BRIAR AVENUE CO-OPERATIVE APARTMENTS
Architect: N. J. Chien,
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Two views of the recently completed apartments on Briar Avenue.
by the Co-operative Societies Ordinance, Chapter 33, and obtain a loan from Gov- ernment to cover the cost of land and buildings which loan is paid back to Gov- ernment over a period of twenty years at the low interest rate of 31 percent.
In our last issue we wrote on the urgent a group get together to form a co-opera- necessity of providing the middle-class tive society under the conditions laid down or white collar workers with quarters com mensurate with their station in life and their financial means. We suggested that economic conditions were favourable to wards the formation of building societies, possibly and preferably on a co-operative basis, to provide the financial and ad- ministrative machinery to promote and plan building projects designed for this
purpose.
The Briar Avenue Housing Co-operative consists of 16 members and the project they built includes sixteen flats, one for each member, contained in four three- It may not be generally known that the storey buildings and one four-storey build- Hong Kong Government has already done ing on the south side of Briar Avenue a great deal towards assisting its non-ex- which is a new street off Blue Pool Road. patriate officers both European and Chi- The houses are placed on a long terrace nese in building homes for themselves on the lower ground floor of which extends a basis which enabled them to live in suit- the full length of the project and contain able quarters at a rental well within their sixteen garages with the entrance hall be- means to start with, and with decreasing tween each pair of flats on the same level rentals as the years go by.
Through the Chinese Civil Servants As- sociation who have already completed one project on the Kowloon side and are now proceeding with a second and larger one on the Hong Kong side, hundreds of lower income Chinese civil servants will be ob- taining moderate sized flats including all modern facilities with a range of types from which to choose depending on the size of the family.
as the garages.
The site being formed on the slope of the hill, it was necessary to protect the cutting for the garages and the stair hall by heavy concrete retaining walls but the footings of the buildings being on natural large dining room is immediately to the ground presented no difficulties whatso rear of this living room separated from it ever and saved the cost of any piling which by a large open archway and with a large might otherwise have been necessary. The window in the dining room giving light entrance hall to the common staircase be- and through draught to both rooms. Each ing in the basement level as it were, it flat has two large bedrooms and a study was not necessary to sacrifice any entrance each with a built-in closet cupboard, and For local European civil servants one and hall space from the ground floor apart two bathrooms. At the rear of the build- project has been completed at Briar ments. All the floors, therefore, starting ing there is a pantry leading off the din- Avenue, another one is projected and ap- with the ground floor of the buildings ing room with a kitchen immediately be proved on Cornwall Street in Kowloon, proper are
identical except that the hind it and two servants' rooms,
a box and a third one also on Briar Avenue is ground floor apartments have an addition-
room, a servants' W.C. and a servants' being proceeded with now.
al terrace space over the garages.
work space.
One of the servants' rooms backs on to the wall of the study and in Each apartment has approximately 1,700
some cases this wall has been omitted pro- be the subject of an article in the next living room 17' x 20' in dimension with viding a much larger room which is in issue but summarized briefly they are that a 6' x 13' verandah opening off it. A' effect a third bedroom.
The conditions under which these build- ing co-operatives are being organised will sq. ft. of floor space and includes a large
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