CANDID COMMENT (From page 68).
anyone owning property, real or otherwise, accepts responsibility for it at all times and under all circumstances, both when it is an asset and when a liability. When a motor car becomes useless and irre- parable, it cannot be left behind, beside the road. So with real estate, whea it is useless, irreparable or when the owner cannot afford to repair, then it has to be legitimately disposed of, even if it means giving it away!
Building owners require 100% development of sites and will go to any lengths and take any risks to achieve it. Irrespective of the nature of the result, in terms of a good physical and even of a sound economic plan. The ingenuity of the authorised architects employed, to meet the statutory requirement of staircases and exit routes in these circumstances for instance would be open to admiration if it did not border on the ridiculous in the results obtained.
With a desire for maximum deve- lopment there goes a desire to do so with minimum cost; there is a reluc- tance to go to the expense of sheet piling to retain the ground under neighbouring buildings when this sys- tem is feasible; or when this is not feasible, to carry out step by step underpinning (a word that does not appear in the Hong Kong dictionary), which admittedly is expensive. The cheapest piling systems, precast per- cussion piling, are used, which apart from shaking adjacent buildings down. about the ears of the tenants, renders their lives a misery for weeks on end for many hours a day.
'Work Stoppage'
to
The new legislation gives the Building Authority more cause withhold approval of plans and con- sent to commence work, and entails considerably more inspection of sites for projects involving the demolition. of old buildings and foundation work adjacent to them. The result of this legislation is a stoppage of work on a large number of sites, given in some quarters as of the order of 300, which are pending in- spection and approvals of submission for the safe-guarding of possible affected property.
The stoppage of work has caused a potential loss of income to develop- ers, already estimated as running
110
into hundreds of millions of dollars and of potential revenue to Govern- ment.
a
The safety of the public, is the first concern of the Building Authority and it is difficult to see what alter- native lay open
considering the number of house collapses, main- ly as a direct result of adjacent building operations, but also as result of general decay, the effect of typhoons, and the pounding of heavy traffic. The Building Authority would appear to have had no difficulty in convincing Legislative Council of the seriousness of the situation and of the appropriatness of the measures which were being proposed to deal with it.
'Cut - fee - rates'
to
However, there are those, who feel that there was no need introduce additional legislation, and that existing powers and procedures were adequate: that under the Build- ings Ordinance, despite approval and consents, in the end it is the authoris- ed architect who takes responsibility for the safety of his buildings and of buildings likely to be affected by his operations; he is subject to very severe penalties if he fails in his duty. It is also argued that the more con- trol exercised over the authorised architect the less is his authority.
on
These arguments are tenable. if all authorised architects do, in fact understand and exercise their respon- sibility, but there is a section of this body, who the face of the evidence do not do so. The reason may be that having operated at cut- fee-rates for years, and having aban- doned all thoughts of professional ethics, they now find themselves in the pockets of investors, "who when they say jump, they jump." loss of their authority is due to their failure to act as professional men should, and not because of Building Autho- rity control. The Building Authority would seem to have decided that it was better not to wait, until a few more people were killed, taking action. Loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of much needed new space, however valuable cannot be measured against loss of human life.
'Urban Renewal'
before
What is the real answer to all this? It needs considerable study and a
lengthy exposition. The problem, all will agree, is not satisfactory either from the point of view of all con- cerned with building and develop- ment, or from that of the Building Authority.
There needs to be an interim plan and a long-term plan. For the latter, the answer would be, in the first place, that plot by plot redevelop- ment is not a satisfactory method of dealing with blighted areas of high population density, and that the only way is to carrying out Urban Renewal, once termed Slum Clear- ance, (but with wider connotations). It is the human element that is lost sight of, in these situations and it is this that is the most important. Not only must the poor people be better housed, but their whole environment must be improved, which means im- provement of civic facilities, of pedestrian and traffic circulation, of transportation, provision of open space and amenity facilities.
'Start Immediately'
Area by area, the blighted areas require comprehensive redevelopment. 'This involves the movement of many thousands of people and activities from old to new places. This must be started immediately, whilst there is still a virgin area which can be developed to take the first evacua- tion; after which it becomes a process of repetition.
an
The short term solution, depends on all those concerned recognizing the gravity of the situation, as overall problem and not as so many individual and private problems; it depends on all developers, authorised architects and contractors conscien- tiously working within the frame- work of the building law, in a deter- mined effort to make it effective; it depends on all concerned exercising patience until the present hold-up has been eliminated or until a technique may be devised to combat it (an all out study by the professional bodies, through a working party is indicated); all in all it depends on a highly responsible outlook towards develop- ment in its impact on the general public the developer, cannot operate "in vacuo," he is dependent on the good-will of the public if he wants his contribution to be accept- able the worse his offering, the sooner it will be the means of destroying him.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER--VOLUME 19, NUMBER 4