Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 729

of the insanitary areas that can be constructed, even when all the houses are new, under the existing regulations, with narrow streets and lanes, and too many houses crowded together.

The lot is bounded on the north by Third Street 30' 6" wide, on the south by a retaining wall to about the level of the second floor and above that by Pokfulam Road 32' 0" wide, on the west by buildings, and on the east by a private street 15' 0" wide.

The total area of the lot is

631

The area built over is about...........

Area of private streets is

.36,000 square feet. ....25,849

""

6,600

77

>>

Area of passages which also includes space in the

rear of houses required by section 56 of Ordi-

nance 13 of 1901

The area of open yard

2,531

"1

1,020

"}

17

?

Contravene s.f.

The total area of open space is equal to 10,151 or 28°。 of the total the yard space excluding lanes is less than 3-

SANITARY DEFECTS IN THE DESIGN OF CHINESE HOUSES.

area, and

10. The defects in design of houses which contribute to their unhealthiness, are caused by their great depth without lateral windows, the position of the kitchen in relation to the dwelling house, the position of the back-lane in relation to the kitchen and the dwelling house, the construction of rooms or basements against or too close to the side of the hill and the division of rooms into cubicles. All of them serve to Obstruct the light and free circulation of air so necessary for a healthy dwelling.

Besides the close, narrow and ill ventilated streets and lanes, formed by the process of erecting too many houses on too small a space, the structure of the houses and of their interior, is not in accordance with sanitary principles The newer houses are often worse in this respect than the older, for at one time the tendency was to build shallow houses from which sunlight and fresh air were excluded in consequence of other houses being built later in too close proximity to them. As time has gone on the houses have generally become deeper and deeper, until there are being erected on the Praya Reclamation back to back buildings of from 75 to 90 feet each in depth with an extra 10 feet of verandah in each encroaching on the public street.

11. Plates VI and VIII are sections of houses on the Praya Reclamation. In both the buildings are 75 and 90 feet respectively without counting verandahs or balconies. The dwelling rooms in Plate VII are 55 feet long and 12 feet 6 inches wide, in Plate VIII they are 90 feet long and 13 feet wide. There are no lateral windows.

In Plate VII there are windows in front opening into the verandahs and windows behind opening into a small back-yard, 12 feet in width which is the amount of open space required by the Praya Reclamation Ordinance. Behind the back-yard is the kitchen which, owing to there being a kitchen for each floor, forins a building as high as the house, immediately in the rear of the small back-yard, the means of com- munication between each storey of the house and the kitchen being by a bridge 3 feet 6 inches wide, The design, it will be seen, is admirably adapted to exclude sunlight and fresh air. There is first of all the long narrow tunnel-like rooms, without lateral windows, which prevent a sufficiency of light reaching, during any part of the day, the greater portion of the room. There is next the small back yard obstructed by the bridges leading to the kitchens, there is then the high building containing the kitchens abutting immediately on the back-yard, and forming with it a deep well, which only brings light and air to the upper storeys, and finally there is the verandah