T.C. Yuen
5 Eastern Hospital Road, Causeway Bay
1956
Though a Government project, the project assigned private architects for the designing process. It follows the convention pattern laid down by the Education Department at the time, which required schools to have a covered playground area on the ground floor level that could simultaneously be used as an assembly area. In the upper floors, there are classrooms and one large woodwork room in each floor (see floor plan).
The elevated nature of the site posed difficulties for the architect. The assigned site was 40 feet above the Eastern Hospital Road, but a good portion of the area spilled over in this downward direction as well. The Government wanted the main entrance to face the Eastern Hospital Road and make use of the slope. The architect was to design a building that would provide an entrance that is convenient and not too steep, keeping the site formation work at a minimum. T. C. Yuen responded to the challenge by providing a sloping approach leading from the Eastern Hospital Road to the ground floor, which is supported by the retaining wall at the rear (see model view from the Southwest elevation above). With this retaining wall as the anchor, the building forms an L-shaped structure around the basketball court on the back-side of the building.
The ground floor includes a covered playground, games store, entrance hall and changing room, while the first floor includes the administrative offices and teachers’ common rooms, which were duplicated to provide for separate staff for the morning school and afternoon school. The second, third and fourth floors of the building each occupy the eight classrooms and a manual training room. The balcony corridors that lead off the main lobby for both sides of the building (see second floor plan) allow maximum ventilation into the classrooms since there are windows on both sides of the building.
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Southwest elevation (Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 12 No. 6 (1956))
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Site plan (Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 12 No. 6 (1956))
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Ground floor plan (Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 12 No. 6 (1956))
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Second floor plan (Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 12 No. 6 (1956))
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Section (Hong Kong & Far East Builder Vol. 12 No. 6 (1956))
