No_4_November_and_December__1952 — Page 38

The study, with picture window.

appointed kitchen and pantry which connect directly on to the dining

room.

The playroom in the basement. more the architectural design has been embellished and the planning of the residence improved by projec- ting the living room, the main unit. of the house, with a wide concomit tant verandah surrounding it, beyond the plane of the main facade which is the front of the building over- looking the beach.

At the base of the building a short length of low rubble retaining wall confines a bathers' terrace from which a few steps lead down to the beach itself. Immediately above this bathers' terrace rise the stone walls of the house in the basement of which are the changing rooms, a large recreation room with balcony on the west side, the kitchen, the utility room, and large stores and servants rooms on the east side immediately off the kitchen.

At this point, heavy stone parallel walls built projecting from the face of the building contain the main area of the recreation room but, at the same time, bear the main loads of the cantilever beams which are carrying the living room on the floor above, like an enormous crow's nest out beyond the main supports of the house.

The large living room opened on three sides to verandahs already mentioned is the showplace of the house and forms the central and principal theme of its planning. The dining room is really one with the living room but it is separated from it only by the rough ashlar of the stone columns on either side of the room at this point and by the change of direction in the angle between the two parts of this two parts of this main area. It also has a wide verandah which extends the full width of one side, and a a well-

A study is also situated on this main floor and is entirely separated from the other rooms. The beauty of this room centres on its wide picture window composed of one unimpeded sheet of plate glass which not only gives a full view of the magnificent seascape, but frames, with all the intricate detailing of a Chinese painting, the branches of a beautiful tree which spreads its foliage just outside the window.

A feature of the planning on this floor is the bar alcove at the back of the living room. This has been cleverly fitted into the planning be- tween the hall, study and living room, and can be brought into use by folding back wide sliding doors which when closed completely con- ceal the bar.

There are four bedrooms and four bathrooms on the upper floor, each supplied with ample closet space. The master bedroom has a small dressing room and opens directly onto the main extended terrace over the living room below. Two other bedrooms share the large verandah facing the west side, whilst a smaller verandah has been provided for the fourth bedroom.

The stairhall and stairway is another illustration of the care with which the planning has been done, for it is set in an acute angle of the building but with the external walls rounded out at the point so that the staircase curves gracefully, yet with economical regard to space around the contours of this wall, as it serves the various floors.

Mr. Fung Ping Fan, for whom this magnificent residence was built,

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is a well-known, very popular and highly respected member of the Hong Kong community. He has been Hon. A D.C. to His Excellency the Governor, President of the Rotary Club, Past President of the Hong Kong Photographic Society, still is a Committee Member and District Officer of the St. John's Ambulance Association and Brigade, Member of the Urban Council and Sanitary Department, on the ex- ecutive committee of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Chil- dren, and director and managing director of some of the leading banks and commercial houses in the Colony. Architects: Messrs. Palmer & Turner General Contractors: Messrs. Cheong Hing Co.

The main stair hall.