No_8_August_1969 — Page 40

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ΓΓΕ

The classrooms (left) and the administration block (right) viewed from the basketball court

rooms face west compared with 25 per cent in scheme 'G'.

As far as planning was concerned type 'C' was similar to type 'A' and also had four classrooms facing west.

In type 'G', the result of a series of studies tailored to fit this particular. site, only two classrooms face west. The volume of this scheme is 417,203 cu.ft., against 424,204 for scheme 'A' and 429,033 cu.ft. for scheme 'C'.

From these figures it was obvious that scheme 'G' would not necessarily be more expensive to build. It was less in volume than scheme 'A' by 1.65 per cent. and less than scheme 'C' by 2.75 per cent. For comparative purposes, volume calculations took full width of corridor instead of half as is done in normal cubic estimating.

Comparative figures of external walls were as follows: Scheme 'A' 34,342 sq.ft.; scheme 'C' 34,562 34,562 sq.ft.; and scheme 'G' 34,616 sq.ft. From these figures scheme 'G' is bigger in external wall area than scheme 'A' by 274 ft. and bigger than scheme “C' by 54 sq.ft. However the extra cost in external walls is compensated for by savings in volume and omission of per- manent louvres.

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In the school now completed, now completed, scheme 'G', playgrounds consist of a large one and two smaller ones. Co-

lumns and walls in the smaller ones are positioned in such a way to give the children a sense of scale and playful ness instead of a formal and rigid space. The larger playground is for use by bigger children and for formal acti- vities, while the smaller ones are for smaller children and informal activities.

Corridors are also designed to a variety of shapes to accommodate the movements of school children at cer- tain times of the day. The formal and lengthy corridors of conventional schools have been avoided and corri- dor lengths are reduced to a minimum by the grouping and overlapping of classrooms. The longest corridor, in front of the teachers' quarters, varies in level.

Externally, the free and informal character of the scheme becomes the essence of the building, which in turn could make it a landmark in its setting of highly developed residential buildings.

Internally, each classroom has its own relationship with the others. Class- rooms are planned in such a way that student can identify their classrooms by a mental image rather than a num- ber. In the same way, the administra- tion rooms are grouped separately and distinctively from the classrooms.

The open spaces left over by the

building are purposely, and not acci- dentally, enclosed to give interesting planes, voids, solids and trees. The children are thus encouraged to look in instead of out a sense of participa- tion rather than confinement.

Classrooms are arranged and group- ed in such a manner that noise from one will not disturb another and the two groups of classrooms are as far apart as possible.

Seventy-five per cent of the class- rooms have a north-east orientation, so that sun heat and glare could be minimised with little cost in fenestra- tion treatment.

For the interior colour scheme, the architect employed (and recommends to others) the colour system of the British Ministry of Education in their publication, 'Colour in School Build- ings', second edition, June 1956 (HMSO, S.O. Code No. 27-291-9-56).

Contractors

Total cost of the school was appro- ximately HK$930,000. This sum in- cludes site formation work but ex- cludes classroom furniture.

The main contractor was Hip Hing Construction Co. Ltd. The Grandeur Electrical Co. was the electrical sub- contractor and Kwong Hing Co. did the plumbing.

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Far East BUILDER, August 1969

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