April_1965 — Page 35

about people

F

By HUGH LUNN

'AR EAST building came under the critical eye of a woman last month - a woman at once a female, an architect, and an American.

Mrs. Lucille Raport, was sitting in the foyer of the Hong Kong Hilton, having just completed a three-week study tour of the Far East.

The conversation started on

women-in-architecture,

shifted

to

Far East building, then back to

American building

feminine observations.

·

for some

"How do you think women architects

measure up to their male counter-parts?" I asked to start the interview on what I imagined might be a strongly held

note.

"Certainly I believe sex makes no difference to relative capabili- ties. Some men say women make fine draughtsmen because of their natural inclination to do fine detailed work.

Mrs. Lucille Raport

"But women don't seem to really be accepted in architecture in America as in Europe and other parts of the world.

"There are only 360 women architects in America, and of these only 30 have their own businesses”, she said. I poised to ask "Have you?" but Mrs. Raport guessing replied "I am one of the 30”.

to

"What of Far East building?"

Mrs. Raport first emphasised that she did not want sound patronizing "as so many critics do".

"The architects I met were talented, well informed and gracious people. The tall buildings here in Hong Kong are in general more handsome than the tall build- ings from the U.S. plan factories in the three major cities New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Use of Colour

"Hong Kong is such a frantic hive of construction activity that I was surprised and pleased to see excel- lent use of colour on beautiful urban buildings.

"The spectacular geography of Hong Kong could be spoiled easily by many structures using the same design cliches and the same monotonous white facades. Luckily this hasn't happened as yet" she said.

The scene shifted to Singapore.

"The abundance of natural growth there and its proper control and design use has made of Singapore a beautiful city.

"Some fine architectural work is being produced in various types of buildings. However a hint of the monumental is visible. as it is in all parts of the world today. This trend has its adherents and its ad- versaries in Singapore just as it has in the United

States.

"The airport building is one of the most inviting and pleasing structures of its kind I have seen any- where".

Mrs. Raport's Bangkok observations showed a deep underlying feeling against the modern tendency to pull down gracious old buildings.

"Some handsome new residences are being built in Bangkok, particularly those which express the regional

Far East Architect & Builder April, 1965

quality of the area. Many of the old unpainted wooden residences are expecially beautiful to the train- ed eye, but I doubt that the younger generation of ar- chitects in Bangkok would agree.

"Appreciation of the old comes with maturity in any art form, and perhaps sophistication too.

"Architects and the general public in the US have only recently come to realise that we must fight to save our oldest structures which are beautiful examples of their period.

"Many of our old buildings are disappearing and being replaced by contemporary buildings of lesser value architecturally" she said.

"The new ones may be bigger, more impressive, and more expensive, but less beautiful; and express vir. tually nothing of the city in which they are placed."

Mrs. Raport said it was the problem of world ar- chitects to preserve a few of these old buildings "so we have a mixed fabric of buildings, which is always much more interesting".

"There is enormous concern in America now about the appearance of urban areas. They are not getting more beautiful, but uglier".

in

"We have two different types of apartments America now the New York 'prisons' with tiny win- dows and big blank walls, and Californian-type apart- ments similar to those in this area functional".

Losing Individuality

Mrs. Raport said her study tour had made it in- creasingly obvious that the large urban areas of the world were all beginning to resemble each other.

"We are losing all the little bits of individuality that distinguish different parts of the world. Tokyo and Hong Kong now have the same type of tall buildings as elsewhere.

"No one

can really be blamed I suppose the world is growing smaller. But we could have tried to keep the individuality of places a little more than we have" Mrs. Raport said, obviously not trying to be too unkind.

As if to present both sides of the argument Mrs. Raport said it should be remembered that function had to be considered when considering architectural quali- ties.

"I don't think you can build a 20-storey reinforced concrete, or steel and concrete building, that has an in- digenous flavour, or the flavour of a Chinese Pagoda" she said.

A one-roomed mountain cabin designed by Mrs. Raport. The gabled shake roof is held together by tie-rods, which also act as curtain rods for dividing the room. Radiant floor heating enables the use of a large glass area despite heavy snow. The cabin (20ft. by 26ft.) holds eight.

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