Town planning for architecture students
'HE R.I.B.A. Steering Committee
ΤΗ
on
the Goss Report on 'The Architect and Town Planning' has recommended the "integration of substantial elements of planning teaching into architectural courses".
·
Their recommendations have now been agreed in broad outline by the R.I.B.A. Board of Architectural Education and the Schools Com- mittee. It seems that it is now up to each school to prepare a scheme for such a course.
The Department of Architecture has always regarded town planning as an important subject in architec- ture training. Ever since it was established, town planning schemes formed part of the studio programme and formal lecture courses on this subject have been given since 1957. It has now become an integral part of the architectural course. Planning programmes and lectures start right from the beginning of the course and run through the whole five years.
95 hours a year
The amount of time spent on town planning subjects is 95 hours in lec- tures per year, contributing about 8.5 per cent, of the total lecture hours on all subjects, but this figure does not include outside curriculum lectures on the subject given by the staff of the Department or by visiting scholars. The number of weeks devoted to studio projects and field work in town planning subjects is about 29 weeks in the whole course which is about 20 per cent, of the total studio time.1
Compared with the recognized
schools of architecture in U.K. this is in line with Edinburgh, Liverpool and A.A., which all have about 100 lecture hours and 25 studio weeks per year devoted to this subject,
21 Birmingham has only studio weeks.2
In the universities to which these schools belong, with the exception of A.A., there are Schools of Planning recognized by the T.P.I., and all offer a one-year post-graduate course in
town planning for their own graduates in architecture.
In this respect we are better off than most of the recognised schools of architecture in U.K. in the provision of planning education for the architec- tural students.
The above figures do not include the special studies done by the fifth year students, which include interest- ing subjects related to town planning. For example, this year some of the titles are:
Environmental problems of schools in urban areas in Hong Kong. Communal houses in New Terri-
tories.
Pedestrian movement in the Central
Area of Victoria.
Postwar development of the North Point area in the light of land use and other planning factors. Roof top squattering.
Anatomy of a fishing village. Environmental effect of industrial
growth in Kwun Tong. Guide to historical buildings in
Hong Kong.
Living on sampans and junks. Appreciation of Chinese landscape
architecture.
It is hoped that studies of this kind
by C.H. Wong
will form the basis for future research on some of the planning problems of Hong Kong.
The most difficult aspect of teaching planning in Hong Kong is the lack of research information about local conditions, both social and economic and on the planning standards suitable for Hong Kong. Without this in- formation, it is easy to talk about planning theories but difficult to talk about applications to the local condi- tions.
Centre for research
The need to have a Planning School is apparent, not only to train planners but also as a centre for research on local planning problems. The future development of education in town planning is being studied carefully by the carefully by the Department of Architecture and the following pos- sibilities are being considered:
(a)
(b)
a three-year architectural train- ing plus two-year town plan- ning course;
a four-year architectural de- gree course plus two-year postgraduate town planning
course:
(c) a five-year architectural degree course with a strong element
(d)
of town planning in the fourth and fifth years;
a five-year architectural course plus one year full-time plan- ning course.
The re-organizing of town planning education for architects would lead to
1 Average of 1964-65 and 1965-66.
2 R.1.B.A. Journal May 1965.
Urban renewal-area between Queen's Road East and Hellywood Road, HK-fourth year
28
Far East BUILDER, June 1968.