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In his last interviews and at the age of 105, Michael Wright, the architect of Hong Kong’s first ‘private’ public housing estate, explains why there was never a dull moment in the city
Along the wide Exhibition Road in London’s South Kensington, past the Victoria and Albert Museum, is the flat that was occupied, until his death on January 26, by Michael Wright, who in September marked his 105th birthday.
With Edward, his helper, the former director of Hong Kong’s Public Works Department (PWD) and one of the main architects of post-war public housing in the city came to greet me at the front door.
On the table was a card congratulating him on his birthday, from Queen Elizabeth. He’d been for a Chinese meal to celebrate.
In the living room was an “opium stall” that had come from his parents’ house.
“My mother also had a writing desk that she was very fond of,” Wright said. “It was a terrible desk and fell to pieces. I like a good old-fashioned writing desk. The one I have is Hong Kong government issue.”
We would meet twice for afternoon interviews, in September and October, to talk about his life and work and pore over his photo albums. Small sepia photographs, stuck on black paper, of swims on Stonecutters Island, children’s parties, an outing with Mrs Crawford of Lane Crawford, of Hong Kong a century ago.
