ENVIRONMENT-a subject for
aesthetic control
IN the introduction to the Handbook of Architectural Practice and Management1, there is this passage
"As an example of the danger of mis-directed objectives, some_building and property development firms set maximum profit as their aim. They become very efficient and highly pro- ductive, but they produce nothing that society can be proud of. The firms may be doing well financially at pre- sent, but society is slowly awakening to the spoilation of environment that is occurring and to the lack of quality and finish in their buildings. The firms that see what society values, and are also highly productive, are the firms that will be strongest in the long term. There are also property development firms with these objec- tives, and their work is receiving world wide acclaim."
Let us consider the first part of this in the context of Hong Kong. Before spoilation of the environment can oc- cur it could be argued that there has to be in existence a desirable environ- ment that is worth maintaining. This is not the point; what we should be considering is whether re-development is producing a suitable environment.
In this article we shall consider not the new environments, such our hous- ing estates but what has happened in the existing urban areas. Nor is it intended to discuss the question of preservation though heaven knows that this needs discussing!
There is not in Hong Kong any Master Plan for the re-development of the existing urban areas. The planning regulations made under the Buildings Ordinance of 1955, cover merely the extent by which individual sites may be developed in terms of height, site coverage and plot ratio.
Heterogeneous Array
The result of the application of these regulations has been to cause the urban design to change from streets lined both with three to five storey buildings to the same streets lined with six to 30-storey buildings.
By
Professor
W. G. Gregory
B Arch, ARIBA
by
The arcades are replaced canopies at differing levels and various designs, producing a line as from a drunkards hand; the elevations sport every design cliche in the book, with no respect for neighbours or what is across the way; and the roof line is not drawn by a mere drunkard but by a lunatic. Queen's Road Central, Des Voeux Road Central, and Nathan Road, particularly its northern part, are some obvious examples of chaotic uncoordinated architectural design.
And what of the environment? This of course is partly dependent on the quality of the architecture, which gives form and style to the urban scene. But no matter how good the architecture, unless the urban area is planned with the intentions of creat- ing good environment, it cannot be achieved.
Worse Than Before
As has been previously stated.2 the increased development of individual sites has produced considerably in- creased population and traffic densi- ties and, as this has occurred without replanning, a worse environment has been created than before. Not only do the urban areas function worse, but they are far worse places in which to live, work, move and find recrea- tion.
-
Redevelopment cannot occur satis- factorily without replanning. The latest plan for the redevelopment of the Tsim-Sha-Tsui area is a travesty of the term, since more than three- quarters of the area the worst parts Once there was a consistent idiom are not and cannot be touched. to the architecture classical for im-
The plan amounts to the treatment of portant buildings like banks and ver- few fringe areas
and includes Whitfield nacular arcaded style for the shop throwing half the open houses (we are not concerned here Barracks site into the urban cauldron. with the "colonial" style of the de- The question is, since there is to tached houses on the outskirts). This be no replanning: What can be done was perhaps a little too uniform, but it was at least orderly.
What do we have now? The same streets but with a heterogeneous array of buildings in what is thought to be the modern idiom.
a
to contribute to the creation of a bet- ter environment? The
the mess architects are making of it has been pointed out, or perhaps it is fairer to put the responsibility on their clients. who meet the description in the
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1966
quotation given in the first paragraph. The inevitable answer to the ques- tion is in aesthetic control, or eleva- tional control as it is sometimes described. This is anathema to architects, since it invests the uninitiated layman with considerable control over their design and, since this control is normally exercised with conservatism, it is inhibiting to the development of new ideas. In Hong Kong, however, it is difficult to con- ceive that the exercising of elevational control could have produced worse results.
Planning Committees
The principle of aesthetic control was written into the United Kingdom Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 and the power to exercise it was vested in planning committees com- posed of members of the councils of local anthorities, often without the advice of an architect or architect planner.
In June of this year the Council of the Royal Institute of British Archi- tects reaffirmed its policy to accept the principle of the control of eleva- tions by local planning authorities but it has now made an exception in the case of applications by architects. There was strong opposition by those members of the Council who wished to see the total abolition of such control.
The pros and cons cannot be discussed fully here but are worth reading.3 One of the arguments against control was that architects in the United Kingdom were sufficiently
-
1. Handbook of Architectural Practice and Management introduction page 02 published by the Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London, W.1.
2. Far East Architect and Builder
January 1966.
W. G. Gregory "Environment ject for destruction" page 59.
a sub-
3. R.1.B.A. Journal July 1965 "Council"
pages 323 and 324.
R.I.B.A. Journal August 1965 "Aesthe- tic Control" page 379.
61