January_1968 — Page 31

probably be preferable in many ways. Wong: I don't think the greater height presents many problems of living, provided amenities are also provided at the same time for the dwellers to go to in their leisure hours.

Fawcett: If 50-storey blocks were erected in the Mongkok district, there would be acres of land available for parks, schools and playgrounds. This sort of project must surely have reached the drawing board stage in the offices of private architects here. What are the arguments against it?

Kinoshita: I don't think there are any basic problems so far as going up 50-storeys is concerned. There is no design problem. The problem is economic. The higher you go in the typhoon conditions here, then the greater the cost. In certain types of building where cost is an important factor, this may make the difference on whether the scheme goes ahead or not.

Fawcett: So the almighty dollar governs all.

not be We are the

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Wong: These things can measured in terms of dollars. dealing with human beings psychological effect on people walk- ing in a park cannot be measured in terms of dollars.

Haffner: I think it is to be mea- sured in terms of dollars merely in terms of dollars of course

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but the increase in the value of the property around these open spaces is quite considerable. Probably it is less so in Hong Kong than it would be in New York, but I cannot agree that amenity cannot be measured in dollars. For example, a harbour view in Hong Kong would put say 100 dollars on the rent of a flat per month. If you compare that with the mid- levels you can actually assess the value of a view.

Wong: You are talking in terms of the commercial value of property with open space around it. I am talk ing in terms of human beings needing space to breath, needing space to walk without being bumped into by others or run over by passing traffic.

Fawcett: Other countries in the world have developed completely self- contained communities. Don't you think that this would be possible in the New Territories. I know we are encroaching now on the hills and parklands, but wouldn't this solve part of the problem.

Kinoshita: These communities do exist in Hong Kong though they are not completely self-contained because they tend to rely on the surrounding facilities. One example is the Wah Fu estate planned by the Housing Au- thority. Here you have a housing pro- ject which is far enough detached from the centre of the city and also far enough away from Aberdeen that it has to contain all the social ameni- ties within the complex.

Haffner: But Wah Fu is not fully self-contained because it does not con- tain any industry. The basic principle

Far East Architect & Builder January, 1968

behind self-contained communities is to reduce travelling to and from work, to and from shopping. That is why satellite towns are built around Lon- don because instead of travelling 20 miles to work you go and live in a satellite town which is 50 miles from London and you can walk down the road to work.

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So the principle of self-contained communities would be a good thing even within the urban context of Hong Kong. We have terrific traffic problems and if Hong Kong were or ganised as a series of self-contained unites say with North Point you would live and work in North Point people would not have to travel to central district to work, The tram journeys at present undertaken by staff in Central District are necessitat- ed because neither Central District nor North Point are self-contained.

Fawcett: Now we have got on to the subject of traffic. We mentioned earlier flyovers and first-floor level walkways. What is the answer here for Hong Kong? There have been traffic studies. The cross-harbour tun- nel scheme has been on and off now for a long, long time. What is the immediate thing that can be done to help the person living in North Point getting to his office? Even after he leaves his tram in Central District he still has to walk, he still has to risk his life crossing roads where traffic goes at far faster speeds than I think it should in a central district. What can we do there? There is a subway from the Star Ferry under Connaught Road but that is as far as it goes.

Fitch: We have discussed the means of segregating pedestrians from traf- fic. I think that Hong Kong has gone too far now with regard to traffic and commuting. We have an existing road system. We are going to have a mass rapid-transit report which probably proposes two tunnels across the har-

hour in addition to the one which was already proposed and which probably will not be built. They are going to propose mono-rails, possibly, charging up and down Nathan Road, etc. But I don't think any of these will come off. I think Government will go ahead vigourously but they will go ahead with a normal road programme improving what we have with fly- overs and road widening to ease black spots

in fact what is done in It is very,

many parts of the world. very difficult to say just what can be done and I don't think the large sweeping programme will work here.

Fawcett: You think we cannot look too far ahead but just keep pace with what we have at the moment.

Fitch: I think we can try and pro- duce a 20-year road programme, but I don't think the fantastic expense en- visaged in this mass rapid-transit re- port will ever come into being.

Fawcett: You are talking about a road programme for traffic. What about the pedestrian?

one

Fitch: We come back now to lost opportunities, because what it really required is an overall plan and that is conformed to. But Hong Kong has not grown to a plan. It is an ad hoc place where we live from day to day and planning for the future as you would get in other countries. which are large and politically have to produce a five-year plan of what they are going to do, is not done here. What we get is an annual report that tells us what has been done over the past year, not what we are going to do in the future.

Fawcett: So it seems that very little can be done now and we may even be too late to keep abreast of our transport problems, but as regards building and social amenities there is a very big requirement.

Government photograph produced in 1964 showing Central District and how the Naval

Dockyard site might look after development

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