the restoration of a proper relationship between architecture and planning: history has taught us their essential unity. The new policy of the Town Planning Institute seems to deny the architect's special place as the overall designer of the built environment without replacing him with someone equally or more capable.3
Hong Kong badly needs planning, for which it urgently needs a planning school to lead the way.
References
The Architect in Planning
by
Anthony Goss (Summary) RIBA Journal May, 1965.
The Steering Committee's Statement.
RIBA Journal May, 1965.
Architectural
Education.
Journal June, 1966.
RIBA
Architectural Education in the U.S.A.
RIBA Journal January, 1967. Education for Planning
R. H.
Kantorowich TPI Journal May, 1967.
The Architect in Planning William Kretchmer RIBA Journal Septem- ber, 1967.
Fifth year thesis-commuters' centre for Tsim Sha Tsiu-site plan
Training the Architect Planner
Anthony Goss RIBA Journal January, 1968.
W.
3 The Architect in Planning
Kretchmer R.I.B.A. Journal Septem- ber, 1967.
The architecture student
and
A
building costs
RECURRENT theme in many of
the post-war surveys, reports or speeches in connection with the education of architects has been a recommendation that the architectural student should make some acquain- tance with the factors which deter- mine the cost of a building.
This theme is being implemented in the School of Architecture, where studies of the economics of building are an integral part of the student's overall approach to architecture. The architect in practice is the leader of a team whose task is to satisfy the economic wants of the community for buildings. As a team leader he must know how to marshal his forces for maximum effect, and to do this effi- ciently he must know something about the abilities and the limitations of these forces.
As far as cost is concerned, the architectural student must therefore be guided in the relationship which occurs in practice between the archi- tect and his quantity surveyor or other cost advisers; he must be so equipped that he will not be at a loss when he is confronted by that inevitable ques- tion from the client: "How much will it cost?"
Ever since man first commented on his condition by painting on the walls of his cave he has been waiting for things to return to normal. His wait has been always in vain; the normalcy he has desired never has come, and
Far East BUILDER, June 1968.
never will come. What is true of man in general is true also of the private developer in Hong Kong; for at present there is a general air of marking time, of waiting for things to return to normal.
The normal condition will not hap- pen, because it did not ever exist. What will happen is that the vital and essential industry of property develop- ment will have a resurgence of ac- tivity, with or without any priming operation by Government.
Key factor
While this is so, it is likely that the boom times have gone for ever. The days of easy profits from property development are over, and develop- ment in the near future will depend for success on high standards of pro- fessional guidance and enlightened management.
Developers will require to have the skills to recognize the potential values of sites, to forsee the rental income, to predict the value of the development when complete, to estimate accurately the construction cost, to negotiate fin- ance at equable terms. Clearly one of the key factors in the whole operation is the estimation of the cost of build- ing the projected development. failure to build within the estimate means that the anticipated profit can- not be achieved; the hedge of high profit margins which may have shel-
For
by A. A. Bunting
tered under-estimation in the past may not be present in the new situation.
If the architect is to play his part successfully in future developments in the private sector he must accept the discipline of cost and be equipped to deal with it.
The discipline which is required in the private sector is equally necessary in the public sector. Building is an important factor in the total economy of all countries, and “official” building often forms a large part of the total building effort.
In Hong Kong. building work directly inspired by Government may amount to about a quarter of all building work. In the position of leadership within the community which is the rightful place of the architect, he must understand and ac- cept that a part of his duty is to en- sure that the man in the street gets value for money in building.
All public authorities concerned with building are familiar with the tragedy of Sydney Opera House, where a brave and adventurous archi- tectural essay has been degraded in the eyes of the tax-paying public into an acephalous money devouring mon-
ster.
One of the bitterest pills the young architect has to swallow is the dic- tum of the valuer that "it's where it is that matters, not what it is". The young architect may find it difficult to appreciate that a poorly designed
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