AN ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION FOR HONG KONG
The Provisional Committee: (Left) Mr. J. W. Dark, (Centre) Mr N. H. Fok, (Right) Mr. G. D. Su.
On 23rd August a dinner took place in the Hong Kong Hotel followed by a discussion on the formation of an Architectural Association in Hong Kong. There have been in the past several abortive attempts at forming such an Associa- tion. The history of the present movement is short but pro- mising. On 19th July Mr. N. H. Fok invited fifteen fellow architects to a lunch at which he proposed the formation of a provisional committee to call together the Authorized Architects in Hong Kong for the purpose of forming an Association
of some kind. This provisional committee
consisted of Mr. N. H. Fok as Convenor, Mr. J. W. Dark as Assistant Convenor and Alive others. Every Authorized
Architect on the P.W.D. list was sent a written invitation to attend a dinner and discussion. Of the approximately eighty persons invited thirty three attended the dinner and ten sent letters regretting their inability to attend but expressing their interest in the proposed Association.
For the information of those who are not familiar with Hong Kong it may be explained that an Authorized Architects' Consulting Committee is appointed by the Governor to recom- mend suitable persons as "Authorized Architects". There are a number of persons, some of them in the P.W.D., who, for one reason or another, are not on the list although possessing architectural qualifications. Many of the Authorized Architects have no British architectural qualification and others have none at all but are civil engineers by profession. This is a matter which has caused quite strong feeling among the local architects.
Mr. G. L. Wilson, in his letter, showed his great interest in the formation of an Association and expressed the hope that it would be an Architects' Association. He also stressed the importance, however, of incorporating a code of ethics in the constitution of the Association to be formed whether it were for Architects only or were formed on some broader basis of membership.
After the reading of the letters the Chairman opened the meeting to general discussion. Mr. Wilson's letter apparently set the tone of the very lengthy discussion that followed which centred around whether the proposed Associa- tion should be an association only for those with architectural
qualifications or should be open to all those admitted as "Authorized Architects" in the Colony of Hong Kong, of whom a large proportion had only engineering qualifications.
Since, out of approximately eighty Authorized Architects, only twenty four are "pure" architects it is obvious that an association for "pure" architects only could not have the influence it should have in raising and maintaining the standards of architecture in Hong Kong. This was ultimately realized by the majority of those present, thanks to the clear and forceful way in which Mr. G. D. Su pointed out that this meeting had it in its power either to get an association of some kind started or to allow the present attempt to fade out as previous efforts have faded out.
The provisional committee resigned en bloc to allow of the election of a new committee and this committee was voted in to examine the situation and put forward concrete proposals to a further public meeting. Mr. B. W. H. Bousted elected Convenor, Mr. G. D. Su, Treasurer and Miss M. de C. Basto, Secretary.
Present at the dinner and discussion were:-
A. V. J. Alvares A. H. Basto
Miss M. de C. Basto B. W. H. Bousted Chau Po Cheung Harding D. Chang M. L. Chester N. J. Chien J. W. C. Chun
E. B. Cumine
J. W. Dark N. H. Fok Frank Grose Wm. S. Ing
Iu Tak Lam
Kwan Wing-Hong
Kuo Yuan-Hsi Edward C. K. Lam Rudy T. Lau Shing Ki-Lau Lee Young-On B. S. W. Leong Y. C. Mok
A. R. F. Raven A. V. Skvorzov J. F. de Silva G. D. Su Wai Szeto
Tam Heung-Shing Wong Cho-Tong Wong Fait-Fong
was
Also present by kind invitation of the Committee were Henry Graye and Geoffrey Falconar of the Hong Kong and Far East Builder.
Photographs taken at the dinner held at the Hongkong Hotel
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