estates many different sizes of room, varying between 60 and 360 square feet (the latter being a special design of self-contained flat with its own kitchen, lavatory, shower and private balcony).
71. Early in 1964 the Architectural Office of the Public Works Depart- ment designed and built the first blocks of a new pattern (known as Mark III) and by the end of the financial year 1967-68, 142 Mark III blocks had been built, at Kwai Chung in the New Territories, at Chai Wan and Tin Wan on Hong Kong Island, and at Yau Tong, Sau Mau Ping and Tsz Wan Shan in north-cast Kowloon. The fundamental differ- ence in the new design was that access to the rooms is by a central corridor on each floor and not from a communal verandah round the outside. Each room also has a small private balcony and instead of the former communal latrines, lavatories are shared between two or three families (cach of which has a key and a direct interest in keeping the facility clean). There are also refuse chutes at the end of each corridor, and whereas tenants previously had to arrange privately with contractors to fit power and light points in their rooms, these are now installed by Government in the course of construction. The Mark IV blocks, which are sixteen storeys in height, are also equipped with lifts which serve alternate floors, and were further improved by the provision of an individual water tap and private lavatory on the balcony of each room. These innovations have brought the standard of accommodation for the new tenants very close to that afforded to the residents of Government Low Cost Housing estates, the main differences being in the width of the rooms and the quality of the finish. By the end of the financial year 56 Mark IV blocks had been built; a typical plan may be seen at Appendix 11.
72. Some of the more recent estates contain both Mark III and Mark IV accommodation, but no more of the former are planned and the Mark IV itself is in turn being superseded by a Mark V design. This is a modi- fication of the Mark IV with a greater variety in the sizes of rooms, and with the proportions of rooms of different size matching more closely the sizes of the families resettled. The first Mark V block was completed in Ngau Tau Kok in August 1967 and further blocks are still under con- struction in Ngau Tau Kok, Sau Mau Ping, Tsz Wan Shan and Shek Lei estates. At the end of March 1968, the number of completed Mark V blocks stood at 15.
73. A point of interest is the growing speed with which each new design becomes obsolete. The 146 Mark I blocks were completed during a period of 86 months from October 1955 to November 1961; the 94
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