No_4_April_1968 — Page 29

HONG KONG

Apr 1966 LOW COST HOUSING

AT KENNEDY TOWN

K

WUN LUNG LAU estate, now al- most complete at Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Island, will house almost 13,000 people in 2,054 self-contained flats. It is a project of the Hong Kong Housing Society, a non-profit, low-cost housing organisation.

Like the Society's other estates and those of the Hong Kong Housing Authority, it is built to a standard of 35 sq. ft. living area per person (children under 10 years counted as 2) plus a kitchen, toilet and balcony for every flat.

The site is a very steep slope of 1:2 covering about 51⁄2 acres. It faces

north, overlooking urban Kennedy Town and the harbour, The lower edge of the site is terminated by a stone retaining wall built in the 1890's. The steepness of the site, combined with the height of this wall ruled out the possibility of vehicular from this boundary.

access

Road access was subsequently secured from an extension of Smith- field Road at a higher level. The construction of some 160 ft. of public access road was included as a lease condition. Pedestrian access from below was established by means of a flight of steps, landing in an existing recess in the stone wall. Thus the

HONG KONG HOUSING SOCIETY

W. SZETO & PARTNERS

in association with MICHAEL PAYNE (Housing Society)

LANGDON & EVERY (FAR EAST)

GOODMAN CORPORATION (E & B) LTD.

GAMMON (HK) LTD.

wall was allowed to remain almost untouched.

Various proposals for the disposi- tion of the blocks were considered and rejected in favour of an arrange- ment of link blocks, five laid out to follow the existing contours, with two smaller blocks laid across the con- tours. Considerable pains were taken to establish a comportable differential in the level across the contour blocks in order to avoid excessive excavation and retaining walls.

To achieve a high density on the

owners

architects

quantity surveyors

general contractor

piling

site (2,314 persons to the acre) blocks of approximately 20 storeys were re- quired to meet the plot ratio factor of 4.3. Parking was required at the then current figure of one space per 50 flats. Existing mature trees below the blocks have been preserved.

In the living units themselves a high degree of standardization was desirable for economy. The unit sizes (see schedule) vary from 41⁄2 person (157 sq. ft. living area) to 11 person (385 sq. ft.) but the basic provision of kitchen, toilet and balcony are

D-west

Far East BUILDER, April 1968.

E-west

I

I

G-north

G-west

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