In the new industrial areas, sites are easy and it is surprising that even from the prestige point of view, industrial projects have not called for a tour de force from any local architect. Because a building is per- force simple, functional and cheap, does not rule out its potential as architecture. It could be said that it has a greater chance of success because of these factors.
There is a daring and boldness displayed, in the precariously placed buildings on steep slopes, which have the equivalent of three or four storeys of purely supporting structure below them an open framework of columns and beams. These are displays of ingenuity in adapting conventional structural forms to unconven- tional conditions. What is called for, and what is lack- ing, is an imaginative solution to this particular pro- blem.
Buildings worth Remembering
However, there are some buildings worth taking a visitor to see, worth remembering when away from the Colony, and worth using as a yard stick for comparision with the work being done elsewhere. A short tour round the city centre of Victoria, or not far from it. encompasses a number of of good buildings.
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The City Hall has been an undoubted functional success; the multiplicity of activities and how well it lends itself to them is a criterion of its good archi- tecture. The courtyard provides a most effective change of scale from the surrounding city, giving a feeling of quiet and serenity. The concert hall itself has a pleasant warm interior and has good acoustics and view of the stage. If permission can be obtained, a look back-stage is well worthwhile, the mechanical and electrical stage equipment is first class.
From the City Hall, an architectural ramble easily encompasses the Mandarin and Hilton Hotels. The former is "worth a visit” to see the exotic though eclectic decor not so oriental as at the Hilton, but somehow different.
The exterior of the Hilton puts it up level with its confreres in other parts of the world, which may not be to its advantage in terms of good architecture in a region where one would expect to find an architecture both mo- dern and indigenous. This is not a matter of tiled-roofs with curved pitches, but of re-creating in a modern idiom the spirit of the architecture of the past, and preserving that which is applicable environmentally to the present.
But nowhere will this be found. The earlier build- ings are of imported origins, and even by extending one's promenade up Garden Road, taking in St. John's Cathe- dral and St. Joseph's Church, both pseudo-gothic, will not reveal an example of indigenous architecture.
On the way, an essentially imported variety of ar- chitecture, but in the modern idiom, can be seen in the U.S. Consulate General, representative of the semi- romantic approach to design of the era, which re-acted to the austerity of World War II. The interior (by ar- rangement only!) has a domestic quality, good in its way, but it is not necessary to come to Hong Kong to see. Perhaps it is as it should be a home from home. In this tour, it is a pity that one cannot take in an office building or a department store; these classes of building are not well represented.
Housing Estates Impressive
JJ
A second tour could be taken around the high-class apartment houses, at mid-levels and to the south of the island, and many variations on the international theme will make the visitor envious of the view and awed by the scale but again failing to believe that these meet the domestic and cultural demands of the Hong Kong com- munity. The restrained but effective use of colour is however worth pointing out.
A third tour could be round the official housing estates, which are on an impressive scale, unprecedented anywhere in the world. An uncompromising acceptance of the problem has produced bold architectural state- ments.
At North Point, it is enhanced by a magnificent site
Far East Architect & Builder May, 1965
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KAM ETI STON AREAS & JEAN MOJE.
"a functional success"
City Hall, Hong Kong beside the harbour and at So Uk by a steeply sloping site where consideration has been given to the space be- tween buildings and to the landscaping.
The formal layout of Choi Hung, on a flat site, provides a contrast in approach, but only succeeds in achieving a human scale when the laundry in hung out on poles from the flats, the movement and colour cutting down the severe lines and massive forms. A visit to these estates emphasizes the concept of architecture as a social art and an environmental science, and in these respects Hong Kong can offer a significant experience.
A separate expedition is needed to visit the Queen Elizabeth Hospital; it is so large and takes getting used to. It is difficult to make up one's mind on the scale. The parts are in scale with the whole. But is it in scale with its essential function of caring for the sick? Would it not be more suitable for some conveyor-belt system of medical treatment and care?
However, like the housing, it has to meet the re- quirements of a very large complex problem, and again like the housing the problem, having been tackled in a bold uncompromising wav, has resulted in a successful building, unified, complete and functionally efficient although a little too austere in treatment for some tastes.
Besides these buildings there are others which are worthy of the appelation of architecture
some of the smaller Government projects for public buildings, the work done by the Ministry of Public Works and Build- ings for the Army and the offices and quarters in the Royal Navy Dockyard.
Boldness of Approach
In case there may appear some ambiguity in this discussion on the subject of boldness and daring in ar- chitecture, it should be explained that there are two aspects of this. On the one hand, there is the boldness of approach to the form and structure of buildings which the challenge of programme and site demands, and on the other hand there is the boldness required to face up to the size of projects. In the former category there is nothing, but in the latter, as has been shown, Hong Kong architects are never daunted by size.
There is a danger that pre-occupation with solving the dimensional problems is obscuring the need for great- er consideration of the form, structure, and expression and also of the relationships of buildings to one another and to the urban scene. If only we could have amidst our enveloping "bye-law building" at least one or two buildings that could stand unabashed beside Pirelli and Seagram.
Hong Kong architects are too preoccupied by what is called the business proposition, the buildings ordin- ance, lease conditions, alterations of lease premiums, transformer rooms and flushing water and one wonders if in the end the wood cannot be seen for the trees, and if in fact, having solved all these problems, the result is as economic as it should be. If the projects had been tackled architecturally, giving major consideration to form, space and user requirements, would not the results have been better from every point of view?
It will be interesting to see if one's reactions to the architecture of the Hong Kong will have changed
one's return.
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