F. E. Building Industry Has Urgent Research Need--
The building industry in the Far East has a very pressing need for research, believes a British woman architect who has spent virtually the whole of the post-war period in the tropics.
British Authority
is much talent here. Nevertheless I believe that a brief but concentrated study of conditions here by a team
In Singapore, a very serious problem of experts would be extremely valu- It would be a short-term was that of weight, said Miss Drew. able. "I am horrified by the amount of measure.'
J
piling that is being done here," she Miss Drew said that, in her opinion, Miss Jane B. Drew told the Builder said. "The problem is much more in Singapore that the building industry acute than is realised."'
a very large percentage of people of the poorer classes still living in the in this region could not afford to be
She pointed out that bad land was slums, had not yet been catered for without research facilities, in view of making it extremely hard for the by Singapore's housing programme. the very large housing programmes in engineers, besides taking up more The reason for this, she pointed than a third of the cost. Another
out, was the high cost of building, She interviewed during her point which required attention was which automatically raised the rents recent three-week lecture tour
would be of that pre-stressed beams Singapore, when she also acted as an cheaper and better than local hand- and made the new houses uneconomi-
cal for such poor people.
progress.
was
architectural consultant to the Shell made ones.
Company in connection with their new 15-storey building being erected in the city's main business centre.
Speaking with special reference to the housing programme of the Singa- pore Improvement Trust, Miss Drew, authoress of the book "Architecture in the Humid Tropics," said:
SEPARATE BODY
"In the SIT's gigantic housing programme, much is being done that is non-traditional. Many non-conven- tional ideas are being put into prac- tice. This is the best approach in view of the urgency of the housing problem but there must be absolute whose views are put in this article,
best for the situation.
"The Trust
Trust itself, its planners, architects, builders and others con nected with the programme, are doing a magnificent job but they are far too pre-occupied to give attention to the suitability or otherwise of existing procedures from a long-term point of
MISS JANE B. DREW,
is
CHEAP UNITS
The solution to this problem would lie in putting up a very large number of cheap, possibly pre-fabricated units, which would permit considerable flexi- bility with regard the inner partitions.
to
Miss Drew explained: "Space is The poor cannot
very valuable.
afford much of it. For them, there- fore, it must be provided as cheaply as possible. One way is to build just all the outer walls of their houses, even multi-storeyed ones, and leave the inside partitioning to the tenants themselves."
She envisaged the use of very light,
certainty that the ideas used are the a Fellow of the Royal Institute of pre-fabricated screen-walls which the British Architects, a Member of the tenants, according to their require- Indian Institute of Architecture, and ments, might hire from the building a recognised authority on building in authority concerned. the tropics. She is at present design- ing a new university building for the of planning housing for the masses Another extremely important aspect Nigerian Government.
would be the provision of individual She said: "The Singapore Govern- latrines, bathrooms and kitchens in ment's building policy appears to be each separate unit, said Miss Drew. very sensible, but I believe that "If there is a separate body with cost than at present. Otherwise it it must get down to a much lower
She stressed that there should be research into tropical building as its will face the risk of failure because no compromise in this matter for only concern, the wealth of knowledge it cannot subsidise beyond a certain much of the social (even criminal) it can gather will be of immense value limit.' to all connected with the industry.
problems in large housing areas arose
view.
NO COMPROMISE
In this connection, Miss Drew from the presence of communal lava-
"A research station, which is direct- advised that a team of expert consul- tories, bathrooms and kitchens. ly concerned not with the Govern- tants, drawn from any part of the Miss Drew was one of the four ment's building programmes but with world, would be most valuable, even architects commissioned by the Indian only the problems of building in the if their services were used for only a Government to design the City of tropics in general, and in its own short period.
Chandigar, capital of East Punjab, country in particular, will, without She added: "I do not mean that where her ideas were widely accepted doubt, make its existence wholly the architects here are not competent. and used in the construction worthwhile."
They are very good indeed. There schools, hospitals, and homes.
24
of
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3
Page 30Page 31
Cinema
of
Distinction
LIDO
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