January_1967 — Page 20

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Long Distance View of the Hermitage from the North

stepped the building back from the roads, creating some intricate spacial relationships. Maximum use was made of the fall in the land by installing three levels of parking below the ground floor. The resulting three dimensional interplay of spaces pro- vides some interesting, and at times exciting, effects.

Besides the problems posed by the nature of the site. the architect was also confronted with the problem of designing a building that was essen- tially a hostel, without imparting to it any of the atmosphere normally attached to institutional buildings of this kind. This was achieved partly by the irregular grouping of the flats around the central service core and partly by the use of open access bal- conies, which eliminates the need for internal corridors.

The Hermitage is an example of the type of dramatic architecture that can be produced as a result of close. coordinated work between the archi- tect and engineer. Much of the appeal of the building lies in the hold ex- pression of the structural elements.

Basically the structure is very sim- ple: flat reinforced concrete plate slabs spanning 24 ft. between the reinforc- ed concrete spine walls.

The design of the foundations and the car parking levels presented the

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most problems. For economic reasons, spread footings were to be used in- stead of piles and the major difficulty was the transfer of the wind loading on the spine walls to the footings when the walls had to be broken as they passed through each parking level.

Finishes

Generally, all external walls are fair-faced concrete with a white shanghai plaster finish. The screens on the access balconies are strongly textured, dark grey precast concrete panels separated by heavy teak balus- trading bolted to black, steel uprights.

Patterned flooring on the balconies is made up of small ceramic tiles laid to a simple design. All windows are galvanised steel painted black.

One of the interesting aspects of the building is the use of projecting concrete hoods above the windows on the northern facade as a means of weather protection. These hoods act as a gigantic drip above the windows and eliminate the unsightly staining to be seen on the exposed facades of many buildings in Hong Kong.

Internally all ceilings and walls are plastered. Floors in the flats are finished with teak parquet flooring. The entrance lobbies, lift lobbies and

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stair wells repeat the same finishes used externally rich brown quarry tiles on the lobby floors, smooth white terrazzo or white shanghai plaster on the walls.

The flats are fitted with a certain amount of built-in furniture including shelves, cupboards, wardrobes and dining table, designed in teak, teak veneer and Formica.

Contractors

The main contractor was Yick Lee and Co. Ltd.

Sub-contractors included:

Lifts: Jardine Engineering Corpora- tion Ltd.

Electrical work: Winsome Co. (En- gineers and Builders) Ltd.

Wood block flooring: Yick Lee and Co. Ltd.

Floor and wall tiles: British Orient Ltd.

Vinyl asbestos floor tiles: Dreyer and Co. Ltd.

Metal windows and doors supplied by Canton Metal Windows Manufac- turing Co. Ltd.

Adjustable louvre windows supplied by Precast Products Ltd.

Far East Architect & Builder January, 1967

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Detail views showing the off-form concrete work and weather hoods оп the northern facade

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Far East Architect & Builder January, 1967