Care for the recent past : a conservation-based maintenance plan for the Hong Kong City Hall

Abstract

In Hong Kong, the significance of such type of architecture of twentieth-century has long been poorly understood and overlooked. Many of the iconic Modern architecture heritage are at risk and threatened by a general lack of awareness and recognition which are under great pressure by redevelopment, unsympathetic change or simply by neglect. According to the territory-wide survey of 1,444 historic buildings carried out by the Antiques Advisory Board (AAB) since March 2009, there are nearly 90 per cent of the graded buildings built before 1950. There is a common perception that such buildings are not of “heritage age” and that many of them are too utilitarian in design or commonplace in appearance. However, the situation has been slightly changed over the time into the 21st century. Since demolition of the Queen’s Pier in 2007 that ignited a heritage conservation movement in Hong Kong, there are more and more Modern architecture beginning to be recognized as heritage, such as the 1950s Former Central Government Offices, State Theatre in North Point and Garden Centre (Garden Bakery) in Shum Shui Po. In his daily work, the author realized that there is no recognized Government or industrial standard specifically for the maintenance of Modern architectural heritage in Hong Kong. For the Government standard, there is only a General Specification for Building published by Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) for construction of new building and a Particular Specification for the repair of reinforced concrete of existing building, with no distinction of whether the building is heritage or not. As a professional building surveyor, the author is aware of the fact that such buildings many of which are reinforced concrete construction, were designed to a material lifespan of 50 years. It means that many of such recognized and potential Modern architectural heritage which are already more than 50 years old has reached the end of their design life. However, one school of thought is that the residual life of these buildings is subject to the condition of their structural elements. Therefore, a condition survey to these buildings is in need (and there is none) to determine their maintenance need, so that it would not be too late for conservation in the near future.