Within the general framework of modern Chinese architectural history, China’s mainland and Hong Kong seem to be two parallel lines that never collided in the course of modern Chinese history.<FootNote>
For instance, in the book A History of Modern Chinese Architecture by Zou Denong (2001), the part on Hong Kong appears in the Appendix only.
</FootNote> However, this perception about Hong Kong modern architectural history has been corrected by the recent studies on the so called “migrant architects”. According to Wang Haoyu’s study, there was a large-scale architectural migration in around 1949, up to 67 Chinese architects migrated from the mainland to Hong Kong, China.<FootNote>
Wang Haoyu, “Chinese Migrant Architects in Hong Kong”, in Chung Chi Original Campus Architecture, edited and written by Gu Daqing, publication in progress, 2010.
</FootNote> Their arrival at this colony had changed its architectural practice substantially. First, the abrupt increase of Chinese architects broke the long-time dominance of foreign architects in the local market.<FootNote>
According to Wang Haoyu, the number of Chinese architects was only 1/3 of the total architects in 1940, the figure reached half to half in 1949, and up to 1955, it was over 2/3.
</FootNote> With the crucial support of the migrant architects, the Hong Kong Society of Architects was eventually established.<FootNote>
The Hong Kong Society of Architects was established in 1956. Mr. Su Jin Djih was elected as the first president. The Hong Kong and Far East Builder, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1956. P. 30.
</FootNote> Second, these migrant architects made substantial contributions to Hong Kong’s modern architecture through their active involvement in design.<FootNote>
A general account of their design achievements can be seen from Ng Kai Chung and Sid C. H. Chu, Jianwen Zhuji—Stories of the First Generation of Hong Kong Chinese Architects, 2007 (in Chinese), and a series of articles published in The Journal of HKIA (in English).
</FootNote> In this new context, most of them also realized the significant transformation from the Beaux-Arts architecture to modern architecture.
This paper tells a story about architect Robert Fan Wenzhao<FootNote>
About Fan’s general information, see Lai Delin, Who’s Who in Modern Chinese Architecture, 2006. About his work in Hong Kong, see Ng Kai Chung and Sid C. H. Chu, “Pioneer of Chinese Modernist – Robert Fan”, The Journal of HKIA, Issue 40, 4th Quarter, 2004.
</FootNote> and his design of Chung Chi College campus in the 1950s. Mr. Robert Fan is probably one of the most important first generation of Chinese architects in the early 20th century. A native of Guangdong but born in Shanghai, Robert Fan graduated from St. John’s University in Shanghai in 1917 with a bachelor degree of civil engineering, then went to the University of Pennsylvania between 1919 and 1922, where he completed his degree in Architecture. He returned to China in 1922. In 1927, he started his own practice. Among numerous projects by Robert Fan, the most noteworthy ones are the competition entry for Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing in 1925, the Shanghai Opera House in 1930 and the YMCA Building in 1933, both are in Shanghai. As an activist in the professional field, he was the founding member and the first president of the Chinese Society of Architects in the 1930s. In 1949, he moved to Hong Kong to begin the last phase of his professional life, where he became a registered architect in 1937. The Chung Chi project is one of the numerous projects he completed between 1950s to 1960s.
Unlike a biographic study of a selected person or a general survey of a historic period, this research focuses on a single architectural event that happened during 1950s to 1960s. Through an in-depth case study, several aspects of the mainland migrant architects can be revealed. In the first part, the author tries to capture the intertwining relationship between the migrant architects and educators through the reconstruction of the selection process for a campus architect by Chung Chi College based on historic documents. In the second part, the author tries to identify Mr. Robert Fan’s concept of campus planning, to trace its historic origin back to Fan’s early design experience in the mainland, and to depict the main characteristics of Fan’s design of campus architecture with an emphasis on his transformation from the Beaux-Arts architecture to modern architecture.
The intertwining relationship between the migrant architects and educators in the Chung Chi College project
The migrant educators and Chung Chi College
In 1950, many private colleges appeared in Hong Kong. These colleges conducted classes in Chinese. This sudden boom of higher education was due to two reasons. First, there was a high demand in the society. On one hand, former students who had completed secondary school education in the Chinese language schools of Hong Kong were able to secure admission to universities in the China’s mainland and to return to Hong Kong after graduation. After 1949, this became very difficult. On the other hand, the increase in population caused by refugees from the mainland created an even greater demand for post-secondary education. Second, the migration of scholars and educators became the direct driving force for the flourish of private colleges. <FootNote>
There were more than 30 such private colleges organised by the refugee scholars according to the Government’s statistics in 1952. Their background and scale varied, but many can provide four years programs. They can only issue diploma but no degree. See Chen Fangzheng, Growing up with the Chinese University, 2000, p.13.
</FootNote> The most important ones were the New Asia College (1949), Chung Chi College (1951), and United College (1956). They later became the three founding colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1963.
Chung Chi College was founded by representatives of various Protestant churches in Hong Kong to fill the need for an institution of higher learning that would be both Chinese and Christian. The modus operandi of Chung Chi was strongly influenced by the 13 Christian universities in China, especially that of St. John’s University in Shanghai and Lingnan University in Guangzhou.<FootNote>
These 13 Christian universities were under the United Board for Christian College in China, which renamed as United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia in 1956. The logos of these 13 universities are still displayed in the Chung Chi Chapel today.
</FootNote> When the college was just founded, it had to borrow or rent several premises on Hong Kong island for conducting classes. However, the founders of the College soon started to plan a permanent campus in the New Territories. Naturally, they would need an architect to help them for a design. Thus, the client as the migrant educators developed an intertwining relationship with the migrant architects.
Verification of the architects involved in Chung Chi’s early campus planning and design
It is indisputable that Mr. Robert Fan was the architect of Chung Chi College’s early campus and buildings. However, he was not the only one involved in this project. We have discovered that several architects were involved in various stages of the process and almost all of them had mainland background. In the following, we will introduce them in a chronologic order with the support of written and visual evidences.
When the founders of Chung Chi College began to consider a permanent campus in the New Territories, the first choice was a place called Kou Tu. In the second issue of the Chung Chi College Bulletin (the Bulletin) dated May 10, 1952, it was written that “a site at Kou Tu Shan at 11 and 1/2 miles with beautiful scenery and running brooks in front of the hills and facing the harbour beyond the railway and Tai Po Road … Lee Construction Company had commissioned well-known architect, Chien Nei-jen, to draw up an ideal bird’s eye view rendering drawing for a campus.”<FootNote>
Somehow the Kou Tu site is mysterious to the Chung Chi people today. However, it is recorded in several documents. Also see Bishop Hall’s speech at the Founder’s Day, the Bulletin, issue 9, November 23, 1956; and Dr. D. Y. Lin’s “How the College Began”, the Bulletin, issue 61, 1979.
</FootNote> Beside the written record, we also found a photo of Chien Nei-jen’s rendering drawing in the Chung Chi Archive, which was dated January 1952. The written record matches with the content of the drawing.
Mr. Chien Nei-jen graduated from the Department of Architecture of the University of Michigan in the USA in 1937 and had taught at the Architectural Engineering Department of Zhong Shan University in Guangzhou. He practiced in Hong Kong until the mid 1960s.
However, it was not very long that the College found another site called Ma Liu Shui nearby the previous one, which was more suitable as an ideal campus. In late 1953 or early 1954, the College began to apply for the land from the government and launched a process for recruiting an architect.
At the meeting of the Board of Directors held in October 22, 1954, the chairman of the Planning Committee, Bishop Hall, made some explanations on the Ma Liao Shui site with a survey map done by Kwan, Chu & Yang Architects.<FootNote>
About Kwan, Chu & Yang Architects’ general information, refer to Lai Delin. About its work in Hong Kong, refer to Ng Kai Chung and Sid C. H. Chu.
</FootNote> Kwan, Chu & Yang (Ji Tai in Chinese) was one of the best known Chinese design firms at that time mostly because of its principle designer, Mr. Yang Ting Bao. On the verge of the Liberation in 1949, the partners of Kwan, Chu & Yang dispersed. Chu Pin became the person responsible for projects in Hong Kong; Kwan Sung Sing, the founder of the firm, went to Taiwan and Yang remained in the mainland. Chu Pin’s involvement in the Chung Chi project was later confirmed by a discovery of a site survey map from the Public Records Office of Hong Kong. The drawing was signed by Kwan, Chu & Yang. It is a survey map of the site without any design.
One of the important decisions from the Board meeting of October 22 was to ask the Planning Committee to nominate an architect. In the Board meeting held in November 24, the Planning Committee proposed a list of architects with three names: Chu Pin, Robert Fan and T. S. C. Feltham. This was the first time Mr. Robert Fan’s name appeared. Mr. Feltham was one of the well-known foreign architects in Hong Kong at that time and the only foreign architect involved in the Chung Chi project. The Board decided to run a competition with a fee and asked architects to submit sketch drawings. The result was revealed in the Board meeting held on December 9, 1954 through a secret ballot. The votes were Mr. Fan 8, Mr. Feltham 5, and Mr. Chu 2. As such, Robert Fan was elected the architect for the new campus.
The selection of a campus architect went through a well-structured process including the formulation of the instructions, the nomination of architects, the organization of the design competition, and finally a secret ballot. It is unfortunate that we could not find any design drawings submitted by these architects. Considering the actual time given to architects to prepare design drawings was less than two weeks between the two Board meetings, they had not had enough time to deliver fully developed designs, only some sketched ideas.
So far, we have sorted out the history up to the appointment of Mr. Robert Fan as the campus architect, which all occurred before 1955. In the following, we should further clarify the facts on the appointment of Robert Fan’s successor in 1957. The initial plan for the first phase of the campus construction was two years. Until 1957, most of the buildings of the first phase were completed, and Mr. Fan was almost 65 years old. It was written in the Minutes of the College Council meeting, dated March 8, 1957, that “With respect to the securing of an architect for further College development, it was voted to ask the Building Committee to decide between Kwan Wing Hong and Chau & Lee to take over the architect’s responsibilities at the termination of the present contract, with the understanding that new drawings will be in keeping with present designs.” In the Council meeting dated May 10, 1957, it was voted that Chau & Lee will engage as architects for the next phase of the building program. A new name appeared in this process, and it was architect Kwan Wing Hong. Mr. Kwan is the cousin of Kwan Sung Sing, the founder of Kwan, Chu & Yang, and he based his practice in Hong Kong since the late 1930s. He often worked jointly with Kwan, Chu & Yang Architects. In this sense, he resumed Kwan, Chu & Yang’s connection with Chung Chi College.
Last, we need to mention another migrant architect, Mr. Su Gin-Djih, who designed the Bishop Hoare Memorial Building at Glenealy in 1954, which was rented after its completion by Chung Chi College as temporary lecture hall and classrooms between 1954 and 1956, before the College moved to the Ma Liu Shui campus. As such, Mr. Su was indirectly related to Chung Chi College. Su was also among the first generation of Chinese architects educated and trained overseas. <FootNote>
About Su’s general information, refer to Lai Delin. About his work in Hong Kong, see Ng Kai Chung and Sid C. H. Chu.
</FootNote> He was the first president of the Hong Kong Society of Architects. Among his numerous projects in Hong Kong, the one loosely related to this topic is the New Asia College teaching building complex in Farm Road in 1956.
The intertwining relationship between the migrant architects and educators
To summarize, those architects who were involved in the Chung Chi new campus project all fall into the category of the so called “Chinese migrant architects”, except Chau & Lee which was a local Chinese firm and Feltham who was a foreign architect. In the sequence of time, they are Chien Nei-jen, Chu Pin, Robert Fan, and Kwan Wing Hong. We could also count Mr. Su Gin-Djih as an additional person in the list. At this point we might ask ourselves the question of why are there so many migrant architects who participated in the Chung Chi project. Is it accidental or inevitable? Wang Hao Yu’s study on migrant architects from the mainland of China provides us with a new understanding of the relations between the client and the architect in Chung Chi’s early campus development.<FootNote>
Wang Haoyu, “Chinese Migrant Architects in Hong Kong”, 2010.
</FootNote> According to her study, the development of many migrant architects’ practices in Hong Kong bears close relationship with their former clients in the mainland. When the College began to plan for the new campus, the first resource they can count on was those architects they knew in the past. It was therefore not difficult to understand why so many early architects had China’s mainland backgrounds.
In the early stage of campus planning and design, Dr. Lee Ying Lin and Mr. David W. K. Au were two crucial movers. As the first president of the College, Dr. Lee came from Lingnan University in Guangzhou.<FootNote>
Dr. Lee served as the vice president of Lingnan University from 1927-1931 and the president from 1937-1949.
</FootNote> As the first Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Au was associated with the St. John’s University in Shanghai.<FootNote>
Mr. Au served as the member of the Board of Directors of St. John’s University from 1946 to 1951 and the Deputy Chairman of the Board in 1949.
</FootNote> Obviously, Dr. Lee had great influences on the College’s vision of the future campus. Mr. Chien Nei-jen’s connection with Chung Chi College should be through Dr. Lee.<FootNote>
From Professor David Lung of the University of Hong Kong. In addition, Bishop Hall once mentioned that he saw Mr. Chien Nei-jen’s rendering drawing was displayed in Dr. Lee’s office.
</FootNote> It is unknown how Chu Pin became connected with Chung Chi College. We are more interested about Mr. Fan’s personal relationship with Mr. Au, as Mr. Au was the Acting president of the College from late 1954 to early 1955 after Dr. Lee passed away. This was the critical time for the selection of the campus architect. It seems that Mr. Fan and Mr. Au had several layers of relationship.<FootNote>
Mr. Au graduated from the St. Johns in 1918 and Mr. Fan in 1917. Their acquaintance probably could be traced back to their study years. Fan and Au was also connected with other links, such as Sincere Company, and Au was the manager of the Shanghai department store and Fan knew the owner of the company.
</FootNote> However, knowing the rigorous process for selecting the architect set up by Chung Chi College, we have no reason to doubt that Mr. Fan’s appointment was because of any private reasons.
All in all, it can be seen from the above that a group of migrant educators from the mainland Christian universities and a group of migrant architects of the same background came to Hong Kong at the turn of the 1950s. They both pursued their dreams and struggled to survive in this new environment. Eventually, they worked closely in the design of the new campus for Chung Chi College. It reflects, from a particular perspective, the social condition of those migrants.
Robert Fan’s design of the Chung Chi campus and its historic origin
Chung Chi’s vision on the future campus and Robert Fan’s master plan
The chosen Ma Liu Shui site has a strong characteristic that it is in-between the Kowloon-Guangzhou Railway and Tai Po Road. The two major traffic lines come close at the south end of the site then split again towards the northeast and northwest respectively. According to the earliest land use map dated July 17, 1953, the biggest land is located on the hill slope below Tai Po Road facing northeast. There are also three pieces of small land scattered on the north side hill slopes facing south. It is quite unusual to take a strategy to have several scattered plots of land instead of one large plot of land for a new campus. In his reminiscences, president Ling Dao Yang pointed out that this was a conscious decision on the part of the leaders for the eventual growth of the campus.<FootNote>
Ling Dao Yang, “How the College Began”, The Bulletin, No. 61, 1979.
</FootNote>
As early as in November 3, 1953, in the Minutes of the Building Committee, there is a description on the future campus: “Buildings to be of simple one-storey construction fitted into the slope among trees, with connecting paths, rather than of a striking institutional pattern.”<FootNote>
Chung Chi Archive, “Minutes of the Building Committee meeting”, November 3, 1953.
</FootNote> Obviously, the College was envisioning a landscape type of campus with buildings freely located to fit to the landform rather than a symmetric organization commonly used for educational institutions. This vision later became the guideline for the formulation of the design instructions for the architect. The instructions divide the campus into three areas. The administrative and academic buildings are located on the long hill slope and the assembly and dining hall are nearest to the station. The residential quarters and dormitories are on the north side of the valley. The athletic field is in the salt flats between the rice field and the railway. One more noteworthy point is that communication within the campus should be like Lingnan, namely by foot paths and steps.
About Mr. Robert Fan’s early campus design, the first visual evidence we found in the Chung Chi Archive is a photo of a rendering drawing with the signature of Robert Fan (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, the date of drawing was omitted when the photo was taken. The first master plan signed by Robert Fan was dated July 29, 1955 (Fig. 2). We can make a simple comparison between the two. The station point of the rendering drawing is taken from the railway looking toward west on the main academic buildings: the athletic field with a stadium is at the foreground; the administrative building, library and dining hall is at the middle ground; and the academic buildings are at the background. There is an auditorium with a pointing tower beside the administrative building. It seems that the rendering drawing and the master plan are almost identical.
Based on what we have found so far, Robert Fan’s campus master plan has at least another three versions. The final master plan should be the one published in The Builder in the second half of 1956 (Fig. 5). We could recognize that the final master plan consists of four areas. The academic area, the staff quarters area and the hostel area are located on the hill slopes. The athletic field is located near the station. The construction of the campus is divided into two phases. The first phase buildings are the administrative building, teaching blocks, library and multi-purpose hall, staff quarters, and student dormitories. The second phase buildings are the teaching blocks, auditorium, stadium, and presidents’ residence.
Referring to the instructions set by the College, we could recognize that the architect’s design is basically in line with the College’s initial vision. This can at least explain one thing that the architect and the client shared the same vision on the planning of the new campus. This must be the reason why Robert Fan was chosen by the College.
The historic origin of Robert Fan’s planning strategy
To further explore the deep roots of Robert Fan’s design concept, we need to trace it back to his former experience with the design of the new campus of the National Central University in Nanjing in the mid 1930s.
A few years earlier, the Nanjing local newspaper Jinling Evening News had published an article on the discovery of a set of old photos of Mr. Robert Fan’s entry into the competition for the new campus of the National Central University.<FootNote>
Wei Ye, “The new campus plan for the Central University Surfacing”, Jinling Evening News, March 14, 2006. Photograph courtesy of Cai Dinghong.
</FootNote> The old campus of the National Central University (now Southeast University) was inside Nanjing city. It is adjacent to the Beijige Hill and Xuanwu Lake. In the early 1930s, the president of the University, Mr. Luo Jialun obtained a government fund and acquired 1,300 acres of land outside the city with a vision to building a new campus there. Robert Fan entered the design competition and came in third (Figs. 3-4). The competition was held in 1936. The construction of the new campus started in 1937 and was terminated the same year when the university moved inland as the war broke out.
What is interesting for us is Mr. Robert Fan’s strategy of planning. He did not use the usual symmetrical axis method. He spread the buildings individually or in clusters according to the contours of the land. In his explanatory notes on his design for the National Central University, Robert Fan had explained his three planning principles concerning the overall layout:
1) Locating buildings on high grounds so as to preserve as much of the hills, forests, slopes and ponds as possible, to minimize the need for fill, to facilitate water-draining and to achieve firm foundations for the buildings.
2) Grouping of buildings of similar functions with easy connections among them and between the groups. Functional groups also maximize the use of space and facilitate future additions.
3) Reserving space around each building for future expansions.
We could also use these three points to explain the master plan of Chung Chi College. Although we can trace Robert Fan’s idea of scattered buildings for Chung Chi to similar strategies he used in his earlier design for the National Central University in Nanjing, a further analysis on the change of his design method is necessary as the method he adopted in these two designs was not from his Beaux-Arts educational background.
In the early 1930s, Robert Fan was one of the few Chinese architects who had sensed the world tendency toward modernism architecture. In 1933, two new members joined his office. One was an American architect, Carl Lindbohm, and the other was Wu Tse-Ngong (Herbert Woo), who just returned after his study from the US. Both had exerted a great influence on him about modern architecture. In 1934, Robert Fan wrote an article to reflect his eclecticism idea of design and declared his position for modern architecture. In 1935, as a representative of the Chinese government, he attended the 14th International Conference on Urban and Building Design held in London. On the same trip, he also attended the World Architects Congress held in Rome. The trip gave him an opportunity to see the changes in Europe under the influence of modern architecture. The competition entry for the new campus of the National Central University just happened around this period, which became a proof of his shift from eclecticism to modernism. Specifically, this shift can be seen from his abandonment of the method of classical symmetry and adoption of a “picturesque” method of planning. It is a method of arranging building blocks freely according to site conditions and of considering human’s spatial and visual experiences as moving through space. In this respect, the planning of Chung Chi College can serve as an exemplar.
A “picturesque” campus
Now, let us try to “experience” the Chung Chi campus: one is to get into the campus from the railway station to see the buildings on their north-east face; the second is to get into the campus from Tai Po Road to have a view of the building facades on both sides of the road, and the third is to see the quiet courtyards from the west-facing corridors of the teaching blocks. (Figs. 5-7)
The starting point to experience the campus is from the railway station, which is the main access to the campus as most of people come by train. From there we can see that the buildings are placed row by row on the different contours up the slope. The buildings spread horizontally on one hand and row by row on the other. The road to the main teaching area was not straight. It wound round the fields at the foot of the hill slopes and is almost parallel to the buildings above the slope. It means that one can only see the Administrative Building and the Library in a diagonal position. Where the Library was, one could turn upward into the teaching area. The entrances of the Library, the Multi-purpose Hall, and the Administration Building are placed on the west side so that, upon entering these buildings, one could look back at the railway station. Therefore, the starting point and the end point of this journey are connected through experience. This is the first route to “experience” the campus.
The second route into the campus was down the slopes from Tai Po Road through the College Gateway. There was a relatively large paved square between the Administration Building and the south end of the Teaching Block A. A small road led from this square to the Library and other buildings. Because the main entrance of all buildings faced this road, it was in fact the main campus road. The layout of the teaching block was unusual as their main circulation did not face the main road as other buildings. Although the main entrances faced the main road, the corridor faced the hill slopes behind. The aim might have been to create another level of visual effect to form an inside courtyard with the whole complex of teaching blocks.
These are not all. If one looks closely, one can find a network of small paths among the Library, the teaching blocks and the Dining Hall. This was obviously the “heart” of the campus. Photographs show that there were, no squares but only gardens. Furthermore, from the master plan, it can be seen that the main teaching area, the staff quarters, and the students’ dormitories formed the three legs of a tripod. A view of the teaching area could be seen from both the staff quarters and the student dormitories.
Manifestation of modernism in architectural design
Based on various resources, we could confirm that the buildings designed by Robert Fan and completed by then include the Administration Building, the Dining and Multi-purpose Hall, the Library, three teaching blocks, the boys’ and girls’ dormitories, the girls’ temporary dormitory, and staff quarters A and B.
The first noteworthy characteristic of Robert Fan’s design of these buildings is the deliberate use of asymmetric plan layout. This, on one hand, was required by the site situation and, on the other hand, can be seen as his effort to avoid the Beaux-Arts method of composition, namely symmetry and axis. The plan for a building is organized according to its function and the location, rather than a formal idea. The Dining and Multi-purpose Hall and the Library were two exceptions that the plans and masses appeared to be symmetrical. However, the symmetry can hardly be experienced as people accessed and viewed these two buildings normally from a perpendicular or diagonal angle so that the expression of symmetry was greatly minimized.
According to Robert Fan’s son, Mr. Benjamin Fan, the construction costs for the first stage was about HK$1.4 to 1.8 per square foot.<FootNote>
Preface to Chung Chi Original Campus Architecture, edited and written by Gu Daqing, publication in progress, 2010.
</FootNote> With such budgetary constraints, the architect could only be practical and economical. The buildings completed were functional, closely knit without any superfluity. These, however, did not mean that the architect had abandoned the pursuit of architectural excellence. On the contrary, the simple designs manifested the architect’s ability of articulation everywhere. By virtue of his training in classical architecture, Robert Fan clearly demonstrated that he handled space organisation, proportion, material, and color with ease. The buildings used load-bearing walls and structural frames as the different circumstances required. This could be seen from the external views of the buildings. The most noted feature of Mr. Fan’s design was his use of the local Ngo Tau Shek as the facade treatment of the buildings. Thus, the stone walls, the plastered walls, the brick walls, the concrete lattice window, and the glass formed a conglomerate of materials and colors. (Figs. 8-9)
Even under such budgetary constraints, Robert Fan did not completely abandon his pursuit of the “Chinese style”. This was manifested in two ways: the Administration Building, the Dining and Multi-purpose Hall, and the teaching blocks all had pitched roofs; there were Chinese style grooves on the overhanging parts of the roofs of these buildings. Of course all these had been kept to a minimum and with low-key expressions.
Campus development after Robert Fan and the disappearance of the original campus
After finishing the first batch of buildings on campus, Robert Fan discontinued his work and Chau & Lee succeeded him in 1958. The subsequent expansions, alterations and new items were completed by the latter. Chau & Lee was the pioneer of Hong Kong local architects. Chau Iu Nin (I. N. Chau) studied civil engineering at the Hong Kong University; Richard Lee studied architecture in England. Chau & Lee’s business covered Hong Kong from housing projects, schools, to hospitals. The firm was a representative of Hong Kong local architects. The most significant Chung Chi building by Chau & Lee should be the Chapel. The Chapel was designed by Chau Kai-heem (K. H. Chau), Chau Iu Nin’s son. It is believed that most of the designs in the Chung Chi campus under the name of Chau & Lee were the work of Chau Kai-heem. Chau & Lee’s service to the College was up to the mid-1970s with Block “S” single staff quarters, and even extended to the end of the 1980s for the extension of the Elizabeth Luce Moore Library. The cordial relations between architects and the client spanned almost 30 years. We will not go deeper into the work of Chau & Lee as it is not the focus of this paper. However, without Chau & Lee’s additions, the Chung Chi campus would be incomplete. For instance, the teaching complex comprised eight building blocks, only the first three were designed by Robert Fan and the rest were by Chau & Lee. Both architects’s work forms what we call “the original campus” today. (Fig. 10)
Starting from the mid 1980s, the old buildings were demolished for new developments. The Dining and Multi-purpose Hall was the first followed by the teaching complex. By the end of the last century, the majority of old buildings in the teaching area were demolished and the old campus disappeared. Of all the buildings designed by Robert Fan only the temporary girls’ dormitory remains in the main teaching area. The temporary girls’ dormitory, added as a last item in the initial campus plan, probably did not take Robert Fan much time to design. Nevertheless, it is the only one remaining today in the main teaching area. In another parts of the campus, the remaining buildings designed by Robert Fan include Block A and Block B of staff quarters and Hua Lin Tang and Ying Lin Tang of student dormitories. Two staff quarters remain basically in its original design not only their external appearance but also internal layout and furniture. Two student dormitories were only built in half due to the shortage of fund during Robert Fan’s time. The other parts were completed later by Chau & Lee following Fan’s design. Several renovation jobs were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s; however, the appearance of these two buildings remains more or less the same.
It is true that the original campus of Chung Chi College has basically disappeared today due to the large-scale redevelopments carried out in the last 20 years. Walking through the campus today, we can hardly exercise the same kind of experiential and intellectual analysis to those new buildings as we did for Robert Fan and Chau & Lee’s designs. The new buildings in general demonstrate little sensitivity to the land and to each other and have poor internal spatial organisations and external formal expressions. The level of design of the new buildings is not comparable to that of Robert Fan and Chau & Lee. It seems that what we have appreciated from this study of the design of the original Chung Chi campus has been lost in the course of history.
As a conclusion or a lesson learned from this study, what really worries us might not be the disappearance of the original Chung Chi campus but the discontinuity of a great design tradition of the 1950s. It reflects the difficulty of Hong Kong’s architectural design today.
Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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