LAND AND HOUSING
175
unoccupied, they soon disintegrate into heaps of rubble: in which case superstition will often forbid rebuilding on the same site. A well-built stone village house usually consists of a single ground floor room with only one entrance, often separated from the outer court by a covered porch. One side of the room (usually near the door), or one side of the porch, may be used for cooking, while the other side is used for storing grass, the principal fuel. The rear portion of the room may be screened off with wooden partitions, for use as a bedroom, and over this portion, raised some eight feet above floor-level, there may be a wooden platform or gallery used for storage or for extra sleeping accommodation. There are no ceilings, fire-places or chimneys, and few windows. The altar and shelf for ancestral tablets is at the back of the room, facing the main entrance. In the hilly Hakka areas, on account of the scarcity of level ground, many houses have their sleeping accommodation in an upper storey reached by ladder.
New Territories housing is at the present time being substantially influenced by more modern ideas, particularly in imitation of new buildings (such as schoolhouses) designed by urban architects. These, however, mainly affect the choice of materials. The essential form of the traditional Chinese house is maintained, except that newer houses have more windows. Architects are seldom, if ever, employed for village houses.
In certain areas city-dwellers have built modern bungalows and small week-end houses. In the market towns, where two- or three- storey buildings have existed for many years, modern shop and tenement buildings differ little from those in Kowloon. For any building in reinforced concrete, or of other than traditional design, it is obligatory to employ an architect.
TOWN PLANNING
In formulating its post-war planning policy the Government has borne constantly in mind the fundamental necessity that all plan- ning must be flexible, able to adapt itself to rapidly changing circumstances, and attuned to economic and social conditions.
Sir Patrick Abercrombie visited the Colony in 1948 and prepared a preliminary planning report; this outlined various physical prin- ciples and indicated how they might be applied to local conditions.