No_3_March_1969 — Page 7

news review

Crown Land too costly says HKSA president

Though there was talk of a renewed building boom in Hong Kong, the climate was still not right for substantial overseas investment.

Mr. Ian Campbell, president of the Hong Kong Society of Architects, said in his inaugural address to the Society last month that this applied par- ticularly to hotel projects where there was a very definite maximum price a developer could afford to pay for the land. This price should not exceed one-third of the building cost.

Government, he said, should not set the price of Crown Land too high, particularly in the case of hotel sites, if the colony was to encourage over- seas investment and derive the benefits of increased tourism.

The president announced that the council was putting Hong Kong's name forward as host country for the forthcoming full conference of the Common- wealth Association of Architects in 1971. This year the Society would be host to the CAA's regional conference.

Mr. Campbell said that he hoped that this year the Society would move a step nearer to reaching agreement with Government over its proposals for the much-discussed Architects, Engineers and Sur- veyors' Ordinance.

'The main aim of this new ordinance is to try and gain a measure of control over our own pro- fessions', he said. "The present arrangement, which was conceived to deal with a smaller and less sophis- ticated situation, tends to be an administrative convenience from the Government standpoint, but gives the professions themselves no say whatsoever in the registration of their members and, perhaps more important, no power to discipline in cases of professional misconduct.'

Singapore/Malaysia start Institute of Building

Singapore and Malaysia have jointly established a centre of the Institute of Building 'to look after the professional interests of those in the building industry and to maintain good standards in building'.

At the centre's recent inaugural meeting in Sin- gapore, the republic's Minister for Science and Tech- nology, Dr. Toh Chin Chye, also announced the introduction of two degree courses in building and estate management.

of Singapore, said the two four-year courses would begin this year and the building course would in- clude research into the best conditions for building in the tropics. He urged professionals in the build- ing industry to enrol as part-time teachers, but added that as building was a practical profession the courses should not become too academic.

The centre's first chairman, Mr. Bernard T. H. Wang, told the meeting that the building industry's essential role in the overall task of nation-building could not be over-emphasised. He noted however that in South East Asia there was an imbalance be- tween the design unit and the construction unit. The latter needed systematically educating and gra- dually strengthening so that both units could be- come specialised and their respective responsibilities demarcated.

Mr. Wang expressed the hope that the govern- ments of Singapore and Malaysia would establish joint research and study bodies, as in the more advanced countries, to promote better co-ordina- tion in the building industry.

The committee of the new centre comprises: Mr. Bernard T.H. Wang, chairman; Mr. San Choo Kim, vice chairman; Mr. V.B. Torrance, hon. secre- tary; Mr. L.G. Mills, hon. treasurer; and ordinary members, Lim Thim Poh, Lim Boo Liang, Albert K.S. Chew, Chew Tiong Kheng, Kong Mun Kwong and A.R. Krempi.

The Institute of Builders started in London with a small group of master builders who in 1834 formed the Builders Society to uphold and promote reputable standards of building through friendly intercourse, the useful exchange of information and greater uniformity and respectability in business'. 27-storey complex planned in Kuala Lumpur

The Malaysia Hongkong Land Development Co. Ltd. is to build a 27-storey commercial block in Jalan Suleiman, Kuala Lumpur. It will include a

bank and shopping centre in a two-storey podium, with offices above in a tower block.

The site of two acres is located immediately adjacent to Shell headquarters, the Chinese Assem-

Dr. Toh, who is vice-chancellor of the University bly Hall and the Police Co-operative Building. A

Far East BUILDER, March 1969

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