September_1965 — Page 15

Far East Builder 遠東建築雜誌 All

ST. STEPHEN'S

CHURCH

HONG KONG

do

Design based on

comfort and acoustics

WONG NG OUYANG & ASSOCIATES, architects

SIU KIN & CO., LTD.,

contractors

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HREE things which the devout of urban Hong Kong can expect to suffer in common with agnostics and atheists are noise, heat and air pollution.

The parishioners of St. Stephen's, Hong Kong, however, in following

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their faith, are now relieved of all three nuisances when they enter the new and recently completed St. Stephen's Church in Pokfulam Road. Quiet and comfort were the criteria of its design and understandably so for

a building of such function,

Interior of church. Colour scheme is dark blue and gold

Far East Architect & Builder September, 1965

View along east side of church hall from Pokfulam Road. Courlyard links the church to the primary school

sited with frontages to busy Bonham Road and Pokfulam Road. The lat- ter is very steep and is used by heavy traffic in low gear. Without the special attention to acoustics external noise would make the conducting of services impossible.

To counter these conditions the ar- chitects have provided solid wall for the sanctuary on Pokfulam Road side and have arranged the main entrance from Bonham Road to lead to a fixed glass window foyer and then into the church.

Internally the acoustic problem was solved by facing the interior wall of the sanctuary with greyish white. rough surface Japanese Tesera marble tiles and all the interior walls of the church with fine Stucco plaster paint- ed gold.

The degree of comfort provided for worshippers is unsurpassed in Hong Kong, and it is in fact the first church in the Colony to be fully air- conditioned.

This in turn created further acous- tic problems in the way of noise from air fans during congregation. But this has been overcome by the use of a sound absorbant material in the air ducts.

The original planning for the new church was done by Mr. N. J. Chien in 1962. It was handed over the Wong Ng Ouyang and Associates to

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