你質疑唔會就唔啱。1個詞語嘅意思梗係有機會演化,唔一定不變。
https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/182156/1/Content.pdf#page=5
While the exact origin of the tong lau has remained debatable, the building form is commonly assumed to have derived from the traditional townhouses of south China (Cheung 2000; lu 1990: 35–38, 51–57; Fong and Chan 1993: 36). as a general rule, the dimensions of these houses were determined by the length of the wooden poles used in their structural frame, the result being a long and narrow configuration, with a width between twelve and fifteen feet (Chadwick 1882: 100–25; Pryor 1983: 8–13). Until the 1950s the term tong lau, which translates as “Chinese-style building” in Cantonese, was used to describe any house built with this construction method, with no specification as to layout, usage, or decorative style.6
6 the meaning of tong lau changed after the mid-1950s with the advent of elevators in multistory buildings. thereafter, tong lau came to refer to buildings without elevators, regardless of their construction method or materials. note also that by this time buildings in Hong Kong were no longer built with wood; hence, the earlier derivation of the tong lau form was no longer applicable.
https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/image/catalog/journal/jpreview/HKS4.2.07.pdf#page=3
Although historical archives showed not all the Tong Lau were initially Chinese dwellings, evidence also was given by Chu that in order to gain more rental income, some European landlords converted their buildings into Tong Lau.
Tong Lau: A Hong Kong Shophouse Typology
by
Lee Ho Yin and Lynne DiStefano
Division of Architectural Conservation Programmes (ACP)
Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
https://gwulo.com/tong-lau-Hong-Kong-shophouse
Tong Lau in Hong Kong has been referred to as “tenement house.” Strictly speaking, this term does not describe the architecture, but the function of such buildings for tenement housing in response to the critical shortage of living quarters to accommodate the rising population. Such a situation became more severe from the 1930s to the 1960s, when mass influx of refugees escaping from war and political turmoil in Mainland China. The introduction of a public housing policy and the construction of large-scale public housing estates that began in the 1950s eventually alleviated the tenement housing problem in Tong Lau to a large degree.
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongHeritageExploration/posts/pfbid02JsvVRnTNMydkJKYoFh1nRYsaRBBy4chkxB8h2iJ77LZszFUBMgz3Ji5y2aMTEh7Fl
戰前以至戰後初期三四層高的Tenement House(分租樓宇,也俗稱唐樓)物業必須整幢買賣,至50年代末香港新樓逐漸變成多層Apartment Building(公寓大樓),而且可分層分單位獨立置賣,部份50-60年代綜合用途樓宇(Composite Building)更因融合商業及住宅用途而聞名。事緣戰後人口大增,政府在1956年放寬建築物可建密度(以體積及高度計算),而且戰後華商引入「分層出售」及「大廈公契」的概念。Tenement House及Apartment Building建築型式分別在於:前者有獨立街號的樓宇而又幾座相連,中間由分隔牆(Party Wall)隔開,並多由左右兩座相鄰樓宇共用上落樓梯(Party Staircase);而後者則為更大型的住宅樓宇,大樓最少仍設兩條樓梯,但每層都有公共走廊連接多個單位。
官方定義只係方便執法,根據當時法例定義嘅話,可以話任何有劏房嘅樓都係唐樓,但而家洋樓都有劏房。另一點實際定義在唐樓係排屋式,洋樓會分開到獨立一棟。