February_1970 — Page 20

External precast staircase of guard house

Balconies on the south west face of Block A

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visually creates more space in the rooms than the usual chequer board pattern.

The structure is reinforced con- crete in situ cross wall based on British Standard Code of Practice 114.

Unit cost for the three-bedroom flat (including teak wood built-in wardrobe, teak strip flooring, Armi- tage sanitary wares. fitted kitchen cupboards, emulsion paint finishes, lighting fittings, external lighting, paving and land cost) was about HK$32 per sq.ft. The one-room unit cost about HK$21 per sq.ft.; this sum covers cement tile flooring, white wash paints, hardwood doors, mosaic public flooring, teak external doors, lighting fittings and Chinese made sanitary wares, all external works and land costs.

Externally subtle overall colours have been used to accentuate the pro- jecting forms without vulgarity and to compliment the exposed concrete finishes and the natural finish of the aggregate in the precast cladding panels. Colours are a medium shade of grey for the projecting parts and light grey for the main walls, with dark ochre for the stair balustrades and the metal railing around the site.

Considerable attention was paid to the design of the link elements, parti- cularly the elevated footpath. For this, because of the complexity of the formwork involved, the designers and contractors resorted to the use of scale. models to effect the best means of construction.

The guard house acts as a focal point of the whole project. It has a fair-face concrete finish and an ex- ternal precast spiral staircase which was one of the post contract revisions necessitated by the change of brief.

Fair-face concrete is not yet widely accepted as a presentable finish in Hong Kong, according to the architect, who commends his client's generous capacity for accepting new ideas and so paving the way for further develop- ment of this technique in the colony.

The quarters cover a total building area of 56,400 sq.ft. and have a total building volume of 581,600 cu.ft. They were completed in 12 months at a total cost of HK$1,721,615, exclud- ing fees.

Contractors

The main contractor was Lock- wood Construction Co. Ltd. Sub- contractors included:

Wang On Electrical Contractor

electrical installation.

Lee Yu Kee Ltd. - Plumbing.

Far East BUILDER, February 1970

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