No_4_November_and_December__1952 — Page 15

NEW SCHOOL BUILDING

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HE Colony's education is under the general control of the Director of Education, but much of the work of education is in the

hands of missionary and philan- thropic bodies and private in- dividuals. By the Education Or dinance, 1913, amended in 1947 and 1948, all schools unless specifically exempted are required to register with the Director of Education, to be open to his inspection, and to comply with regulations concerning staff, buildings, number of pupils and health. Since many schools are closely linked with the Church of England, or with particular missions and religious Orders, a strong tradition of Christian service exists in all of them.

The Aberdeen Industrial School, subsidized by the Government, and the St. Louis Industrial School are both operated by the Salesian Society; the former, a residential School gives primary education and 5 years of trade training; the latter offers special classes in printing and book-binding, has completed the building of a new wing, and plans to have both vernacular and Anglo- Chinese courses.

The three main factors which influenced the architect's design of the new school building were (1) convenient size and arrangement of the rooms for classroom purposes, (2) convenient internal circulation, and (3) provision of ample light and air ventilation. With these con- siderations in view the architect

Photograph of the building from Third Street. produced a long narrow building, the main elevations of which are almost entirely of glass.

Third Street, on which the site stands, turns at right angles at this point and in consequence the new building is almost L-shaped. The entrance hall and staircase is in the centre of the building, with the two wings almost at right angles to each other. The site being at a much lower level than Third Street, the main elevation is not the side facing the street. The corridors leading to the various classrooms will be placed on this side of the building and will be entirely glass enclosed. From the courtyard side the full five-storey height of the building will be visible, rising in tiered glass from the first to the third floor and surmounted by the setback wall of the top floor with its conventional window openings.

The length of the building is divided on this elevation by the lift hall which rises well above the roof level of the rest of the building and by the columns which are purposely designed to project from the walls in order to give vertical emphasis.

The glassed-in section of the building starts from the first floor as the whole of the ground floor is devoted to an open covered play- ground in which there is ample space for the children to play in during inclement weather.

The entire east side of the first floor is devoted to classrooms of which there are five, but the west

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side contains, in addition to one classroom, a masters' common room, the school office, and a reception parlour. There are eight classrooms on the second floor which occupy the entire space on both wings. The east wing on the third floor is also devoted to the five classroom while the west wing contains a boys' study hall which stretches the full length and breadth of this wing providing an exceptionally large bright area with windows on both sides. On the top floor are the community quarters which comprise nineteen individual bedrooms, each with a clothes cupboard and wash- basin. As on the other floors, the showers and lavatories are grouped in the centre of the building adjacent to the stair hall. Another feature common to all floors is the trunk and store-room at the extreme west end, and the staircase lift well on the extreme east side of the building.

The new building will join onto existing buildings at either end and will form with them a compact complete unit.

The architect for this splendid building is Mr. A. H. Basto, F.R.I. B.A., and the General Contractors

are Messrs. Cheong Hing Co. Another interesting feature of this building is the fact that, in order to provide extra sound insulation between the classrooms, all internal and external walls were built of VI-CON Blocks manufactured and supplied by the Hong Kong Building Service Ltd.

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