No_6_June_1969 — Page 17

HAD the Canadian consultants for Radio Hong Kong's new Broadcasting House planned the building for the site on which it now exists it is possible that it might not have taken its present form.

Plans for developing a site at Pok- fulam outside the air corridor for Kai Tak Airport were well advanced when the project was transferred to the pre- sent site at Lung Cheung, Kowloon, within Hong Kong's 'Broadcasting City' and well within the air corridor.

At the time of the transfer there was already an urgent need for Radio Hong Kong to vacate their premises in Mercury House which meant the drawing up of a building schedule that allowed virtually no latitude for delay. Thus the Pokfulam plan became the Lung Cheung plan, with very little alteration.

While the Rediffusion HK studios

on an adjacent site (Far East Builder, December 1968) are noise insulated by being contained within perimeter cor- ridors and offices, the Radio HK com- plex has employed mass concrete and

brick to achieve satisfactory noise con- trol for its studios situated outside a central administrative block. Budget limitations governed the degree of sophistication of noise control and acoustical environment, but the neces- sary parameters have been met with the materials selected.

The design layout offers several advantages in other directions, par- ticularly circulation. The 54,000 sq. ft. building, being on a large sloping site, allowed the design to be opened out sufficiently to eliminate the need for elevators, to reduce circulation require- ments and to afford two floor levels for entry and exit. Providing two access levels gives a natural separation of offices, operating and technical areas from the trucking, technical workshops, plant and canteen functions.

By locating the high-ceiling studio suites externally to the main four- storey block the general ground floor height is kept to a minimum. An ad- ditional advantage of this layout is that all studio suites lead from the peripheral corridor and entrance lobby, enclosing the ancillary operating functions. The audience studio, separated from the main studio complex, utilizes the en-

RHK broadcasting centre completed in 12 months

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Radio Hong Kong's new Broadcasting House with audience-studio at left linked by the wide entrance lobby to the administrative block and production studios

Far East BUILDER, June 1969

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