No_2_August_1961 — Page 74

Pressure

Piling

A

kit

bored piles

special foundations

underpinning

site investigation

rock drilling and coring

The Pressure Piling Co. (Hong Kong) Ltd.

1201 Union House • Hong Kong - 38021

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(Continued from Page 49)

new experience in a new environ- ment. It is accepted that the form of the teaching space, because of the greater emphasis on child activity. of kindergarten classes, for instance, is different from other classrooms. and to some extent it is accepted that there needs to be a re-adjustment of classroom space between pupils of primary school and secondary school age, but under ideal conditions, there should be differences in teaching spaces between one class and another and between one form and another. For instance, a sixth form. would seem to require space which is more conducive to private study and in- dividual tuition than say first form.

a

In practice, this differentiation is not possible or practicable, but at least a great deal of improvement can be achieved over the three and four story "barrack block" grouping of classrooms that predominates in our schools.

The effect of spending six years within four walls, which look the same although enclosing a different

room.

must be most inhibiting. Progressively minded teachers do much, within their available means. to bring some individuality into the decor they create in their classrooms. but the architect can do much to make this task of creating an en- vironment simpler to achieve.

The environment of the school plays a large part in forming a child's mind. spending as he does a very large proportion of his time within its curtilage. It is often the only solid tangible influence with which he is familiar. which he trusts and in which he feels secure. The design should therefore be full of points of interest for him. and should convey a lasting impression for good on him. One could go so far as to say that the design of his school will be the basis for the de- velopment of a child's taste in archi- tecture. Many people may not regard this of importance: we tend not to become conscious of the influence of architecture on our lives. but there is no doubt that it is in fact an important influence.

In schools this influence extends right down to the design of the desk in which the pupil sits. In an ideal school one would find a range of

desk sizes to suit all sizes of children, It is also not only a question of size. but of functional design. We have come a long way from the rough- hewn logs of the Escuela Minores of the University of Salamanca, but still not far enough. and this is evident in Hong Kong.

Finally, this tightness of site and its urban location has produced an alarmingly dangerous traffic problem. It is an axiom in the siting of schools that they should be located so as to provide to સ normal disciplined child a safe easy route to and from school.

But what do we find? Hundreds of children debouching from a single entrance, after classes, on to narrow footpaths in narrow streets, where they are forced to swarm all over the street, weaving in and out of the traffic trying to move through the

area.

When schools operate in two or more sessions daily, pavements are monopolised by long queues of children waiting for the previous session to leave, forcing the depart- ing scholars to walk in the road. When there are a number of schools close together the situation is ob. viously magnified. It is surprising that it is not necessary to have an ambulance standing by at each of these schools.

The fact that comparatively few accidents do occur is no reason for accepting this situation.

On these restricted sites it would seem that the whole of the site at road level should be left open. as a crush space. Staggered arrival and departure times would also help. but these are merely improvisations and are not substitutes for bad siting and bad design.

This approach to school design is very much in evidence in the United Kingdom and in the United States. If we in Hong Kong wish our pre- sent generation of school children to grow up into sound and worthy citizens with healthy minds capable of understanding the problems that will inevitably confront them and capable of imaginatively solving those problems, then we must vastly improve the environment in which this can happen the school. The architect has much to contribute to this.

THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER

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VOLUME 16. NUMBER 2