Date: 11 Nov 2026 - 11 Nov 2026
The early history of colonial Hong Kong’s Surveyor General’s Office (1844–1883) reveals an administrative mechanism with consequential, far-reaching oversight of the colony’s design and governance, from land sales and building ordinances to water infrastructure, public gardens, and tree planting. This talk examines an important transitional moment in the department’s history, when bureaucratic challenges, changes in professional expertise, and the shifting demands of the British metropole prompted a transition from the survey department’s founding responsibilities into what would become known as the Public Works Department in 1883.
This is a part of the UMAG Lecture Series 2026. For other lectures in the series, please click here.
Date: 11 November 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:30–5:30 pm
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, The University of Hong Kong
Age group: Adult
Language: English
Please click here to register.
Speaker: Professor Cole Roskam, Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong
Discussant: Dr. Moyun Zhou, Curatorial Associate, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU
Speaker:
Cole Roskam
Cole Roskam is Professor of Architectural History in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. In addition to numerous articles and essays, he is the author of two books, including Improvised City: Architecture and Governance in Shanghai, 1843–1937 (University of Washington Press, 2019) and Designing Reform: Architecture in the People’s Republic of China, 1970–1992 (Yale University Press, 2021).
Discussant:
Moyun Zhou
Moyun Zhou is a Curatorial Associate at the University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture in the world from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. She received her Ph.D. in Architectural History from the University of Hong Kong, and her BA and MA in the History of Art from Indiana University. She was also previously a doctoral fellow at the Ricci Institute at Boston College.