Hotel Malaysia a curved 14-storey block shopping arcade and a Starlight Lounge providing views over the island. The building will be air-conditioned throughout.
According to the architect, the main bedroom struc- ture will be of reinforced-concrete, cellular crosswall design, resting on verandah trusses above widely-spaced columns on the ground floor. The roof structure will probably consist of bow-string trusses, post-tensioned and radiating from an eccentric centroid.
Piling on the four-acre site at Tanglin Circus was carried out by Gammons (Singapore) Ltd. Tenders for the main construction work, which is expected to take about two years to complete, have already been called, but the contract has not yet been awarded.
CRAFT CONTEST
SKILLED craftsmen are to take part in a trade contest organised by the Philippine Contractors Association and to held in conjunction with the association's annual con- vention on March 12 and 13.
President of the association, Mr. David M. Consunji, announced last month that the contest would be limited to carpenters, masons and other skilled workers in the employ of PCA members. Prizes worth P4,000 will be awarded.
The Secretary of Labour will make the awards to the winners in each trade who will be chosen by a panel of judges headed by Mr. A. Apilado of the Philippine College of Arts and Trades. The president said that details of the sites and times of the contests would be given shortly.
PROTECTION RACKET
A RECENT report in The Straits Times reveals that con- tractors in Singapore are suffering at the hands of gangsters. According to the report thousands of dollars have been squeezed out of contractors who face an alternative of wanton destruction to their blocks of flats.
Rather than face the heavy cost of intended damage builders are said to be paying from M$200 to M$500 a month until work on a block of flats is completed. A spokesman of the Housing and Development Board is reported as saying that contractors might add these costs to their bills as extras. But in spite of this the police are taking action and plainclothes men have been posted at work sites.
LOW-COST HOUSING
WORK will begin next month on a 20-storey domestic block at Nga Tau low-cost housing estate in Kowloon, Hong Kong. To be built to a new design, it will even- tually accommodate 5,000 people.
The Ngau Tau Kok estate is part of Government's recently announced plan to develop three new estates to
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provide housing for people of the low-income groups. The other two estates are the Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island and the Tsz Wan Shan Estate in Kowloon.
Main difference in the new design for the three estates is that each housing unit will be provided with a private toilet in place of the previous communal latrines and bathrooms. The housing units will also be wider 14 ft. as compared with 11 ft. in estates completed earlier.
Some 82,000 people will be accommodated in a new resettlement estate in the Sham Shui Po district of Kowloon. Site formation work is to start this month.
The site, Pak Tin, is located on the hillside im- mediately north east of the Shek Kip Mei estate. Initially three major building platforms will be formed on different levels for six eight-storey and five 16-storey domestic blocks together with two seven-storey standard flatted factories and seven 24-classroom annexe schools. Groundwork is expected to take three to four years to complete, but the first platform should be ready for the construction of the resettlement blocks towards the end of 1966.
SARAWAK DEVELOPMENT
SHORTAGE of building contractors and technicians is likely to curtail spending on construction projects in Sarawak, which has been allocated M$72.4 million for development in 1965.
Of the total allocation from the State Development Fund, road and bridge building gets $13 million, Gov- ernment buildings $2.7 million, miscellaneous rural projects $1.8 million, and drainage, town development, land and water supplies $1 million each.
The overall five-year development plan for Sarawak, started last year, envisaged the spending of $343 million. But the plan is to be incorporated in the first Malaysia Development Plan 1966-1970 and revised requirements are being considered by Ministry for National and Rural Development.
SINGAPORE CHURCH
THE new Bethesda (Katong) Church at Singapore, de- dicated recently, is an example of how good modern design can be applied to the most modest building.
Built at a cost of M$90,000, it has a deep facia, accentuating the reinforced concrete portal frame struc- ture. A brick front wall acts as a noise barrier and side sun beakers cut off the sun's rays and glare. Sliding doors at the side open on to a covered terrace.
The architects are Ang Kheng Leng and Associates, Singapore.
Frontage of the Bethesda (Katong) Church, Singapore
Far East Architect & Builder February, 1965
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