space on the ground floor, transition was made at the first floor level from cross wall construction to columns. The design of the cross walls enabled them to be treated as deep beams and it was only necessary to thicken these at the first floor slab level to spread the local bearing stress over a suf- ficiently large cross-sectional area of the columns.
Site redevelopment
The 26-storey block is the second stage of a scheme by the Hongkong Electric Co. Ltd. to provide better housing for its workers by redevelop- ing the Fortress Hill site, which is between King's Road and Fortress Hill Road, North Point.
The company's brief to the archi- tects called for an initial development of 600 flats, with provision for a fur- ther 200 flats. The housing units were to be suitable for families ranging from between four and nine people and were to be based on the 35 sq.ft. per person recommended by local housing authorities. The maximum open space was to be provided for children's re- creation and the ground floor of the buildings was to be devoted to covered play areas.
Vehicular access to the site is from Fortress Hill Road, but there is also a
pedestrian access from King's Road below, via Comfort Terrace Road. The site sits on a spine of land and is eleva- ted some 100 ft. above the major King's Road.
To provide a maximum of open space, a scheme comprising three tall slab blocks was proposed. These are of varying heights and are arranged so as to define and segregate the pedestrian recreation spaces from the vehicular access roadway.
The design was also dictated by the need to build a first block of 214 flats to rehouse the occupants of the exist- ing buildings prior to demolition and site clearance.
Fair-faced
The stage II 26-storey block has 400 flats, planned for four, five, eight and nine person families. The 16 flats on each floor are arranged on either side of a central core of lift lobby and play space, and comprise equal num- bers of the four types of unit. The en- tire ground floor is devoted to covered play space and a lower ground floor has accommodation for eight car park ing bays.
Floor areas are provided at the rate of 43.75 sq.ft. (350 cu.ft.) of living space per person, exclusive of kitchen, toilet and balcony space, while ap-
proximately 500 sq.ft. of play space is available on each floor for children.
Below the block the subsoil consi- sts of very uniformly decomposed gra- nite of good bearing capacity and, despite the height of the building, it was possible to use conventional spread footings.
Reinforced concrete was used throughout for the construction of the building, both for the frame and the non-structural parts. The flats have glazed steel french windows opening out to the balconies and Naco louvres for all other windows.
In the choice of finishes, an at- tempt has been made to achieve a building that requires as little mainten- ance and redecoration as possible. Most of the concrete surfaces are left unplastered and paint is used only where required for protection or deco- ration.
The exterior finishes of fair-faced concrete, Glamorock and white ce- ment have all been chosen with this object in mind, while in the interior the additional cost of polyurethane coating on the fair-face concrete walls has more than paid off by the fact that these walls have so far withstood normal wear and tear and are today as new as when they were completed some months ago.
Fortress Hill development with stage I building in left foreground
Far East BUILDER, April 1970
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