Photograph of the site formation work completed.
The company has long recognized this factor in its relation to its em- ployees and has maintained workers' quarters for many years but it is now embarking on a new project to provide accommodation for three hundred men and their families under more modern conditions.
The area in which this develop- ment is taking place has been obtained with the assistance and cooperation of the Hong Kong Government and quite a considerable sized colony of squatters was shifted from the site and satisfactorily trans- planted to the Lyemun area in order to make way for these buildings.
The project will consist of three buildings on a long spur located on the south side of King's Road on the hillside above the Power Station. The buildings which are rather unusually shaped are of a symmetric
al reversed Swastika design in order to provide ample light and air to every room in the building. They are so arranged as to allow ample space around each block for the activities of the children of the occupants, without interfering with the not inconsiderable pedestrian traffic, to, from and between these buildings. Because of the purpose for which the buildings are to be used and, as a measure of economy, ornamentation has been kept to a minimum, but nevertheless from an architectural point of view the ar rangement and the appearance of the building will be neither plain nor stereotyped.
It is not easy to describe the ar- rangement of the rooms and a careful study of the plan is necessary to appreciate the cleverness with which space has been allotted for the
use of several families combined together. As we have already men tioned, the building is symmetrical and consists of two sections each containing four wings joining in Swastika fashion to a central stair hall. Each wing contains a number of rooms, each room for the in- dividual use of one family, and each wing will include a common living room, kitchen, bathroom and lavatories.
There will be two wings contain- ing three family rooms each, two wings containing two family rooms each, making ten families per section. and with two sections per floor a total of twenty families per floor. There will be five floors to a building or one hundred families per building The approach to each section is by a central staircase, and there are individual fire escapes to each wing. There will be, therefore, two main stairways and seven fire escape stair- ways to each building providing accessibility and safety in ample
measure.
Architects: Messrs. Leigh &
Orange
General Contractors: Chang Sung
Const. Co.
Plumbing Installation: Dodwell &
Co., Ltd.
Crittall Metal Windows: Dodwell
& Co., Ltd.
Doors: Wilson Building Material
Supply Co.
Union Locks and Door Fittings:
William Jacks & Co., Ltd. Tiling: Castle Peak Ceramics
(1940) Ltd.
Window Glass: Pilkington's.
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Typical floor plan of one of
the buildings.
There will be three of these buildings when the project is completed.