LAND AND HOUSING
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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 recent years city dwellers have built modern bungalows and small week-end residences in the New Territories, particularly along the main roads to Castle Peak and Fanling. Cheung Chau Island and Silvermine Bay on South Lantau have also been affected. More recently the demand for permanent accommodation in the New Territories has led to the building of large blocks of flats, particularly in the Tsuen Wan district and in Yuen Long town. In the market towns, where two- or three-storey buildings have existed for many years, the 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 the post-war circumstances of the Colony it has been a fundamental consideration that planning should be flexible, able to adapt itself to rapidly changing circumstances, and realistic in terms of economic and social conditions. More recently increasing stability has made it possible to foresee future trends with greater certainty.
Population surveys have enabled estimates to be made of future demographic conditions and it has become clear that new land for development must be opened up in the next few years. One result of this was the appointment of engineering consultants to prepare schemes for the formation and reclamation of new development areas in the New Territories. Reports on six of these areas were received and careful study was given to them. At the end of the year Government announced its decision to proceed forthwith with the most promising of these schemes, at Kwai Chung, South-east of Tsuen Wan.
Planning activities are co-ordinated within the Planning Division of the Crown Lands and Surveys Office and are concerned mainly with the preparation of outline development plans. Since 1953 plans have been prepared for twenty six of the thirty seven plan- ning districts in the urban area. One major district in the New