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1201 UNION HOUSE HONGKONG · 38021
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Hong Kong architects will tackle three problems:
Better overall control of planning. Protection for qualified architects. Examination of wages and salaries.
H. K. ARCHITECTS' PRESIDENT PRE- SENTS PROGRAMME
A proper and comprehensive plan-
ning organisation for Hong Kong should be one of the immediate aims of the Hong Kong Society of Architects, declared Professor W. G. Gregory, head of the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong Univer- sity, is his inaugural address as current president of the Society on 30 January.
His own personal preference would be for a larger regional organisation, he said, but it seemed impossible to achieve the physical planning part of this. The Society's planning com. mittee had been charged with the task of formulating the outlines of an acceptable planning ordinance which they would probably present to the Government for consideration.
Hong Kong, with the existing control of land tenure, was in a more advantageous position than older territories with antiquated planning legislation.
A great step forward could be achieved if all the powers for some degree of planning possessed by various Hong Kong Government agencies could be exercised by one agency.
Most important objective of the Society, Professor Gregory said, was the protection of the title of architect for those qualified so to call them- selves and the establishment of methods of practice enforcable by law.
The members of the public, the architect's clients, were entitled to know exactly what service they could expect and what action could be
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER — VOLUME 15, NUMBER 5
taken against anyone who infringed the rules.
It was quite apparent that the Society, with its present standing, its affiliation to the Royal Institute of British Architects and its ability to conduct R.I.B.A. examinations in Hong Kong, was well able to take over the registration of architects from the Building Authority.
Third point in the Society's cur- rent programme, he said. would be to consider the position of employees in architectural practices, their edu- cation and welfare.
The Society's Council, he said, had approved his suggestion to set up an education committee which would not only be responsible for conduct. ing the R.I.B.A. examinations but would discover ways and means of preparing assistants in offices for the examinations.
With regard to the remuneration of assistants and draftsmen in offices. a number of prominent members of the Society had expressed their con-
cern.
It was desirable that an equitable scale of remuneration should be worked out. It was to the disadvan- tage of both sides when wages and salaries fluctuated with supply and demand rather than with qualifica- tion and experience.
Turning to the future of architec- ture, Professor Gregory said they had to recognise that their systems and processes, professional and prac tical, were designed for another age, when the tempo was slower, when
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