2.

For Infrastructure: Direct or Indirect Participation in Projects

Prior to World War II, Hong Kong's economic development depended on serving as a port for foreign trade with southern China. The development of local industry, on the other hand, came after World War II, when an influx of people into Hong Kong added cheap labor to the city, making foreign companies willing to set up factories in Hong Kong. Moreover, the fouryear-long Japanese occupation of Hong Kong led to the birth of a wasteland of scenes: during its occupation in the second world war, the Japanese deliberately demolished countless buildings in order to make weapons, with the ironmongery. Moreover, after the heavy bombing before the liberation, about 20% of Chinese tenements were either destroyed or severely damaged deleted buildings. In addition, the 1960s coincided with the United Nations embargo on China due to the Korean War, which brought port trade to a standstill and led to the transformation of Hong Kong into a industrialized city, in search of new economic development. [3]

The rapid development of industry requires rapid territorial expansion, which also places higher demands on road traffic infrastructure . For important matters like reclamation and such, we can clearly see an implementation of many British institutions that carry out the projects, and the preliminary studies. As well as they make all decisions about the design and do all the sociological studies on the colony. In addition, the 1960s was a particularly rapid decade in the development of the transportation system because the New Territories, originally a rural area in the north of Hong Kong, began to have scattered industrial strongholds from the 1960s due to changes in land ownership policy[4], which meant that the road transport network needed to cross the mountains and develop northward from the coast of Victoria Harbour, placing considerable demands on infrastructure planning. At the same time, air capacity had to be developed in tandem.

The construction of a complex transport system requires the assistance of the UK's developed experience. As a result, the UK sent experts from its government agency Road Research Laboratory to form the “Passenger Transport Survey Unit” [5] in 1964 to provide policy advice to the Hong Kong Government. The Unit publishes Technical Reports from time to time to provide detailed advice on the future development of transport in Hong Kong.

For example, The Unit published the Hong Kong Passenger Transport Survey in 1967, which explained the need for a mass transit system in Hong Kong to solve the traffic problems of the time. In 1968, The Unit published the Hong Kong Long-term Road Study, answering to HK mass transports requirements, for a system expected to serve 2.5 million passengers a day by 1986, a fundamental project, which will shape the future of Hong Kong and of its internal transportation activities. (1968.3 HK Underground Railway Proposed). During the same period, British construction companies were also responsible for some land reclamation projects in order to obtain more land area (1962.12 Hong Kong's Biggest Plan for Reclamation).

At the same time, the UK also assisted in the completion of the passenger terminal and parking lot at Kai Tak Airport in 1962. This important project is carried out by Ramsay, Murray Ward and White, architects in London also famous for projects in England, like the Dyson Perrins Laboratories Chemistry faculty in Oxford. This makes us believe that there is an import of, not only technical skills from the British departments and engineers, but also an import of theoretical design ideas by the input of architects at the head of the design of highly important projects in terms of functions, surface, and budget. Even though these architects are most of the time residents of Hong Kong, they are in most cases trained in England and graduated there. In addition, the types of projects the UK is involved in building are not limited to transportation systems. The issue published in April, 1963 documented UK firm’s participation in a crematorium project . The “Cape Collinson Crematorium” was responsbile by two UK firms that has experience in building the world’s largest crematorium before.

In fact, the involvement of British architectural firms in Hong Kong projects is not always direct. There are also projects where local Hong Kong architects are in charge, but receive technical support from the British side. For instance, in the article “London Research to aid HK Tunnel”(1969.11) , a laboratory test was conducted by King's college, a prestigious English university, with materials of concrete. This work helps carrying out an important Hong Kong tunnel, with a date of construction already set. Another more important project should be Queen Elizabeth Hospital built in 1964. A lot of British and American equipment was used in this project, and end up spending cost of 70 million dollar, an astronomical budget viewing from 1960s.

These variety of infrastructure posed a clear positive impact on Hong Kong’s average life quality and also strong sensitivity to the region’s local crisis. For instance, a governmental annual report claims in the end of 1946 that “many of the newcomers… had no knowledge of urban life and were ignorant of rudiments of sanitation. Thousands sought shelter in damaged premises with no sanitary fittings and drew their water from polluted wells” (Hong Kong Annual Report 1946, Hong Kong Government Publication Bureau (1947).) [6]In this early context, the matter of water accessibility was already important for the city. The leading companies in terms of consultancy and engineering being of British appartency, we also realize how this British influence in terms of infrastructure impacts as well the day-today living conditions of the citizens of this growing population.

3.For Livelihood Projects: Introduction to Advanced Technologies and Systems

The 1960s were a time of social unrest in Hong Kong due to the instability on the mainland. The Chinese Communist Party began to demonstrate its willingness to take back Hong Kong, and the resulting ideological struggle made Hong Kong society extremely unstable. Further exacerbating social stability was the generally poor quality of housing at the time, when most refugees were still living in makeshift houses made of tin: "The houses had no daylight, fresh air, kitchen or sanitary facilities, and a crude roof made of wood and tin. ...... five or six people were crammed into a 6 square foot boxes." [7]

The then Governor MacLehose believed that to ease the situation, the government must first solve the livelihood problems [8], so he vigorously promoted the policy of low-cost public housing, and encouraged the construction of new schools, new hospitals, and the implementation of nine-year compulsory education, trying to use the British experience to help Hong Kong quickly step into the ranks of a modern city.

In order to be able to quickly build livelihood projects that can accommodate larger populations, British construction companies are beginning to bring to Hong Kong technologies and systems that can assist in the construction of high-rise or large-span buildings. Several ways in which this vision is being implemented are reflected, directly or indirectly, in the Hong Kong and Far East Builder article.

3.1 Description of New Technologies with the Help of Text

In order to improve the quality of public housing, the magazine introduces a variety of building products from the UK. The June 1963 article "The "JACKBLOCK" system of Building: A Vertical Assembly Line" describes a revolutionary building system called "JACKBLOCK ", which was designed and developed by Richard Costain. It was first used in 1962 in a 17-story apartment building in Coventry, England. The technique is characterized by starting with the roof, then lifting each floor completely, and repeating the process several times to complete the construction. This method allowed the construction of high-rise buildings quickly and cheaply. Another article, "Refuse Disposal in Blocks of Flats" , published in February 1964, discusses four waste disposal technologies for apartment buildings in the UK and their respective advantages, focusing on the Garchey system, which has the highest level of user satisfaction, with the following major advantages Garbage can be disposed of inside the home and is carried away directly by water. This technology has the potential to reduce the impact of waste odors on occupants in a collection of homes.

131–34.

Another technology that has been consistently documented in magazines is prefabrication, and in the December 1964 issue of Hong Kong and Far East Builder, an article entitled "Instant Housing Booms in Britain", it was suggested that the construction technique of prefabrication had achieved great success in the UK . It not only saves time and money in construction, but also minimizes the impact on the surrounding environment. In the same issue, an article titled "The Future of Hong Kong's Building Industry" also mentions that in other parts of the world, a huge technological change is transforming the construction industry, and Hong Kong people seem to be unaware of it. The application of prefabrication technology could be the conduit that brings Hong Kong in line with the international construction industry. Just six months later, the details of the technology were publicized in a magazine article entitled "Industrialised Building: Prefabricated Architecture or Architectural Prefabrication" , which detailed the construction methods and benefits of the prefabrication technology. Frank Ng, a practicing architect from ARIBA, emphasizes the precision, economy and value of prefabricated modules to workers' working conditions, and gives real-life pictures of prefabricated buildings built in Paris to clearly illustrate the application of this technology.

3.2 Reporting Built Project in the UK

In this section, we selected some articles that analyze projects built in England. The projects are well documented and the articles always explain the way they are built, with which technique of construction. They are giving a lot of details regarding the design.For instance, how technical constraints can become part of the design, the importance of lighting in the project.

Several sample articles could be observed. For instance, the 1964.6 article “’Instant Housing Boom in Britain” presented the prefabrication technique, introduced in Britain after the housing boom, and allowing shorter construction times, better organized construction sites and less workforce.

Another article (1966.3, Precast Cruciform Units Frame Research Center, UK) reported a project of Research Center in UK, in which precast concrete cruciform frame elements has been used. A walled service compound has also been designed in this project to hide all the networks.

Infrastructures are also taken in example on the magazine: in the article "Britain’s Longest Elevated Highway" published in November 1970, the Britain’s longest elevated bridge, 4km long, is analyzed. A feature of this highway was that its main structure is prestressed concrete. It was of course new at that time and only few companies were able to build it. Other articles are also presenting materials, for example the brick, that Hong Kong began to use after Britain tried it.

3.3 Standardization of the Construction Industry System in Hong Kong

In the magazine, some articles are showing the British influence on regulations. For example, a series of articles were reproducted from the “Chartered Surveyor”, official magazine of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). This organisation has been created in London in 1868 and obtained a Royal Chart from Queen Victoria in 1881.

This professional institution is international and independant. It offers a qualification and standards recognized in the real estate, construction and infrastructure markets. The article published on December 1962 named “Building and Quantity Surveying” highlighted the importance of training architects and actors of the construction to design things according to their prices and what is possible. The articles also mentioned a series of other regulation and their significance, including regulations with related to the safety in utilizing mechanical plants and the approach of managing group of architects.

We can also find a critisicm about the lack of regulations (1966.6, Improved Building Standards). Indeed, in new construction in Hong Kong at this time, there were no rules regarding construction. In 1948, Britain established an overseas service of the building research station. The work of oversea’s division is financed by

Britain’s ministry of overseas development and provide the establishment of rules after some investigations on the field. The regulations will thus be different according to the situation of the building, the local climate, etc. It is a big step in the construction field because it will allow better construction standards, and also more security in the buildings , for example regarding the fire risks, the emergency exits.

Other articles are dealing with the fact that Hong Kong had adopted the English Standard Method of Measurement and that it creates a lot of confusion with the local constructors, so they are trying to have a new local Standard Method of Measurement . They finally thought about the metric system, which is developing in an international level at that time. It was discussed in the parliament as early as 1818 and some industries and government agencies had metricated, or were in the process of metricating by the mid-1960s. A formal government policy to support metrication was agreed by 1965.

In Hong Kong, however, this important process of unification of units of measure was delayed. Thus, in the 1960s, a number of articles appeared in successive issues of the magazine text, presenting the importance of a unified unit system in Hong Kong in a progressive logic, and the October 1962 issue of the magazine also recorded a short story about "Hong Kong's first serving government employee to be trained in surveying in the UK", proving that the British assistance in the establishment of a sound regulation in Hong Kong was visible.