MILITARY FLATS IN Urban DISTRICT
URBAN
Photograph of the first group of buildings completed at Kowloon Tsai.
THE Army Authorities in
con-
Hong Kong have embarked on an extensive scheme of providing suitable accommodation for married families stationed in the Colony. The first development of siderable magnitude has been at Kowloon Tsai, the northern extreme end of Kowloon Tong. Up to now, outside of family quarters in the barracks themselves for married soldiers, all quarters have been of a temporary nature which have been rented by the Military. In some cases, the quarters have consisted of old buildings requisitioned by them some time ago, but lately groups of buildings have been constructed on behalf of the authorities, and rented to them over an extended period and on long term leases by civilian organisations.
The principal scheme of this nature was the one erected by Harriman Realty Co., Ltd., on Perth Street, the architects being Spence, Robinson and Partners and the contractors Lun Sang & Co.
The scheme, which the Army itself embarked on for the accom- modation of officers and other ranks, consisted of two phases, known as the Permanent (British) Married Quarters, one of the building pro- grammes of Far East Land Forces.
In the first phase three blocks of flats were constructed, one six-storey building and two three-storey build- ings. The taller building contains 24 flats for other ranks, 12 of which
have three bedrooms and 12 two bedrooms. Each apartment has a combined living room and dining- room with kitchen attached, one bathroom with separate W.C., a box room, one servant's room, and two or three bedrooms each with built-in closets. This block has
two lifts, one for passengers and one for service, each capable of carrying eight passengers. The two smaller buildings each contain six flats for officers. The planning of these flats is somewhat similar to those for other ranks but the living room is slightly larger and there is a dining slightly larger and there is room annex, separated from the living room by folding doors. In this case, there are two servant's lavatory and three bedrooms with rooms, two bathrooms, a guest
built-in closets.
In these three blocks, garages are located on the ground floors, where there is also adequate provision for playground space.
The second phase of the scheme consists of 4 blocks, all eight storeys high, in which there will be 96 flats for other ranks and 16 flats for officers. Each block has two lifts, one for
passengers and one for service; one of the blocks will be for officers and the other three blocks for other ranks. The plan- ning of all these flats is along similar lines and the accommodation provided is almost the same as that included in the first phase of the project. The officers' block is raised on stilts so that the ground floor is above the ground floor level and the remaining area underneath is divided equally between garages and a fully equipped covered children's playground.
All the buildings are of reinforced concrete with brick panels and granite stone dressing. The general finish is similar throughout the entire scheme, with teak parquet flooring for living rooms and bed- rooms, mosaic tile floors and glazed tile walls for bathrooms and kit chens, and quarry tile floors for servants' rooms. Interior walls are all distempered and exteriors are painted with "Snowcem".
In the other ranks' flats, the water heaters are of the gas type while in the officers' quarters electric storage heaters are provided; in all cases, cooking is by gas. The gas heaters were supplied by Humphreys Boyle & Co., Ltd., and are of the well-
Block of flats built on Perth Street.
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