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Tיו זין
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:
Main access from Pokfulam Road
lowing it to become a focus visually from this level, but permitting it to be used for functions undisturbed and without it becoming a circulation area in itself.
The student towers of accommoda- tion thus surround the nucleus of the chapel and the hall and the staggered arrangement in plan and section find expression in the informal external grouping which is deliberate to avoid the form of a single 'institutional' monument.
Slightly apart from the student 'towers' of accommodation, but also related to the main gallery circulation, is the block of residential quarters for senior staff of the Jesuit Order. This has its own small chapel, dining room, kitchen. library and general offices.
Use was made of the sloping site to relate the levels of student accommo- dation so that no student climbs more than two or three floors to reach the level of his room from the gallery entrance. The slope is also used to isolate the service/kitchen approach from that of the general entrance.
At first sight the buildings appear to be placed in a somewhat arbitrary way in relation to the line of the road- way.
However the layout follows careful orientation to exclude the western afternoon sun. This has been achieved very successfully; no win- dows look west and all blocks have projecting walls on a roughly north- south axis. These walls, which are part of the structure. screen off the worst of the heat. At the same time the south westerly summer winds can find their way through the cells of the
Far East Architect & Builder January, 1968
buildings and good cross ventilation is possible.
Phasing
It was decided that Ricci Hall would not close down during the build- ing programme so the work had to be arranged in three phases. first phase consisted of three student for blocks, one block of quarters senior staff and the kitchens.
The
On completion of this phase the students and staff were moved from the old hall into the phase I buildings. The old hall was then demolished and phase II was built in two stages.
First the dining hall was completed, followed by the two remaining stu- dent blocks with general office and common room accommodation. Tem- porary access had to be arranged during both stages to separate the building works from the public.
Part III, the chapel, will be starting shortly.
Structure
Ricci Hall is a reinforced concrete
cross wall, beam and slab composite structure, seated on spread footings on solid ground. In-fill walls are of common brick, plastered.
This structure was chosen after a careful cost analysis and as a logical structural integration with the cellular character of the upper floors. In fact it has been very successful at the upper levels, but proved somewhat of an inhibition to the open planning re- quired in the common rooms under the student blocks.
The only problem encountered dur- ing phase I was that footings had to be taken down to a far greater depth than originally envisaged to reach a firm foundation.
During phase II a similar problem was met after demolition of the old Ricci Hall when it was discovered that underground tunnels which formed part of an old fortification were direct- ly underneath the new building. These had to be opened up and filled with mass concrete to transmit the load down to a firm foundation.
Phase I building works were com- menced in October 1964 and com- pleted in April 1966. After demoli- tion of the old Ricci Hall. phase II was started in May 1966 and complet- ed in September 1967.
Total cost of the work carried out to date is HK$2,650,000. This sum includes the footings for the chapel which are already completed, but does not include any superstructure for this last part of the project.
Contractors
The main contractor was Kason Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. Sub-contractors and suppliers in-
cluded:
Lifts and electrical
The British
General Electric Co. Ltd. Plumbing Lee Yu Kee Ltd.
—
Parquet flooring The China Engineers
Ltd.
Metal windows
Canton Metal Win-
dow Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Oil-fired stoves Hang Hing Engineer-
ing Co. Ltd. Hardware
Shewan Tomes (Equipment) Co. Ltd.; William Jacks and Co. Ltd.; and Getz Bros. & Co. Inc.
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