Message from the Director
Climate events are increasing in severity globally breaking new records in 2023 in the number, speed and scale, making decarbonisation, climate-resilient buildings along with digitalisation transformation the new normal.
At the ArchSD, we aspire to build smart, go green and create vibrant communities for generations to come. From designing facilities that inspire creativity, preserve heritage and enrich lives, to addressing the needs and challenges that we face today from climate change to urbanisation, we are committed to leveraging innovative technologies and people-centric designs, as well as our knowledge, reach and partnerships to build a more sustainable future.
We aspire to build smart, go green and create vibrant communities for generations to come.
To accelerate low-carbon transformation in Hong Kong’s built environment, we have formulated the “3A Strategy” under our Carbon Neutrality Strategic Framework with a view to advancing low-carbon building designs and deep decarbonisation in the whole building’s life cycle. With the transformative development of smart buildings coupled with technological advancement, thereby making low-carbon applications increasingly more reliable, scalable and affordable, it’s an opportune time for us to build a robust repository in close collaboration with our contractors and partners to foster holistic and effective management of carbon performance in our projects.
We are integrating carbon appraisal in our projects to address current challenges in progressing low-carbon building designs and construction, as well as assessing, tracking and monitoring the projects’ carbon footprint. This signifies an important milestone in facilitating the setting of overarching decarbonisation strategies for Hong Kong’s buildings sector, thereby enhancing climate resilience with more efficient, smart and green buildings.
Carbon Neutrality Strategic Framework
Widespread adoption of green and high productivity construction technologies is our key to enhancing site safety, client services, environmental performance and operational efficiency. In projects of different nature and scale including government quarters, elderly care homes, public markets, hospitals, schools, and Light Public Housing, we have applied high productivity technologies such as BIM, DfMA, MiC and MiMEP, utilised AI and robotics, as well as progressively adopted Smart Site Safety System (4S). Our long-term plan is to apply these smart and modular construction technologies to those common building types for standardisation, scaling up technology innovations and applications to exponentially benefit project safety, quality, maintainability and cost-effectiveness.
One notable innovative project is our large-scale pilot application of 3D metal printing technology, first of its kind in Hong Kong, to build the “Weaving Love” installation at the new Tseung Kwan O (TKO) Immigration Headquarters, which has reduced construction material wastage by over 80% compared to conventional construction methods. During the year, we also developed a Guidebook for Innovative and Smart Technologies for Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Government Buildings. This Guidebook, as a practical reference tool, was shared with the industry to enhance innovative collaborations.
3D metal printing production of “Weaving Love”
Guidebook for Innovative and Smart Technologies for Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Government Buildings
Beyond Boundaries: Exploring Smart Facilities Management Symposium 2024
Hoi Fai Road Park Opening Ceremony
Sham Shui Po Park
People are at the centre of our efforts towards a sustainable urban living environment. Balancing socio-economic developments and unique aspirations of each neighbourhood, we adopt people-centric designs to transform public open space (POS) for enhancing social well-being and cultural vibrancy. From providing a quality social and leisure hub with the Kai Tak Station Square to a pleasant user experience with the new landmark of the TKO Immigration Headquarters, we are committed to creating inclusive and liveable communities for generations to come.
To promote design thinking and innovation, we have pioneered a year-long territory-wide, cross-sectoral collaborative project “POSsible! POS Design Lab” to co-create high-quality people-centered POS development through integrating diverse stakeholder needs and expectations. With the ideas generated through experience sharing in the finale symposium and a series of workshops attended by over 300 participants, we have developed and published a set of tailor-made design thinking toolkit and design guide as common resources to facilitate future sustainable and quality POS development in highly urbanised Hong Kong.
Sustaining innovation, talent development and robust stakeholder collaboration are pivotal to underpinning our long-term growth. We value diversity in fostering staff empowerment with enhanced knowledge, skills and wellness, and strive to inspire their passion enabling their contributions to society for a sense of purpose. With the concerted efforts from staff members, we received over 100 awards in 2023 commending our excellent project and service delivery in green building, creative and inclusive urban design, construction and research innovation, and heritage conservation. The highlights of these key awards are the Grand Award of Spatial Design in the DFA Design for Asia Awards 2023 for Phase II Development of Oil Street Art Space, and the 5 projects recognised with Grand Awards in the Excellent Building Award 2023.
2023 marked a rewarding year. I would like to thank our colleagues for their dedication and resilience harnessing trends and challenges into opportunities and motivation for effecting positive changes in sustainable construction and inclusive communities, as well as our clients, contractors and industry partners for their continuous support. Looking ahead, we will continue to collaborate with our stakeholders and the wider community to “Build Smart ‧ Go Green”, building a city of dreams and realising our vision of a liveable, innovative and green Hong Kong.
30th Considerate Contractors Site Award Scheme Award Presentation Ceremony
Mr. Michael LI, JP Director of Architectural Services
