Model of Lai Chi Kok General Hospital
northwest Kowloon and the industrial townships of Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung. On another site directly behind the general hospital, a mental hospital with about 1,300 beds will be built. Incor- porated into the design for the area are combined staff quarters for both general and mental hospi- tals.
Second circular tower planned?
A 'topping out' ceremony was held last month to mark the completion of the structure of Cen- tury Tower, the 360 ft. high circular apartment block being built at Midlevels, Hong Kong.
In traditional manner the last skip of concrete was placed by Mr. Vernon Roberts, general mana- ger of the owners, Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Co. Ltd. Mr. Roberts announced that the company was considering a proposal for build- ing a second similar circular block on an adjacent site.
Century tower, which consists of a 30-storey circular tower of two flats per floor rising from a podium and garden deck, is designed by Palmer and Turner and is being built by Gammon (HK) Ltd. The main structure, 80ft. in diameter, encir- cles a slipformed services core. A very fast rate of construction has been achieved on the project, the structure of one floor being completed every 5 3/4 months. Foundation work started in October 1969 and the building is expected to be handed over in April this year.
Computing service bureau
A new company, Asiadata Ltd., has been form- ed by International Computers Ltd., Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. and Barclays Bank DCO, to operate a computing service bureau in Hong Kong
Far East BUILDER, January 1971
using an ICL 1902A computer.
ICL has already computing service bureaux in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and 1900 Series com- puters installed or on order in Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Asiadata starts business this month using its own ICL 1900 facilities. Its own 1902A computer will be delivered shortly.
Architects urged to cut costs
Architects' practice of insisting on a minimum percentage figure should be changed as it was not suitable in the present circumstances, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Finance Minister of Malaysia, told mem- bers of the Malaysian Institute of Architects at their annual dinner last month.
The Minister said that architects should cut building costs in view of the coming building boom. He called on them to help the Government in modifying methods and practices in the light of changed conditions. They should help to build up a property-owning democracy.
'It should be our aim,' he said, "to confer the benefits of home ownership on as many of our people as possible. Whereas in a colonial society only a select few owned the houses in which they lived, in a modern and progressive society we should aim at extending this benefit to the maj- ority of its members, and this is clearly a field where architects can do much.
'If home ownership is to be brought within the reach of many, it is necessary to cut costs as much as possible and I suggest that a maximum rather than a minimum scale of fees will be more than compensated for, even from the point of view of the architects themselves, by the much larger volume of business available."