Newsletter No. 26

CUHK Newsletter No.26 January 1992 Water Tower at United College (Water tank D) (Watertanks A, B & C) Tower at New Asia An inside view: looking upwards View at the top Tower at United College Water Towers If Two T-shapdd towers draw the eyes of drivers on Tai Po Road as well as train passengers passing through Ma L i u Shui. Their unadorned but imposing appearance has inspired many speculations on their use. The two constructions are actually control rooms for the University's water supply system. Owing to the high altitude of the campus, normal water pressure is inadequate to pump water to serve the upper levels of the University. A pump house near Chung Chi Tang of Chung Chi College and one water tower each at United College and New Asia College were therefore built in 1971 to solve the problem. Water is first pumped from the pump house to the water towers for storage, and from there it is channelled to different parts of the University by gravity. The water towers were also designed by Dr. Szeto Wai. Their simple outline is congruous with their functional internal design. The tower at New Asia College has three storage tanks at the top. The two larger tanks (over 113,600 litres each) store potable water and flushing water respectively while the smaller one (around 68,190 litres) holds water for fighting fires. The tower at United College has a similar structure but contains an additional storage tank of over 13,600 litres which holds water for irrigation purposes. An interesting saying goes that the tower at New Asia is masculine in gender whereas its counterpart at United College is feminine. The difference lies in the relative height of the towers (the New Asia tower is two feet higher) and the lines that make up the horizontal structure at the top of the two T shapes. The New Asia version comprises straight lines that meet to form angles; the United College version contains more curves and is thus ‘gentler’ in appearance. Whether this is reading too much into the variations in design than the architect intended cannot be verified. 8