No_6_1959 — Page 56

A MALAYAN CONCEPT "IN DUE COURSE”

Singapore Polytechnic Department Head's Views

MR. Kee Yeap, 33-year-old newly-

appointed head of the Singapore Polytechnic's Department of Archi- tecture, is a man who believes the young should meet the challenges of their time head on.

As he himself puts it: "If the young will not accept these challen- ges, who will?”

Penang-born and widely travelled, Mr. Kee Yeap has worked in the New York firm of architect Edward D. Stone who has carved himself a niche in the American architectural world.

Mr. Kee Yeap is above everything else an artist. He obtained a distinc- tion in design when he gained his Bachelor's degree in Architecture at Sydney University.

Later, he studied at Harvard under the famous Gropius. In the course of his world travels. Mr. Kee Yeap met and talked with architec- tural giants like the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright who died last year. Le Corbusier and Mies van de Rohe.

54

Mr. Kee Yeap.

Back in Singapore, he worked in the Public Works Department for 21⁄2 years during which he super- vised the Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital new extensions and the Tan Tock Seng Tuberculosis Hos-

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Mr. K. C. Chung.

pital new extensions as Supervising Architect.

In 1957, he left the Government to set up private practice.

Mr. Kee Yeap predicts that a Ma- layan concept of architecture will arise in due course in which the various cultures, local conditions and materials will all play a part.

Senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture of the Singapore Polytechnic is second-generation archi- tect. Mr. K. C. Chung.

After leaving school. Raffles Institution, in 1935. Mr. Chung worked for a year with his father, the late Mr. H.W. Chung (he died in Nov. 1957) who started practice as an architect in 1923, before deciding to go to New Zealand in 1937 to study architecture.

When war broke out in the Pacific, Mr. Chung joined up and served with the armed forces for about a year. He later resumed his studies and obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree at Auckland University in 1944.

After nearly three years of practice in New Zea- land with private firms, he returned to Singapore in Oct. 1946 and remained with his father's firm until the latter's death, when he became sole proprietor.

Mr. Chung is vice-president of the Society of Mala- yan Architects, of which he is a founder member, and has been a member of the Board of Architects since 1957.

Architecture, he said recently, had tended in the last decade towards more functional design, tempered by local requirements and the availability of materials.

There was also a tendency among younger architects to pay greater attention to sun control and shade devices. In addition they were more concerned with sociological and cultural trends.

THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER

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VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6