Newsletter No. 12

CUHK N e w s l e t t e r architecture grow, we'll be looking for more specialists: people in technology, people in history and theory, people in practice. • What sort of students will you be looking for? • Well, I'm still learning about the Hong Kong educational system, so I can only speak in generalities at this point. Just to give a comparison, the University of Hong Kong has a tradition of taking mostly science students, but they're beginning to open up. About aquarter are now arts students. What we would like to have, I think, is a balance. We're looking for students who are broadly educated and who possess a wide range of interests. Secondly, they should be creative; not necessarily in architecture, because that's not something you do in secondary school, but in arts, or in some form of creative work. Architecture needs an integrative mind, that is, one that is synthetic rather than analytical. Analytical skills have tobe combined with a capacity for synthesis. We'll also want some interest in drawing and graphics. • What about the medium of instruction - English, Cantonese, whatever suits the individual teacher? • I'm looking, again, for abalance, so that, just as there should be some older teachers, there should be some younger ones. My preference would be for people who are all bilingual, but I don't think that's realistic. However, I think a substantial number should be Cantonese speakers. In general, I think you teach in whatever language you feel most comfortable with. But in terms of overall communication, Cantonese is going to be important. • Let's now talk about architecture in Hong Kong. Are there particular buildings thatyou are impressed by? • I don't think I've seen enough of the ordinary stuff yet. I think, in general, I like the public housing, as away of fulfilling people's housing needs. This is very successful. The town centres, the life they've created. There are a lot of things you can criticize about them, and I think they should be critically analysed, but, I'm contrasting it to the way that Americans deal with public housing problems, and Hong Kong does it much, much better. I also think pieces of the MTR are very well done, the way in which people transfer in some of the stations. • What about some of the striking buildings like the Bank of China, Hong Kong Bank, and the Bond Centre? • They're quite good. They come from three of the most prominent architects in the world, and I think they've all done themselves proud. The three of them are perfect examples of what the current trends in architecture are. They each are, I think, very fine examples of different genres and express such different things. They're wonderful. Paul Rudolph, who did the Bond Centre, is one of the great manipulators of form, very facile, very clever, an absolute genius. And I.M. Pei has taken the tall, tall building and done what I think very few architects in Hong Kong have done, which is to look at the building as asingle piece of work, and through very strong geometry cut away essentially a very tall cube and by cutting it diagonally, created a sense of triangular tubes. And it certainly serves its purpose and dominates the skyline. It expresses the power of the Bank of China: it's very cool, very restrained, and the detailing is exquisite. It looks to me, as I call it, like a very subtle pinstriped suit from the best tailor in London. You have to look hard to se that there are actually pinstripes, because the detailing is so fine. And then of course Hong Kong Bank is just an amazing piece of sculpture. It's a very expensive, hand-made machine, as they say, that expresses everything on the outside. I.M.’s building is clothed in a single piece, while the other is complex, interesting, provoking. • How do you feel about our campus architecture? • It's like Hong Kong: you can see different times reflected. Each building can reflect a picking up of another model, and as The Chinese University develops a clearer sense of where it is, the buildings start to reflect that. Buildings have a way of telling you what's going on in an interesting manner. It's hard for buildings to lie; they tell you essentially what they are, or where the institution is. • Will thepresence ofa department of architecture on the campusaffectthe campus architecture? • Oh, I would hope so. I would feel that we are not succeeding if we didn't. I hope to be able to get through the mechanics of setting up the department so that we can carry on some outreach. I want to see how our own space shapes us. I hope it's accessible and that we can mount some exhibits, have people give some talks, and have the students' work out there, and to be able to provoke discussion. It would be alost opportunity if a new architecture department doesn't make its views heard. 8