check for "white fonting," and then reject you as dishonest. If you think a keyword is important, stick to black type. Tyler Le/BI Be careful with the boss vibes.Many companies are cutting back on the ranks of middle managers, which has forced a lot of senior-level professionals to apply to lower-level jobs. If that's you, don't emphasize your managerial skills in your rsum you don't want recruiters to think you're above getting your hands dirty. Instead, says Saba Siddiqui, the head of talent acquisition at Gusto, position yourself as a player-coach. Highlight all the ways you continued to pitch in as an individual contributor, even when you were in a supervisory position.Don't get your heart set on working from home.Given the return-to-office push, most companies are advertising only for in-office or hybrid roles. Many recruiters don't even bother to look at candidates who live far away. On your rsum, make sure you specify the city and state where you live at the top. If that's far from a company's offices and you're willing to relocate, indicate that next to your current location.But if you do apply for a WFH role, emphasize the W.Tailor your rsum to prove you're good at working remotely. After all, WFH is a skill of its own. "We really look for people who are autonomous, who can manage their time in an efficient way, who feel comfortable working in ambiguity, and don't require people holding their hand," says Anastasia Pshegodskaya, the director of talent acquisition at Remote. "These are the skills you would like to see on the CV." Note the roles you've had that were fully remote, and showcase your experience working with far-flung teams.Ditch the cover letter. No one reads it. For companies that require one, send in something generic, but don't spend too much time customizing it. The rsum is the far more important document.START APPLYINGGet to the front of the line.Many applicant tracking systems present candidates in the order they applied. Recruiters often don't get through all the candidates. And the companies that actually commit to reviewing every rsum will take down the job listing as soon as they get enough applicants, which can happen within days. So make sure you apply as soon as you can. Pro tip: Set up job alerts for your dream companies on LinkedIn so you get a notification the moment a new listing goes up. Tyler Le/BI Jump the line.Unless a company specifically tells you not to, send a DM or email introducing yourself to the hiring manager or recruiter. Worried it might annoy them? "I would take that risk," says Steve Knox, the global head of talent acquisition at Dayforce. "Show that you're taking initiative." Nine times out of 10, Knox says, the manager will be curious enough to click on your LinkedIn profile and if they like what they see, they'll put you on the fast track. Here's a DM one job seeker sent to a recruiter right after she applied for a position. The recruiter wrote back to set up a call, and the enterprising applicant ended up beating out more than 1,500 other candidates to land the role: BI Do everything you can to get a referral.With a referral, according to Greenhouse's data, you're nine times more likely to get hired than a candidate without one. A referral from someone who knows you well is best. But if you're not close to anyone at your dream companies, circle back to those people you cold-called and ask if they can put you in touch with their colleagues on the team you're hoping to join. And don't be shy about asking whether they'd be open to putting in a word for you with the hiring manager many companies offer referral bonuses for their employees.Don't be afraid to apply for a job cold.Can't find a connection at the company? Give it a shot anyway. In one analysis, Greenhouse found that 68% of the hires made by its clients were external applicants without a referral. Your odds will be insanely long, but it doesn't hurt to try.Pitch your own job.Four years ago, when I was looking for a new job, I had a bunch of networking calls with editors at Business Insider. I wasn't right for any of the positions they were advertising for, so I pitched them on the job I really wanted: to write features about the American workplace. They liked the idea enough to create a whole new role for me to do exactly that. Not only did it enable me to land my dream job, but it also afforded me a distinct advantage: I was the only applicant.Infiltrate your target.Full-time jobs are hard to come by so consider getting your foot in the door as a contractor. Use this website to look up which staffing agencies your dream companies use, and then contact those agencies directly. "Since their product is people," says Minton, the recruiter, "they are generally more likely to connect with you." Once you're a contractor at a company, you can network on the inside and work your way up to a full-time position.ACE YOUR INTERVIEWSDo your homework.There was a time when senior professionals could wing their interviews on charisma alone. Not anymore. "Right now there's an expectation that you have done extensive research," says Frank Burgoyne, an interview coach for experienced professionals. "And that goes beyond the company website." Read every news article about the company. Watch as many of its obscure sales presentations on YouTube as you can stand. Be ready to show that you already understand the problems the company is wrestling with and why you're uniquely qualified to solve them.Apply to some "maybe" jobs before the dream ones.Think of them as preseason warmups. Says Tague, the career consultant: "You're going to get that interview practice in a safer environment, with lower risk, than your one shot at Google."Get ChatGPT to help.Give it the job description, your rsum, and your interviewer's job title, and ask it to spit out a bunch of sample questions for you to answer. You can even have it critique your answers, but don't recite its suggestions verbatim. Recruiters can tell when you're regurgitating canned, robotic answers. Tyler Le/BI Use the STAR method.If an interview question starts with "tell me about a time that you," your answer should be structured in four steps: situation, task, action, result. "It used to be a nice-to-have," Burgoyne says. "But now companies expect that 100%." Burgoyne tells his clients not only to prep their answers, but also to keep a running spreadsheet of stories formatted in the STAR method. "You'll have that spreadsheet for the rest of your career," he says. "And you should be adding to it regularly."Don't answer "What's your biggest weakness?" with "I'm a perfectionist."It's lame, and recruiters will see right through it. Instead, talk about something that was once a weakness and then explain how you overcame it.Send a thank-you email after every interview.And not a generic "thank you so much for the interview yesterday." Mention something specific from the conversation that impressed you, or an additional thought you had about something they asked you. Bonus points if you can tie that back to the contribution you hope to make.Collect your failures.Got rejected? Treat it as another networking opportunity. Send your interviewers a request for a LinkedIn connection. And ask the recruiter if you can follow up in a couple of months to see if more jobs have opened up. "I can think of quite a few people that have been hired at Autodesk who did not get the first role that they applied for," says Diani. "They followed up either with that hiring manager or the recruiter, and were put in process for another role."KEEP YOUR COOLStay organized.It's common for job seekers to keep a spreadsheet of the jobs they've applied to. But even more important is keeping a spreadsheet of all the people you talked to along the way. Include where they work, how you met them, a summary of the conversation you had, and when you spoke. Then follow up with them every few months and hit them up for a referral when there's a job opening at their company.Don't take rejections personally.Datapeople, a provider of recruiting analytics, has found that nearly a third of all job postings never result in a hire. "Hiring happens within the context of a whole big messy company with decisions and priorities and delays and personalities," says Tague, who led recruiting teams at companies like Microsoft and Lyft. "Very rarely are they digging into it like, 'Oh, if only she'd said this.' It's not really like that on the inside. There could be internal people you don't know about. There's all kinds of factors that can come into play, but the candidate doesn't see that." So stop obsessing over the reason you were rejected it probably had little to do with you. Move on. Tyler Le/BI Build a support group.You know how married people don't understand the hell that is modern dating? Employed people don't understand how miserable job searching is these days. Make sure you surround yourself with folks who actually get it. Don't think you're alone, because you aren't.Take breaks, weekends, vacations.Job-searching burnout is real. Keep it sustainable by not doing it all the time.Congrats! You got a job!But if you're smart, you're not done with the job search. Keep networking at your dream companies. Work the room at industry events. Tague recommends setting a goal to connect with two new people a month. The more legwork you do while you've got a job, the easier it'll be the next time you find yourself looking for one. Here's hoping that's not for a long, long time.Aki Ito is a chief correspondent at Business Insider.

Jimini Health combines talk therapy with 24/7 support from an AI assistant.The mental health startup secured $8 million in funding in November.Jimini says it's taking a slow, evidence-based approach to using AI.Technology hasn't done much to improve patient outcomes from talk therapy, according to recent research. Jimini Health is hoping AI can help.Jimini's AI assistant, Sage, elevates talk therapy by conducting in-depth patient intakes and offering 24/7 messaging and personalized activities between sessions. That continuous engagement, the startup says, is the key to helping a patient retrain their brain."The way to improve this is not about that one hour a week of therapy. It's really about all the other hours in a week and helping people as much as possible there," Jimini co-founder and CEO Luis Voloch told Business Insider.Founded in 2023, Jimini landed $8 million in funding in November from investors including Zetta Venture Partners, LionBird, PsyMed, BoxGroup, Arkitekt Ventures, and SCB.The startup has been rolling out its tech since the spring. Voloch said Jimini has intentionally moved slowly to focus on safety and efficacy.It's a response to previous healthcare startup controversies, such as government investigations into startup Cerebral, as well as concern about AI safety. Numerous unregulated chatbots on the market can simulate intimate relationships, prompting some experts to worry that AI companions may actually worsen isolation, according to a New York Times report.Multiple lawsuits against startup Character.AI this year have alleged the startup's chatbots have harmed teenage users. Character.AI told BI earlier this year that it's introduced numerous safety features, and is working on more.Voloch said he told potential investors that Jimini Health wouldn't be the fastest-growing startup, nor the first to bring its product to market. Other startups may make those moves faster, "and one of them is going to end up on the front page of The New York Times with a disaster story that could've been prevented," he said.Jimini's careful, evidence-based approach draws on the expertise of its founding team. Before starting Jimini, Voloch cofounded cancer biotech Immunai, where he served as chief technology officer.The team also includes president Mark Jacobstein, the former chief business officer at Immunai, and chief product officer Sahil Sud, a member of health data startup Ribbon Health's founding team. David Feinberg, former CEO of health data giant Cerner, is one of Jimini's advisors.Voloch said Jimini's goal isn't to replace human therapists with AI but to integrate AI into their workflows. Therapists are interested in the startup's technology because they're so busy due to a shortage of experts in the field, according to Voloch. "They know there's so much more demand than they could ever handle," he said.Jimini currently treats patients with low to moderate mental healthcare needs, but hopes to expand its capabilities to take on patients with serious mental illness in the future, Voloch said.The startup has focused so far on selling directly to patients but plans to begin contracting with businesses next year. Voloch said Jimini will use its fresh funding to that end, as well as to continue improving its AI and building new features."We're going to be spending a lot more on fine-tuning and model training and development in 2025," Voloch said. "We feel like we've created an amazing patient journey that just scratches the surface of what we can do, and next year, we want to leave no stone unturned."Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck AI mental health startup Jimini Health used to raise its $8 million pre-seed round.

The architectural practice of reusing and refurbishing should be the first consideration when designing and reshaping our already overbuilt cities. Good architecture prioritizes this approach over demolition, as it can reduce costs, enhance environmental efficiency, and preserve functional structures that can continue serving their purpose for years.

An Urban Living Machine for the Common Good: Municipal Services Buildings in Hong KongSave this picture!Ap Lei Chau MSB Urban Fabric. Image Jonathan YeungIn Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas vividly discusses the Downtown Athletic Club, a striking example of how an unassuming building exterior can conceal a vibrant mix of distinct, self-contained programs. Inside the uniform facade of this skyscraper, a private athletic club hosts an eclectic range of facilitiesboxing gyms next to oyster bars and interior golf ranges below swimming poolsall segregated yet highly accessible. The Downtown Athletic Club epitomized the dynamism of New York's skyscrapers at the time, showcasing the thrill of capitalism through a selective, inward-focused world of leisure and privilege for the selected. This "machine of programs" operated independently of the external city as an isolated ecosystem within its walls. Yet, one might ask: could a similar model, designed for public use, create a more inclusive, lively community and neighborhood experience? This will activate the building within, instead of only serving the selected elites, and influence and transform the urban fabric and shapes around the building. In Hong Kong, a distant parallel can be drawn with the Municipal Services Buildings (MSBs)publicly-funded structures that serve the community by integrating diverse functions within a singular vast building mass, much like the Downtown Athletic Club. Designed as all-in-one hubs, these buildings offer essential services and experiences that cater to everyday needs, fostering local commerce and keeping neighborhoods vibrant. Over time, MSBs have evolved into more than just utilitarian buildings; they have become focal points for social activity and economic growth within a 20-minute walking radius of their location. While subway stations are the typical contemporary nodes within neighborhoods serving as transportation hubs, MSBs are unique buildings that become the hub of community engagement and leisure, driving interaction and commerce within their neighborhoods.Exploring a few key examples of these Municipal Services Buildings provides insight into their history and evolution, offering lessons on their successes and potential areas for improvement. These buildings are unique in their dual function, acting as public spaces and quasi-clubs for frequent visitors. They form a "public club"accessible to all, but with a community and social network shaped by regular users. Unlike exclusive private clubs, they blur the lines of membership and inclusion, fostering a more organic, open-ended form of community - a building type that serves the common good. Related Article Community Growth Through Architecture: Maximizing Limited Resources for Positive Impact From Conception to Community Hubs: The History of MSBs in Hong KongThe Municipal Services Buildings (MSBs) of Hong Kong trace their origins back to the colonial period. In the 1960s, Hong Kong was rocked by riots, initially sparked by labor disputes, which soon escalated into anti-colonial protests. In response, Sir Murray MacLehose, the then-governor, sought to address public discontent by fast-tracking urban development projects planned for the common good. Early plans to integrate playgrounds atop market buildings were expanded, evolving into a more ambitious concept: multi-functional urban complexes designed to meet a wide range of daily needs for the city's residents.Save this picture!The Urban Council, responsible for creating these urban complexeslater renamed Municipal Services Buildingsoversaw the development of the first MSB in Aberdeen, which opened in 1983. Designed by Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man Architects and Engineers (DLN), it was soon followed by another in Kowloon City, designed by Palmer and Turner. These initial MSBs were already ambitious in scope, and they set a precedent for integrating diverse communal functions, including wet markets, cooked food centers, libraries, government offices, and sports facilities. The range of programs, from indoor basketball courts to dance studios and gyms, embodied the city's efforts to support community well-being in dense urban areas. Over time, each new MSB continued to expand this vision, testing the limits of Rem Koolhaas' concept of Delirious New York and the programmatic density of the Downtown Athletic Club.Save this picture!One of the most ambitious MSBs is in Sheung Wan, initially built by the government department ArchSD. Standing at 13 stories, it offers the typical array of public amenitieswet markets, libraries, food centers, and sports facilitiesand a theatre, lecture rooms, practice spaces, and galleries. The sheer size and complexity of the Sheung Wan MSB and 40 other MSBs have led some to refer to them as Hong Kong's "Urban Living Room Machine." This expansive typology has attracted attention from architectural organizations like the AIA (HK) and Docomomo Hong Kong, sparking renewed interest in its potential for shaping community-focused urban design and public building. It has also become a subject of academic inquiry, with architecture students at the University of Hong Kong examining how the MSB can be reimagined and further developed to serve the common good better while expanding on architectural concepts and their agencies.From Foundation to Future: The First MSB's Lasting ImpactThe Aberdeen Municipal Services Building was the first in Hong Kong, setting the stage for a new urban complex far removed from pristine shopping malls or single-use sports centers. Its appeal lies in its organized chaos, where an eclectic mix of programs coexist in a vibrant, dynamic environment. From wet markets to cooked food centers, the building's floors are packed with finely subdivided stallsoften more than 30 on a single floor of wet markets and over 10 food stalls in dining areaseach operated by local vendors. This diverse mix facilitates small businesses and local commerce while fostering a strong sense of community. In the case of the Aberdeen MSB, including a generously sized public library and well-maintained sports facilities further enhances the building's role as a central hub where residents engage in everyday activities. It's common for locals to chat with stall owners after a workout session or grab a quick meal with their gym buddies, creating an atmosphere of familiarity and interaction.Save this picture!This unique blend of activities and the fact that these buildings are publicly funded gives users a sense of agency and ownership rarely found in commercial spaces. Without a dominant "owner" possessing the building, local residents can navigate the space as if it were their own, fostering a robust communal atmosphere. Small, tight-knit groups naturally form, carving out their routines while respecting the diversity of the other users. This grassroots sense of belonging is further bolstered by the absence of supermarkets or chain retailers, which helps to drive local small businesses. As a result, the Aberdeen MSB serves as a functional hub and preserves the local urban fabric, ensuring that the economic and social vitality of the surrounding area remains intact.Ap Lei Chau MSB: The Urban Council's Final VisionSave this picture!The Ap Lei Chau Municipal Services Building, the last of its kind developed by the Urban Council before its dissolution, opened in 1999 just across the Aberdeen Harboura mere 12-minute walk from its predecessor. This was the first MSB designed with an integrated HVAC system, marking a shift in building standards and comfort and an improvement from the perspective of building systems and thermal comfort for the users and the common good. Situated on a small island in the southern part of Hong Kong, connected by bridges and the MTR but still geographically distinct, Ap Lei Chau MSB quickly became the vibrant heart of its local community. Its harbor-side location and its role as a community hub transformed it into a critical urban node that helped activate the otherwise quiet Ap Lei Chau Waterfront Promenade.Save this picture!The building fostered a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding urban fabric, particularly along the waterfront. Locals frequently purchase fresh seafood directly from the wet market or boats docked at the nearby promenade and bring it to the cooked food stalls inside the MSB, where it is prepared to order. These stalls, not limited to the ones in Ap Lei Chau but also in other MSBs, function like communal kitchens, offering an ever-changing, unwritten menu shaped by local traditions and customers' fresh ingredients. The unique dynamic fosters a hyper-localized culinary culture, where the personal relationship between customer and vendor drives the experience. This distinctive heritage, the public built environment, and city fabric becoming like an extension of your home and living room are only made possible due to the development of MSBs.Save this picture!Beyond the waterfront, Ap Lei Chau MSB sustains small businesses in the surrounding streets, reinforcing the community-driven atmosphere typical of Hong Kong's MSBs. Activities spill out from the building, with conversations and commerce extending into adjacent streets blessed with minimal traffic. The absence of large retail conglomerates and heavy vehicular flow has allowed the area to flourish as a pedestrian-friendly, tightly-knit neighborhood. Ap Lei Chau MSB exemplifies an evolved version of the community network found in other MSBs, enriched by its island location and the leisurely urban fabric surrounding it.Urban Living Machines at a Crossroads: Renewal or Demolition?Many of Hong Kong's Municipal Service Buildings (MSBs) are now showing their age, with several surpassing the 40-year mark. This has raised questions about these once-pioneering communal structures' mounting maintenance and management costs. As Hong Kong's urban landscape has evolved, particularly with the rapid expansion of the subway system over the last two decades, younger generations have gravitated towards air-conditioned, cleaner, and more conveniently located supermarkets along their commute, most of the time residing directly above subway stations. This shift in consumer habits has sparked debate over whether MSBs are becoming obsolete. The passive design strategies used in the original MSBs, which excluded modern HVAC systems, have mainly proven insufficient, given the lack of cross-ventilation in these large, solid buildings coupled with rising urban temperatures.Save this picture!Additionally, the community-driven markets housed within MSBs often lack the oversight to maintain hygienic and pleasant environments despite their allure of organized chaos. This has become a factor that has contributed to the decision to demolish some MSBs, including the Kowloon City MSB. Luckily for the iconic Aberdeen MSB, the first of its kind, underwent a costly renovation that introduced HVAC systems and better hygiene despite losing parts of its original architectural characteristics.As the conversation around designing for the common good continues, the future of Hong Kong's MSBs remains uncertain. Will these buildings find a second life through improved design principles, integrating better passive strategies with modern HVAC systems to serve a different yet still local audience? Or will they meet a tragic end, with their roles as communal hubs gradually usurped by the forces of capitalism and real estate development? The fate of the MSBs offers a poignant case study of how we balance historical value, community-driven spaces, and the pressures of modern urban living.Editor's Note: This article was originally published on October 07, 2024, as part of the ArchDaily Topics: Designing for the Common Good.Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorJonathan YeungAuthorCite: Jonathan Yeung. "An Urban Living Machine for the Common Good: Municipal Services Buildings in Hong Kong" 30 Dec 2024. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1021987/an-urban-living-machine-for-the-common-good-municipal-services-buildings-in-hong-kong&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

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