No_3_March_and_April__1950 — Page 39

Elevation from the garden.

NEW

APARTMENT BLOCK

AT

SOUTH BAY

T

Looking down from the access road.

One of the largest and most attractive residential develop- ments by a private company has been proceeding at the long spur running down from Island Road at South Bay. The development consists of a number of large beautifully designed private residences for individual owners who bought the land and purchased the houses, but there are also included several apartment blocks built and financed by the Metropolitan Construction Co., Ltd. for renting out purposes.

One block of these flats on Site No. 10 is now nearing completion, and plans are being drawn up for the construction of another block on Site No. 14. The design of the building conforms to the high standard set by the other buildings erected and in course of erection on this area and. when completed, will add one more valuable unit to an area which but a few years ago was barren hillside. There will be four apartments to the building, two on each floor, but because of the contour of the site part of the main building will be carried on columns above the lower court area and into this space will be placed four garages, one for each apartment. with a large built-in store attached to each garage which can be used either as a small workshop or as a box-room.

In most buildings. the main facade faces the roadway. In this instance a problem was presented to the architect in

37

Detail of the entrance porch and servants section.

that the main elevation will be fronting the spacious lawn areas, leaving the servants wing and rear portion of the building to face the approach road. It will be seen from the architect's drawing how successfully this servants wing was incorporated into the architectural design of the building. The entrance staircase to the servants section opens on to the road at a higher level than the main entrance to the building. and this servants staircase will be lighted by a wide glass brick panel rising vertically above the doorway. The servants yard area, which is necessary, but usually disfigures the rear elevation of a building is completely camouflaged by means of concrete louvres set in deep framing. This device enables light and air to circulate through the servants section yet at the same time shuts it away from outside view. The net result of their planning is a building which looks almost as well from the rear as it does from the front,

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