No_2_1955 — Page 53

FLORIBUNDA APARTMENTS KOWLOON

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**TLALMATIA

Architect: G. D. Su

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Architect's perspective drawing of the apartment block from the north-west.

The number of apartments that lengths of China Fir poles, which building has been set back about have been constructed during the were the maximum obtainable in 20'-0".

past seven or eight years has been those days. truly enormous. Unfortunately, too many of them have been erected by speculative builders and

some landlords been

However,

At the front of the buildings on the ground floor. are four shops each with its own lavatory and back en- trance from an open yard in the centre of the "U". This yard is en- tered and left by means of two drive- ways under the front of the building and between which lies one of the staircases to the flats.

The apartment house covers ap- there have undoubtedly proximately 5740 square feet and is very fine apartments five storeys high; the upper floors who have tried, usually very success- erected also during this period. Now are occupied by 16 apartments, four fully, to "cash in" on the acute short- that the accommodation situation on each floor. age of accommodation.

becomes every year less grave, we should expect to see more and more The aim of these speculators has apartments designed with a view to been to build, in as short a period as providing adequate and comfortable possible, blocks of apartments con- quarters in architecturally pleasing taining the minimum of accommoda- buildings available for rent at a tion with the cheapest possible con- reasonable monthly figure. structional methods and finishes allowed under the relevant OF- The apartment house described in dinances. These flats have been let this article is an example of the pre- at high rentals with, almost always. sent design trend. where the owner an additional monetary considera- in co-operation with his architect tion euphemistically known as "key has attempted to provide good, but money", "tea money" or "construc- not luxuricus flats with amenities tion money." By such undesirable not usually found in accommodation means the financiers of these pro- in this rental range. It would have jects have reaped huge profits in a been easy enough to have erected or very short period, at the cost of this site possibly fifty per cent more tenants desperate for any kind of apartments of the tenement type, accommodation, and to the detriment but the sponsors of this scheme have the parts of the building where the of the architectural profession and sensibly taken the long-term view vertical arms of the "U" join the

base. and the many reputable landlords and that when the market for accom-

access to these may be building contractors.

modation becomes more competitive, had from the north and south sides Another factor that has influenced of immediate returns will be repaid.

as it eventually must, their sacrifice of the buildings, from the open yard, from the children's playgrounds, or the design of post-war residential

from the car parks. Two service quarters has been the inherent con- The site of this new building is staircases are located at the ends of

Those parts of the building form- Ing the two arms of the "U" on the ground floor are not enclosed and are occupied by car parking areas and covered children's playgrounds; the latter adjoin open playgrounds.

Two other staircases are located in

the wings.

servatism of the local populace. A located at the corner of Grampian conservatism that has. for instance. Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road in been reluctant to depart from the Kowloon City; it is 97′-2” by 120'-0”. The upper floors are all alike in old Chinese tenement type of design The building is roughly "U"-shaped layout there are two apartments with its 15'-0" to 17'-0" frontage, with the main elevation the hori at the front of the building and one dictated many decades ago when zontal of the "U”. facing Grampian in each side wing to the rear. The floor spans were governed by these Road. On both road frontages the front apartments are similar, as are

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