ARCHITECTURE
IN HONG KONG
THERE is rather more architecture in Hong Kong than either the architect or the layman realises. It may not be great architecture. It may not be even good architecture. But inasmuch as architecture is dis- tinguishable from mere building by the spiritual grace with which it is imbued through the creative faculties of the architect, so Hong Kong may claim to possess some architectural elements in its own development.
It might be profitable to consider as a basis for a study of the architec- ture of Hong Kong the fundamental differences between architecture and building, and between good architec- ture and bad.
There is probably no such pheno- menon as bad architecture. If it is bad. then it is not architecture. The point is how are we to know the difference? It is many centuries since Sir Henry Wotton, I believe. defined the three essentials of good architec- ture as "Firmenes. Commoditie and Delight." Range your minds quickly over a few buildings -- the first half- dozen you can think of
and sort them into good and bad. The good will all be possessed of the three qualities Sir Henry named. The bad will be deficient in one, or even all. of them.
If a building stands up and car- ries the loads of people and goods and wind and weather imposed upon it; if it is firmly founded upon a rock (or upon the piling contractors' artificial substitutions for rock): if it is "well-builded". then clearly this is the criterion of firmness.
Recall again those half-dozen build- ings. Do they all have the quality of firmness? If they are in Hong Kong.
or anywhere in the area of the South China Sea, how many of them whol ly withstand the onslaught of ty phoons, with doors and windows that are impervious to the howling wind and driving rain that lashes them without mercy? It is a sorry sight indeed to tour Hong Kong in the wake of a typhoon and see so much damage that could have been avoided if the quality had been in- corporated in the buildings. Yet it is heartening, too, that the newer buildings lacking such a quality are in the minority.
_by_
lifts, sanitary works. escalators, re- fuse chutes and so on. goes a long way towards ensuring stability in building construction. A standard of quality has been set.
Unfortunately the minimum stan- dards which legislation, codes of practice, rules and regulations may prescribe are so often too often
taken to be maximum standards. too, but this depends to a great extent on the practical capabilities and moral qualities of the people concerned.
G. CHADWICK DOVEY, A. R. 1. B. A.,
President of the
Hong Kong Society of Architects,
in a talk to the
Rotary Club of Hong Kong
IS
Many countries, through bitter experience, have found it necessary to impose restrictions on free-for-all
"Conditions" building works. probably a better word to use than "restrictions', because there is not so much a desire to restrict building. to make building safe. The quality of firmness is one which governments appreciate.
as
In Hong Kong the Buildings Ordinance and a long line of sub- sidiary legislation which covers ad- mistration. planning, construction.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 18. NUMBER 3
The results of building and plan- ning bylaws in the United Kingdom and the United States are shown only too clearly in the development of great industrial and commercial areas like
like Manchester and Leeds and New York and Chicago.
In the building boom of the later industrial revolution in England, workers' houses, of two
or four rooms each, were being pushed up at a fantastic rate, and at a cost of between $400 and $800 each. Then regulations were imposed which re-
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