Far East
ARCHITECT & BUILDER
The oldest trade journal in the Far East
EDITOR: A. G. BARNETT
FEBRUARY 1966
news review
Contents
News Review
29
World News
35
Social Security System Building, Quezon
City
40
Multi-Level Town Centre for Hong Kong
Estate
47
National Palace Museum, Taiwan
53
Remodelling of Bangkok Hotel
58
Environment: A Subject for Aesthetic
Control, by Professor W. G. Gregory .. 61
Civil Engineering Section
Pasir Panjang B Power Station
New Materials and Equipment
New Contractors' Plant
Building Plans Approved
Contracts Awarded
Book Reviews
Cover Picture:
:
64
69
73
77
79
81
New Social Security System Building at Quezon City, Philippines. The 12-storey rigid frame structure has a column-free interior. See page 40.
Published monthly by Far East Trade Press Ltd.. 1908, Prince's Building, Hong Kong. Tel: 241031 European Office: Building and Contract Journals Ltd., 32 Southwark Bridge Road, London, $. E. 1. Tel: Waterloo 2060. Printed by Shum Shing Print. ing Co.. 7 Ship Street, Hong Kong. Tel: 724513.
Controlled circulation to 5,000 qualified readers
50-STOREY HOUSING BLOCKS
HONG KONG'S "most exciting" building project has been submitted for Government approval. Six tower blocks, each 50 storeys high, are proposed by the Housing Authority on the Ping Shek low-cost housing estate. Kowloon.
The scheme would cost over HK$38 million and would house 38,000 people. at seven persons per unit. The blocks are almost circular in design. Their top floors would be 420ft, above ground level.
Originally Ping Shek estate, which adjoins the Authority's award winning Choi Hung estate, was planned to provide 20-storey buildings. This plan, accommodating 28,000 people, was submitted to Government a year ago. The architects for the new project are Palmer and Turner, who also designed Choi Hung.
If the project goes ahead in its present form and already many objections have been lodged during the Authority's recent annual debate tenders will be invited from a short list of contractors for building the towers by the use of a sliding formwork system. By this system of continuous concrete pouring a structure rises at an average rate of 10in. an hour and the structure for a 50-storey block can be completed in 50 days.
A private scheme on which the building owners have consented to a full-scale experiment using the proposed slipform method is to be carried early this month on a site at Kwun Tong. On this scheme, for which Palmer and Turner are also the architects, six floors of a building will be cast in three days, working all round the clock.
Answering critisisms of the Ping Shek scheme, Mr. J. R. Firth, Commissioner for Housing, said recently that problems of people's attitudes toward the tall towers had been anticipated and were being considered, but the design had been arrived at as the optimum height for the area concerned, in the Authority's constant search for economy and amenity.
The buildings would be safe in high winds, and safeguarded against fire and electricity failures, he said.
TUNNEL INVESTIGATION CONTRACT
MAIN investigation work for Hong Kong's cross-harbour tunnel will start shortly. A HK$400,000 contract to carry out the work has been awarded to the British firm, George Wimpey and Co., Ltd. who did preliminary investigations for the scheme in 1960.
Boreholes will be sunk at different positions along the harbour bed following the proposed route of the four- lane tunnel to link Causeway Bay with Hung Hom. They will also be sunk at the approaches to the tunnel and at the site of the casting basin. Soil and rock samples will be examined and tested in the consultants' laboratory and permeability tests will be conducted in the boreholes.
Announcing the award of the contract, a spokesman for the Cross Harbour Tunnel Co., Ltd. said that the company was looking into the feasibility of using an 800 ft. floating dock in addition to a casting basin for the fabrication of the tunnel units.
Tenders for constructing the basin or dry-dock are
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1966
29