SPENCE ROBINSON
JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTRE
CHRISTOPHER HAFFNER, B. Arch (Liverpool), ARIBA, and GARY C. M. BROWN, Dip Arch (Auckland), ANZIA
PETER Y. S. PUN & ASSOCIATES
P. C. RUSSELL, BAILEY, LEVETT & PARTNERS
JOHN LOK & PARTNERS
●F Aamidy Candra
Main entrance showing administrative block and water tower
West corner of hydrotherapy and administrative blocks
architects
designing architects
civil engineers quantity surveyors
contractors
A RESIDENTIAL training centre for
spastic children, the John F. Kennedy Centre opened last month at Sandy Bay, is the first project to be completed in Hong Kong for the World Rehabilitation Fund Inc., an American charitable organisation.
Basic requirements of the building and the schedule of accommodation were compiled by a planning commit- tee comprising representatives of Government departments and volun- tary agencies with an interest in the treatment and training of spastic children. Detailed planning was con- trolled by the Hong Kong Advisory Committee of World Rehabilitation Fund, under the chairmanship of the Hon. Dhun Ruttonjee, CBE.
The centre has been designed to cater for 20 day patients and a maxi- mum of 60 boarders who are accom- modated in six ten-bed dormitores. Attached to each dormitory is a bath- room and toilet area for the children and a bedroom for the supervising house-mother. Two additional rooms have been provided away from the main dormitories to accommodate children who are sick or need to be isolated.
There is a large dining room which can also be used as an assembly hall. It is separated from the adjoining staff dining room by a folding partition.
Restricted Site
Educational facilities include six classrooms, two kindergarten rooms, a library and a recreation room, while the therapeutic section of the centre comprises a large physiotherapy exer- cise room with an attached hydro- therapy pool, and an occupational therapy room. The administrative section contains offices for the ther- apists, social workers and medical consultants.
At the outset of planning it was considered desirable to try and main- tain all the children's activities and facilities at ground floor level. Des- pite the restricted nature of the site
a small piece of reclaimed land overlooking the water at Sandy Bay
the architects have achieved this by placing the accommodation in a series of three parallel pavilions (two single-storey and one double-storey) linked by covered ways.
The layout was dictated by two main factors:
(a) the probable daily routine of the children, giving them minimum distances to walk.
(b) the requirement for easy outside
Far East Architect & Builder April, 1967
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