202
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
New Territories housing is at the present time being sub- stantially influenced by more modern ideas, particularly in imitation of new buildings (such as school-houses) designed by urban architects. These, however, mainly affect the choice of materials. The essential form of the traditional Chinese house is maintained, except that newer houses have more windows. Architects are seldom, if ever, employed for village houses.
In certain areas city-dwellers have built modern bungalows and small week-end houses. These particular areas are men- tioned in Chapter 2. In the market towns, where two- or three- storey buildings have existed for many years, modern shop and tenement buildings differ little from those in Kowloon. For any building in reinforced concrete, or of other than traditional design, it is obligatory to employ an architect.
V
TOWN PLANNING
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In 1946 the Colony possessed a Town Planning Ordinance, a Town Planning Officer without any staff and a few road layouts for undeveloped portions of the urban area. The planning staff was increased during 1948-9 to carry out pre- liminary surveys, draw layout plans and generally start the application of town planning methods to the development of urban and rural areas. Sir Patrick Abercrombie visited the Colony in 1948 and prepared a preliminary planning report; this outlined various physical planning principles and indicated how they might be applied to the local con- ditions. On the procedural side the report recommended the master-planning technique and the establishment of a large office to draw up the plan and administer it. Hong Kong did not, however, adopt the master-planning technique and in 1951 the Town Planning Sub-department was dissolved.
In 1953 a small branch of the Crown Lands and Surveys Office of the Public Works Department was formed to carry out a limited planning programme following the main lines of the Abercrombie Report, and to co-ordinate the work of
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