REVIEW
17
building in 1937. Soon the old porticoed, heavily-pillared, building with its high ceilings, fans, and broad verandahs would be as out of date as the pith helmet. The new trend, in both commercial and domestic architecture, was for func- tional blocks, many air-conditioned, six to ten storeys high, making the maximum use of the site available. In the cities, the older office blocks were being systematically demolished to be replaced by loftier buildings to accommodate many more people on the same ground area. In the suburbs and on the Peak, apartment blocks were rising where villas had once stood, and former lawns and gardens were being turned into sites for garages and car parks.
Some of the forces which were influencing the new archi- tecture of Hong Kong into higher, narrower forms have already been mentioned. First was the scarcity of available land-only about eleven square miles of the Colony's total land area being suitable for residential, commercial or in- dustrial development without disproportionately heavy ex- penditure on site formation or services. Of possible building sites, many were rendered sterile by squatter camps or by buildings whose sitting tenants were protected by the Land- lord and Tenant Ordinance. The available sites, therefore, became more and more expensive, and so multi-storey build- ings were not only architecturally smart but economically necessary—whether the builder was Government itself or the private builder seeking the maximum return for his invest- ment. Since it was difficult for the cities to expand outwards they were, like Manhattan, growing upwards.
Yet another claim on land came from the new develop- ments in the Colony's industry. The capital and labour which poured into Hong Kong had produced what was vir- tually an industrial revolution, but the essential factor, land, was in short supply. The first phase of this industralization was concentrated in Kowloon, particularly in the Mong Kok and Ma Tau Kok districts. More factories, particularly textile mills, spread westwards and Tsuen Wan, in the New