N O T E B O O K 2002 – 2003 ARCHITECTURE C U H K - School of ...

ARCHITECTURE
C U H K
N O T E B O O K
2 0 0 2 – 2 0 0 3
1

Notebook II
This is the second working notebook of
the architecture programme. The first book
noted the ideas underlying the programme,
and described the fundamental structure
of the programme and its various parts in
terms of studios and courses.
It provided a relatively simple description
of the programme, the common ground
in the department for discourse as well as
education and research.
The present notebook is an extension, not
a repetition, of the first one, and in a sense
it reflects some of the results of the year’s
experience.
It is intended to present the programme
from a more direct, specific, and operational
point of view. In reflecting the results
of the experience of the first year, it shows
total changes in some parts, clarification
and revisions or reaffirmation of other
parts. In addition, it includes a small selection
of the student work as illustration of
how the various studios have developed
their approaches.
The key aspect of the new programme
was the approach to the design pedagogy
in terms of four studios. This approach was
new to most – almost all – teachers. There
was also some concern to see if the
finite number of studios, while bringing
focus to the work, would have a limiting
effect on the scope of architectural exploration.
The general observation about the
operation of the studios and the resulting
work is that the four studios seemed to
offer sufficient choice, not to compromise
the comprehensive nature of design in
general, to offer an effective pedagogical
approach, and to encourage depth through
greater focus.
By and large, the year has led to the view
that the programme has served the vision
of the department well. It has provided
the basis for focused work in design and
can serve increasingly greater intensity and
quality.
In the coming year, the programme will
continue fundamentally as it has in the first
year, but will reflect several developments
in the light of the experience of the year.
All studios will develop a more formal
presentation of the theoretical and historical
material related to the work to be
presented as a supporting module within
the studio. This is intended to advance and
raise the level of reference to theoretical
material during the occasional discussions
at the drawing board.
In the first year, the courses in all areas
– Humanities, Technology, Communication,
and Professional Practice – will be closely
related to the studio work stressing the
unity of the subject of architecture
and the importance of direct observation
as a first step in studies which advance
into separate subjects. They will share the
beginning as direct observation and architecture
as an undivided whole and proceed
to articulated studies in their subject
areas.
There have been further changes also in
the advanced courses in all four areas.
In Communication, the course Computer-Aided
Architecural Design has been
further developed to provide a strong
theoretical basis for later studies in computer
applications and in design.
In Humanities, the first course has been
changed to present a more comprehensive
culturally inclusive view of architecture.
New electives have been introduced dealing
with the relationship between architecture
and other fields, such as art and
socio-cultural studies.
In Technology, the change is intended to
start with a view of architecture as an
undivided whole and lead to articulation
into courses as a result of direct observation.
It is also intended to embrace issues
of environmental concern and sustainability
right from the start.
In Professional Practice, the courses have
been revised to take note of changes in
the professional practice examination
requirements. In addition the year out is
integrated into the programme and will
be supported through a series of seminars
and closer connection between the work
outside and the later studies in the master’s
programme.
The scope of independent studies has
been increased by allowing students to
undertake studies in other locations and
institutions, not only as part of formal
exchange with other schools, but also on
the basis of individually prepared proposals
for study approved by the department.
2 3

Table of Contents
Design Education 7
Architecture: The House and the City 9
Programme 11
Studios 12
Primary Studios 13
Types of Study 17
Modes of Study 22
Courses 25
Communication 26
Humanities 27
Technology 28
Professional Practice 29
Research Studies 30
Student Work 2001 – 2002 31
Foundation 32
Habitation 34
Urbanization 36
Tectonics 38
Technics 40
Thesis 42
Study Schemes 45
A Place for Learning 46
Studio Dates 48
4 5

Design Education
“What a scientist does at his desk or in his laboratory, what a literary critic does in reading a poem,
are of the same order as what anybody else does when … engaged in like activities – if he is to
achieve understanding. The difference is in degree, not in kind.”
Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education
“The appreciation of the structure
of ideas is that side of a
cultured mind which can only
grow under the influence of a
special study. I mean that eye
for the whole chessboard, for the
bearing of one set of ideas on
another. Nothing but a special
study can give any appreciation
for the exact formulation of general
ideas, for their relation when
formulated, for their service in the
comprehension of life. A mind so
disciplined should be both more
abstract and more concrete. It
has been trained in the comprehension
of abstract thought and
in the analysis of facts.”
Alfred North Whitehead
The Aims of Education
Design is widely and validly regarded as the
core of architectural education. However,
it is not limited to the work in studios. It
applies to all studies in the programme.
It is a way of thinking; it is a habit of mind
towards every action as a fusion of knowledge,
reason, and aesthetic intention. It is
an approach to education.
No single part of the programme is
intended intended merely as a source of
information or as an isolated and exhaustive
presentation of a subject. The entire
programme and each significant part of it
are points of departure for further study, as
well as examples of possible directions and
established methods.
Here education is a process of acquisition
of knowledge through active engagement
in its development, exercise of creative
imagination and skill through design and
refinement of intellectural focus through
a critical approach to every part of the
process.
6 7

Architecture - The House and the City
Architecture is the formal extension of
the common human instinct for building
shelter in search of safety and permanence.
Thus it has both a physical and a
metaphorical aspect. It embodies both the
physical and the meta-physical, the secular
and the sacred. It forms and embraces in
each single act, each single work, the past,
the present, and the potential the future of
human culture.
The school should become an increasingly
active participant in its city – Hong Kong.
It aims to be actively engaged in the architecture
and the evolution of Hong Kong, its
particular conditions of time and place. It
aspires to bring to this engagement a view
of architecture as a field of universal presence
and timeless qualities, and to draw
energy and vitality from its untamed life
and nature.
Its history parallels the evolution of society
through increasingly complex institutions
and buildings from the house to the city. It
is integrally bound to all other aspects and
human life, since the source of its regeneration
lies beyond itself, while its forms
develop from within.
A school of architecture is a civic and cultural
institution as well as a place of professional
education. The presence of a school
in a city must contribute effectively to the
quality of architecture and the awareness
of architectural issues in that city. At the
same time, a school must relate to architecture
as the subject of its own intellectual
identity. It must negotiate between the
immediate reality of the city of its location
and the timeless quality of architecture as a
universal presence.
8 9

Programme
Architecture
Design: Theory – Practice – Process
The study of architecture is ultimately the study of works of architecture.
A work of architecture is a fact much like an object in nature. It is complete in itself. It is not an
abstraction or formalized thought. Its study requires formalized thought if it is not to be merely a
description of the form itself.
The programme deals with one subject:
architecture.
The programme is not merely a collection
of courses for covering information. It is
itself a shaper of ideas about the subject.
It is also a structure allowing study of
architecture at different levels of complexity
and articulation, as a unified whole or
in different degrees of detail and different
aspects.
The structure is essentially a theoretical
construct, a “theory” relating form to our
observations about it. Relating our observations
to our actions, relating our designs
to our observations. At present much of
this connecting thought is unstated or
unarticulated. It appears as opinion and
anecdote and is not explicitly stated in such
a way that it can be refined with experience,
can act as repository of accumulated
experience in the form of knowledge. In a
way the studios and their conduct afford
the beginning of such a process.
It consists of two main parts: courses and
studios. In general studios focus on DESIGN;
the courses deal with THEORETICAL MATERIAL.
10 11

Architecture
Design
Design
Primary Studios
Process, Product, and Language
Habitation
In architecture there is little to
teach and much to learn.
“Students … have a limited
exposure to the materials they
are to learn. How can this exposure
be made to count in their
thinking for the rest of their
lives The dominant view among
men who have been engaged in
preparing and teaching new curricula
is that the answer to this
question lies in giving students an
understanding of the fundamental
structure of whatever subjects
we choose to teach.”
Jerome Bruner
The Process of Education
Design pedagogy, if it is not limited to demonstration
and apprenticeship, must involve
verbal language beyond mere practical
instruction. The terms of such language,
while rooted in the common language,
must be part of theoretical structure of
interrelated assumptions, concepts, and
operations. They constitute the language
we use in the process of design education,
make discussion possible beyond mere
reference to limited examples, and enable
students to advance beyond immediate
instruction.
The process of design, in terms of cognitive
activity, is the same as in any subject.
Therefore in order to be useful in teaching
design in a particular subject, it needs to
be described in a way that relates to the
specific content of its subject: ARCHITECTURE.
In architecture, an important first step in
design – much like the first step in a journey
– is a sense of direction. This is not
predicated upon any facts within the “journey”
and precedes it. The designer’s sense
of direction is the “position” in architecture.
Four such positions form the basis of the
primary “thematic” or primary studios:
HABITATION, URBANIZATION, TECTONICS, TECH-
NICS.
“In the house of every Greek
and Roman was an altar; on this
altar there had always to be a
small quantity of ashes, and a
few lighted coals. It was a sacred
obligation for the master of every
house to keep the fire up night
and day. …This in turn was connected
with an ancient belief.”
This altar was called Vesta in
Greek and Focus in Latin.
Fustel de Coulanges
The Ancient City
Habitation begins as the routines of life
take place and develop significant form. The
form becomes significant as its ambiance,
its conditions of light, its geometry, its relationship
to other forms embody symbolic
significance. It is not merely a response to
immediate functions but also the embodiment
of myths, customs, and beliefs. The
distance between two persons in conversation,
the seating arrangement around a
room or a table, the place of entry into a
room, the shape of gathering around an
event, a procession. These are captured
in art, folklore, literature, and customs in
various cultures, and have given timeless
significance to art, literature, and architecture.
They enable a work of architecture to
capture the entire history and culture of a
community the past, present, and future in
a single act.
They not only provide an approach to the
study of design; they also provide examples
of “an approach,” encouraging students to
formulate their own ideas and form their
own approach from this primary set.
12 13

Design
Primary Studios
Design
Primary Studios
Urbanization
Tectonics
“Every great event has its geographical
epicenter - that of the
American Revolution was the few
city blocks around Carpenters’
and Independence Halls in Philadelphia;
that of the great French
Revolution was the Place de la
Bastille; that of the Revolution
of 1848 was the Luxembourg
Gardens”.
J. K. Galbraith
The Age of Uncertainty
The studio studies the shaping influence
of factors beyond the individual building.
Although architecture may seem traditionally
to have been concerned with individual
monuments the ground cover, which make
the fabric of the city the relationships, traditions,
and common needs that shape the
ground cover influence the city as a whole
and provide a formal context for the
design of each part often without individual
formal articulation. The context in turn
evolves with the building of each building. it
in a way one is designing the city with the
design of each building. Each building is a
variation of the timeless architectural duality
of “the city and the house.”
“Paper, I understand, was
invented by the Chinese, but
Western paper is to us no more
than something to be used, while
the texture of Chinese paper
and Japanese paper gives us
a certain feeling of warmth, of
calm and repose. Even the same
white could as well be one color
for Western paper and another
for our own. Western paper turns
away the light, while our paper
seems to take it in, to envelop it
gently, like the soft surface of a
first snowfall. It gives off no sound
when is crumpled or folded, it is
quiet and pliant to the touch as
the leaf of a tree. ”
Jun’ichiro Tanizaki
In Praise of Shadows
Tectonics is a manifestation in architecture
of the aesthetic imperative as part of
human nature. It attends to the potential
of building for qualities inherent in the
material, economy in their use, potential for
elegance in resolution in their juxtaposition,
and the total compositional quality of form.
It goes beyond necessity and responds to
a sensibility of a higher order as mastery
and skill.
It relates to the sensibility that has characterized
all fine works of architecture. It has
been the quality of all work of architecture.
The curvature in the entablature of the
Parthenon, the joints between stones at
Machu Pichu, the composition of windows
in the chapel at Ronchamp … are beyond
functional necessity.
14 15

Design
Primary Studios
Studios
Types of Study
Technics
Design: Product Form and Content
“One of the most obvious
problems in building the dome
of Santa Maria del Fiore was
how to transport heavy building
materials such as sandstone
beams and slabs of marble
several hundred feet above the
ground and then place them
into position with the accuracy
demanded by Filippo’s design.
The sandstone beam weighed
some 1,700 poinds each, and
hundreds of them needed to
be raised on to the cupola. To
solve this problem Filippo was
compelled to imagine ‘some
unheard-of machine’ to move
and carry tremendous weights to
incredible heights. The hoist that
he created was to become one
of the most celebrated machines
of the Renaissance, a device that
would be studied and sketched
by numerous other architects and
engineers, including Leonardo da
Vinci.”
The studio studies and practices the innovative
processes and skills to design buildings
one might say from first principles,
based on specific technologies or needs.
Architecture owes much to buildings and
works designed outside the architectural
tradition. New needs, new technologies, or
new environments all have led to examples
such as the Crystal Palace, the 19 th century
railway arches, the viaducts and bridges.
They best illustrate the point of exploration
in the Technics studio.
The bold and innovative approach to their
design is no doubt an integral part of any
work. But the power of such works is evident
in the ready place they find in many
derivative designs that seem to follow from
them.
“A building is a world within a
world. Buildings personify places
of worship, or of home, or other
institutions of man.”
Louis I. Kahn
The shed and the cathedral are
two points in a continuum of
evolution, just as the house and
the city. There’s a shed in every
cathedral; a cathedral in every
shed.
In the face of infinite variety of particular
situations it seems necessary to seek a
deep structure in terms of which to understand
and act on them. At the same time it
is necessary to recognize the unique quality
of every work. Design becomes a fusion
of the universal and the particular. This is
the challenge of the approach to design.
Buildings and the functions or institutions
they serve, though infinite in number and
boundless in time and place, can be seen in
terms of evolution or permutations rooted
in a limited number of primary human
activities, PLACE OF GATHERING, PLACE OF WORK,
PLACE OF SOLITUDE.
Ross King
Brunelleschi’s Dome
16 17

Types of Study
Projects
School Project
Places
Two Types of Study
Live
Design is not merely problemsolving.
The scope of a solution
to a problem is confined to its
description. Design is an act of
creating a new and concrete
“fact.” It is related to needs,
limits, potentials, and intentions.
But it is not reducible to any such
abstraction or produceable in
direct response to them.
Studio projects are occasions for study and
exercise based on the studio as “positions,”
not as dogma.
The scope of the projects varies to suit the
particular approach and pedagogical strategy
of the studio. They provide the possibility
of exercises which are particularly
suited to the issues in the studio. Beyond
the daily and immediate educational objectives,
the studies and their results make
a cumulative contribution to an implicit
discourse between different positions in
architecture.
However, in all studios the exercises remain
as design exercises within the scope of
architecture.
School projects are formulated independently
of the studio positions and are
occasions for the application of particular
design positions to general designs. As in
other parts of the programme they are
not only statements of “design projects,”
but are themselves a way of seeing and
interpreting building types.
At the simplest level three kinds of places
seem to define the human world: place
of work, place of gathering, and place of
solitude. They are the necessary elements
of any complete human environment; the
house, the school, the factory, the temple.
… The following list is a second level in the
development of primary functions. It provides
the basic definition of sets of “school
projects.”
Each set consists of three “projects.”
These are seen as essentially one project
manifested at different levels of complexity
which as a nested set inform one another.
All places of habitation are places for living.
And a place of living must at a basic level
provide for all essential routines of habitation.
These can be seen in terms of three
modes of daily life: gathering, work, and
solitude. They are the necessary constituent
parts of a dwelling of any size, a oneroom
apartment or an extensive house.
The study and design of places of living
involves the entire scope of architecture at
the most fundamental level. It touches on
narrowly defined functions and embodies
timeless and far-reaching customs and
beliefs. The house is perhaps the most
symbolically significant of any form in architecture.
It is the seminal idea in architecture,
as the family might be regarded as the
seminal unit of human society. The hearth,
the altar, the window, the doorway are in
the house, more distinctly than in any other
work of architecture, routines of life.
Projects:
Year 2: Individual house
Year 3: Hostel
Year 4. Housing
18 19

School Project
Places
Work
Learn
Worship
Perform
Travel
Exchange
Much of human life is spent in working,
much of human thought is preoccupied
with work. Much of human history is the
record of working conditions. Much of
architecture deals with places of work.
Projects for places for working serve two
aims. In one way, they serve as occasions
for the study of this major aspect of human
life: its history, its influence in human
attitudes, its impact on other aspects of
culture, etc. In another way they serve to
bring all such study into focus as occasions
for study and practice of design.
Year 2: A weaving studio for two weavers.
Year 3: A “factory” for industrial production
or manufacturing of a group of 50 persons.
Year 4: A community of 100 persons working
in groups of up to 4 in various lines of
work – innovative technology, design, etc.
Learning as one of the main human activities
has been the focus of a major part of
human civilization, has led to the development
of a distinct line of social institutions,
and has occupied a distinct section of
architectural history. Despite the extensive
development of the institutions and their
many forms, the place of the individual student
remain central to all such institutions.
Year 2: A kindergarten for two groups of
20 children.
Year 3: A local library with a collection of
60’000 – 80’000 books.
Year 4: A design school for 200 – 250
students.
Worship is a fundamental aspect of human
life. The places of worship, when not limited
to the individual, have had much in
common to other places of gathering and
performance. Despite many forms and
doctrines, the architecture of worship in all
cultures has several common underlying
characteristics, even while it responds to
important symbolic and doctrinal differences.
The history of the architecture of
worship responds also to ceremony and
ritual. In some way it celebrates universal
existence by placing the human being in
the presence of timeless and constant
natural elements: light, earth, water, and
air. Yet the essential condition of worship
remains solitude.
Year 2: Memorial chapel for private worship
of up to 10 persons.
Year 3: A university college chapel for
assemblies of up to 200 persons.
Year 4: A temple complex for a rural community.
Performance is an integral part of human
gathering, communication, and social action.
Seen this way, a place of performance is a
place of gathering with more or less specific
requirements. But, like social activity,
the form of the place, and of the building
giving place to the performance seems to
come from the gathering and its symbolic
implications as much as from its functional
requirements. It is expected that the design
of places of performance would offer an
occasion for studies at a fundamental level
of performance as a part of human civilizing
act as well as an exercise in design with
functional requirements of design.
Year 2: A music teaching studio for up to
five musicians, a coach, and 10 listeners.
Year 3: A community gathering place suited
to various occasions including impromptu
theatre for up to 100 persons.
Year 4: A performance theatre for live
drama for an audience of up to 300 persons.
Movement – physically moving from one
place to another – is an abstract human
activity pervasive through many human
functions. Often it is difficult to distinguish
from the content of movement and it
seems to be the life force of public places
relating in an intricate way with the particular
function they seem to perform. Places
of arrival, departure, promenades, etc.
Year 2: A pedestrian bridge providing
places of rest and exchange.
Year 3: A public promenade providing for
a semi-private sailing club (200 members)
and public facilities.
Year 4: A road/highway passenger facility
providing for short periods of rest, break
from driving, and public amenities of up
to 200 private and 100 public vehicles per
hour.
Exchange is the predominant mode of
social contact in the human community.
The market place and the basilica share
much in the early social activities and
endure to our time in the shape of many
public places. The hawkers,the street vendors,
the shop keepers, and the shopping
centres have long been the hub of social
activity and represent more than the material
they offer for sale. In subtle ways they
act as training posts, as playgrounds, as
places of social gathering, and as various
parts of a collective forum accommodating
and embodying urban life. They accommodate
a way of conducting public life.
Year 2: A small store for specialized goods.
Year 3: A local market 20 small and independent
merchants/craftsmen.
Year 4: A neghbourhood market including a
major supermarket branch and 20 specialized
shops.
20 21

Studios
Modes of Study
Year 1
Years 2, 3, and 4 Year 5
Independent Studies
Year Out
Design teaching, research, and
practice are inseparable. They are
conducted in four primary studios
each focused on one of four
primary positions or themes.
To learn to see what exists is the key to
creative engagement in the study and
design of architecture.
The first year deals with the fundamental
structure of the programme, its concepts
and requisite methods and skills. It provides
the ground for later more advanced and
more focused studies.
The work of the year consists of studies of
existing communities, and basic concepts
in architecture. These studies are informed
by three courses of lectures: architectural
theory and history, technology, and communication.
Architectural design – research, study, and
practice – is studied in four studios, each
focused on one of four themes.
Each studio comprises students from
all three levels, although the groups are
organized in different ways according to
the approach in the studio. The internal
organization of the studios may vary in
response to the particular circumstances of
each studio.
The culmination of the programme is an
extended period of self-directed study
giving the student the opportunity for
focused reflection, consolidation of various
studies in earlier years, and expression
of one’s position through investigation
of selected architectural issues through
research and design: the thesis.
In a sense, the thesis is a collective manifestation
of the work of the school. It provides
the grounds for examination of the
programme and informs discussion about
all levels and aspects.
A student enrolled at the department may
carry out studies, based on an approved
proposal, independently or in any other
institution. This applies to students who
may take part in exchanges or carry out
special studies and field research.
A year out of the formal studies in the
school separates the undergraduate from
the graduate part of the programme. This
year is intended as a period of practical
experience and essentially independent
study. The experience in practice seems to
help synthesize the studies up to this point
and ground them in more direct understanding
through practical application.
It is possible for students also to spend all
or any part of this year in individually proposed
studies or work based on research,
working with community groups in developing
countries or other architecturally
related activities.
In the first year these courses are closely
related to the work in the studio while
growing more independent and specialized
as they advance.
22 23

Architecture
Theory
Design: Language of Discourse
In what terms do we discuss design and works of
architecture
It appears that we use the common language. In fact we
adopt the common language in developing a special one the
terms of which embody specialized meaning and knowledge
of architecture and can serve for advancement of architecture
through its refinement. What are the terms of this
specialized language
The courses are studied at three levels in each of the following
four areas: COMMUNICATIONS, HUMANITIES, TECHNOLOGIES, and
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE.
The three levels are:
1. Mandatory courses. The minimum number of courses
possible dealing with fundamentals, principles, and premises
underlying the area of those courses. These apply to humanities
as well as technology.
2. Elective courses. A selective core of courses as further
development of the mandatory courses. There is no linear or
chronological order between the mandatories and the electives.
3. Research studies. A series of research-based electives
offered by every member of faculty.
The studies draw continuity from the first level – fundamentals
– depth from the second level, and vitality from the third
level. All three levels inform one another and evolve within
the balanced form of the programme.
24 25

Courses
Communication
Courses
Humanities
Required
Elective
Required
Elective
“In the immediate world, everything
is to be discerned, for him
who can discern it, and centrally
and simply, without either dissection
into science, or digestion into
art, but with the whole of consciousness,
seeking to perceive it
as it stands.”
James Agee, Walker Evans
Now Let Us Praise Famous
Men
Graphics and Visual Studies
Computer-Aided Architectural Design
Studies in Selected Topics
Visual Design
Digital Design Media
“The whole cultural world, in all
its forms, exists through tradition.”
Edmund Husserl
Introduction to Architecture
Architectural History and Theory I
Architectural History and Theory II
Architectural History and Theory III
Land and City
Urban Design and Planning
Architectural Theory and Criticism
Studies in Selected Topics
Issues in Architectural Theory and
Design
Periods or Works of Architecture
Aspects of Asian Architecture
26 27

Courses
Technology
Courses
Professional Practice
Required
Elective
Required
Elective
“The aim of the architect is … to
infuse into his works something
of this order and method which
is to found in nature. Ancient
architects rightly maintained that
nature, the greatest of all artists
in the invention of forms, was
always their model. Therefore,
they collected the laws according
to which she works in her
production as far as humanly
possible … the principle: such
qualities as harmony, proportion,
symmetry.”
Leon Battista Alberti
Ten Books on Architecture
Introduction to Building Technology
Building Technology
I Materials and Construction
II Building Structure
III Environmental Technology
Building Systems Integration
Advanced Construction
Advanced Building Services
Studies in Selected Topics
Structural Design and Building Structures
Materials and Methods of Construction
Environmental Systems and Design
Building Performance Simulation
“In ancient Greece the term
architekton originally meant
a ‘master carpenter’; building
arisans, shipwrights, and temple
designers, all of whom worked
in wood, were architects. Certain
Greek artists also became known
as architects – for example,
Theodoros of Samos, renowned
as a sculptor, metalsmith, and
architect in the sixth century B.C.
Roman architects, too, came from
a variety of backgrounds: private
training and apprenticeship;
military engineering; and the civil
service. Although the Emperor
Hadrian dabbled in architecture,
it was not really, Cicero has written,
an appropriate calling for
Roman aristocrats. Former slaves,
released from imperial service,
became architects. Yet Vitruvius, a
self-made man with experience
in military engineering, tried to
dignify architecture, describing it
as a learned career in his treatise.
The architect alone, he wrote,
combined firmness and utility
with beauty.”
Professional Practice
Professional Practice and Management
Studies in Selected Topics of Professional
Practice
Mary N. Wods
From Craft to Profession
28 29

Courses
Research Studies
Studios
Student Work
Areas of Interest
2001 – 2002
Research studies are based on
the current research work of
each faculty member. They are
occasions for focused collaboration
between students and faculty.
They offer the students an
opportunity to apply and extend
their knowledge and develop
skills in research through design
or analytical methods.
Essy Baniassad
Design education,
community development
Vito Bertin
Design, geometry, and structure of space
Freeman Chan
Architecture and spiritual tradition
Wallace Chang
Community design
Bernard V. Lim
Architecture for education and the elderly
Gladys Masey-Martinez
Micro 3d design
Edward Ng
Daylighting
Nancy Sanders
Drawing studies – podium and groundplane
in Hong Kong’s new towns
Here is a sample of the design work in the course of the
year. It is intended to provide neither a comprehensive
document on the work nor a precise illustration of the
programme. But It is clearly related to the programme. It
is presented here with no implicit intention of suggesting a
strict linear relationship between the theory and the practice
in the studios. The relationship between the word and
the work is subtle in all instances. It offers rich ground for
further refinement of both as they develop in a reciprocal
manner.
Kelly Chow
Design – practice and theory
Shin Hae-won
Urban landscape
Jeffrey Cody
Beaux-Arts architectural influences in
1930s China
Tsou Jin-Yeu
CFD-based airflow simulation for natural
ventilation
Gu Daqing
Strategies of space organization
Woo Pui Leng
Street studies
Ho Puay-peng
Chinese architectural history
Andrew I-kang Li
Formal studies in chinese architecture
Liu Yuyang
Places of learning: campus design and
education buildings
30 31

Student Work
Foundation Studio
Year 1
The house is the seminal form in
architecture. It is the significant form
in terms of whose transformations
and evolution all other forms can be
understood. Historically it has been to
architecture as the family to society.
32 33

Student Work
Habitation Studio
Years 2, 3, and 4
People – The expression of the human
spirit revealed through the study of the
human body, its surface, and its resonance
in space. How people activate
architecture, from the collective to the
private action or event.
Place – What is the spirit of the place
Its cultural implication of design within
specific territories of human habitation.
34 35

Student Work
Urbanization Studio
Years 2, 3, and 4
In a sense the entire history of architecture
is a story of urbanization,
from the early adaptation of caves
to the modification of land in search
of shelter and the creation of entirely
artificial worlds.
36 37

Student Work
Tectonics Studio
Years 2, 3, and 4
What is the relationship between
space, surface, and mass How is the
material arranged in a building Can
we distinguish elements, components,
and systems What is the mutual
influence between structure, material,
and space Can we differentiate structural
and spatial types, and are they
related How can space be formed,
structured, and defined How does the
built order express a conceived order
38 39

Student Work
Technics Studio
Years 2, 3, and 4
Technics has been defined as “the
doctrine of arts in general; such
branches of learning as respect the
arts”; “the method of performance
in any art; technical skill; artistic
execution”; “technical terms or objects;
things pertaining to the practice of an
art or science”; “the theory, principles,
or study of an art or a process”; and
“the science or study of the mechanical
and industrial arts.”
40 41

Student Work
Thesis Project
Model of Variation
The thesis marks the intersection
between two important states in one’s
work and, in a way, in one’s professional
life. It begins as a synthesis of
previous studies, a sum total of many
questions unanswered, much information
assimilated and much more set
aside, skills gained and ideas received
and developed. As its completion it
represents a fact in its own right
embodying ideas, interests, aspirations,
and the student’s sense of direction. It
marks a new beginning for the cycle
of search beyond the formal studies in
the school, with much broader scope
and much greater freedom.
42 43

Study Schemes
Bachelor and Master
Three plus Two Years
Studying is a process of reconstruction
of a subject. In the
process of such reconstruction
the process touches on the
principles, the content, and the
structure of a subject. The different
courses in the programme
each deal with the same points
while focusing on different contents.
The way to study them
is to try and understand their
internal structure as well as the
structure that unifies them within
the programme. Take each course
apart and put it back together in
other possible ways. Take apart
the entire programme and search
for alternative orders between
the courses. The internal structure
of the courses and the order in
which they are offered are only a
beginning and a most elementary
and general one. The only effective
study scheme is to approach
it with a searching mind and to
reconstruct it in your particular
way.
In the second and third years of the
BSSc(AS) programme, students join a different
studio each term. In the first year of
the MArch programme, students join two
studios for a second time. Thesis students
can join any of the four studios again.
The study schemes for both BSSc(AS)
major and MArch full-time programmes
define the minimum units of courses
required for graduation. The composition
of the course groups and the number of
units vary according to the entry year. The
respective handbooks give the full details.
44 45

School Plan
A Place for Learning
A School of Architecture
A school of architecture is not a building; it is a school of
thought. The school building is like a village of rooms and
routes, all leading to a central public place: the market place,
the agora, the exhibition room. It provides places for gathering,
work and play, public display and solitary reflection. It is
a collection of rooms and places with different qualities but
all with the same purpose: supporting study, discourse, and
learning. These rooms are equipped differently, but no room
has a limited function. The limitations in how we use a room
are related less to the room and more to the limitations of
our imagination.
Design Technology Lab
7
Information Technology Lab
Architecture Library
6
6
Exhibitions
Studio
5
5
General Office
Studio
4
46 47

Studio Dates
Fall Term
Studio Dates
Spring Term
Week
Day
1 Studio selection 02.09.2002
Start studio project 04.09.2002
05.09.2002
2 09.09.2002
11.09.2002
12.09.2002
3 16.09.2002
18.09.2002
19.09.2002
4 23.09.2002
25.09.2002
26.09.2002
5 30.09.2002
02.10.2002
03.10.2002
6 Start school project 07.10.2002
09.10.2002
10.10.2002
7 Public holiday 14.10.2002
16.10.2002
17.10.2002
8 21.10.2002
23.10.2002
24.10.2002
Week
Day
9 28.10.2002
30.10.2001
31.10.2002
10 04.11.2002
06.11.2002
07.11.2002
11 11.11.2002
13.11.2002
14.11.2002
12 18.11.2002
20.11.2002
21.11.2002
13 Final review week 25.11.2002
27.11.2002
Last studio day BSSc(AS) 28.11.2002
14 02.12.2002
Last studio day MArch 04.12.2002
No classes 05.12.2002
15 09.12.2002
11.12.2002
12.12.2002
16 16.12.2002
18.12.2002
19.12.2002
Week
Day
1 Studio selection 06.01.2003
Start studio project 08.01.2003
09.01.2003
2 13.01.2003
15.01.2003
16.01.2003
3 20.01.2003
22.01.2003
23.01.2003
4 27.01.2003
29.01.2003
30.01.2003
5 03.02.2003
05.02.2003
06.02.2003
6 Start school project 10.02.2003
12.02.2003
13.02.2003
7 17.02.2003
19.02.2003
20.02.2003
8 24.02.2003
26.02.2003
27.02.2003
Week
Day
9 03.03.2002
05.03.2002
06.03.2002
10 10.03.2002
12.03.2002
13.03.2002
11 17.03.2002
19.03.2002
20.03.2002
12 24.03.2002
26.03.2002
27.03.2002
13 31.04.2002
02.04.2002
03.04.2002
14 07.04.2002
09.04.2002
10.04.2002
15 Final review week 14.04.2002
16.04.2002
Last studio day 17.04.2002
16 21.04.2002
23.04.2002
25.04.2002
48 49

Essy Baniassad
Vito Bertin
Freeman Chan
Wallace Chang
Kelly Chow
Jeffrey Cody
Gu Daqing
Ho Puay-peng
Jeff Kan
Andrew I-kang Li
Liu Yuyang
Bernard Lim
Gladys Masey-Martinez
Edward Ng
Nancy Sanders
Shin Hae-won
Jin-Yeu Tsou
Woo Pui Leng
Text: Essy Baniassad
Images: Students and staff
Design: Vito Bertin
Department of Architecture
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
23 August 2002
50 51