Sustainable Building Design

Buildings in Hong Kong account for a large proportion of total electricity consumption and total carbon emissions of the city. Over the years, we are committed to promoting sustainable building design and introducing smart features in our development projects to enhance energy efficiency and conserve resources.

In 2014, we published The Sustainable Building Design Considerations Guidelines to provide a comprehensive guide for our designers to practise green and sustainable building design to improve our built environment. The Guidelines outline most of the important design considerations of passive design in architecture and active design.It provides useful references on sustainable construction materials and methods. A standard Particular Specification (PS) has also been developed for the design of our temporary site office to further promote the use of green materials.

Features of Sustainable Building Design

Passive Design in Architecture

Passive design in architecture is an approach to building design that uses the building architecture to minimise energy consumption and improve thermal comfort. At the early stages of the development projects, we consider and adopt suitable measures in planning, disposition, orientation, building form and material selection to optimise interaction with the local microclimate. Our passive design in architecture strategies include:

• Mitigating heat island effect or elevated temperature
• Air ventilation around buildings
• Daylighting
• Natural ventilation
• Passive cooling
• Reducing heat gain through building envelope

Active Design

Active design is an approach using the electrical and mechanical systems, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and lighting systems, to create and maintain comfortable conditions. These installations will influence the energy use, greenhouse gases emissions, water use, thermal comfort and other sustainability outcomes of buildings. Active design is adopted to improve the following aspects in buildings:

• Energy efficiency
• Energy conservation
• Water conservation
• Indoor environmental quality

Construction and Materials

Apart from passive and active design, the use of sustainable construction methods and materials also plays an important role in sustainable buildings. Common sustainable construction methods include prefabrication, pollution control during construction and adoption of 3R principles (i.e. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). In addition, we use sustainable materials such as recycled materials and timber from well-managed sources.

Social Considerations

In recent year, public expectation puts more emphasis on the quality of public spaces. As such, many of our buildings have incorporated social considerations to enable group activities and communication of community members to foster a harmonious atmosphere. Here is a short video illustrating our aspiration in action:

Read a text transcript of this video