News & Events

Focus 1: The Holistic Approaches to Design and Operate Wellness Workplaces in Renovation Project

Building, health, environment and the energy are the key issues for people. The building designers have been spending a considerable amount of efforts in last 2 decades to enhance building performance in energy and comfort. Recently, the building profession and users are aware of the impact from built environment on their health and wellness.  It is certain that buildings with good environmental quality can raise the cheeriness and productivity of occupants, and the number of sickness days can be reduced. In financial aspect, for a commercial organization, it is undoubtedly that the labour cost is much higher the office energy cost. Increasing the labour productivity can lead to a good financial return.

To implement the health and wellbeing design of buildings, a holistic and comprehensive framework is required to identify the key elements to enhance the wellness performance of the built environment. In 2014, the World Green Building Council (WGBC) has initiated the concept and framework for the health & wellbeing built environment, while on the other hand, the WELL Building Standard has been launched by the US's International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) to certify the buildings and interiors with wellness performance. Both WGBC and IWBI are recommending a framework guiding the best practices in building design, construction and operation, in the aspect of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics, fitness, biophilia and employee engagement.  These listed aspects are related to the design of space layout, envelope system, building services system, interior configuration, landscape provision and operation system.  Regarding office renovation project, there would be some constraints or challenges such as daylight availability and building materials. The speaker will discuss the design and operation strategies in the context of office renovation, and hence the profession can prepare for the implementation of health and wellness building.

Speaker: Ir Dr Tony Lam, Associate Director of Building Sustainability, Arup

Tony is an Associate Director of Building Sustainability of Arup.  He was awarded a PhD in City University of Hong Kong for his works in solar radiation, daylighting analysis and photovoltaic system designs. He has extensive experience in tackling environmental impacts on built environments, with the objectives of high performance and wellness.  He is also the expert in low carbon, wellness and sustainable development for both community and building scaled projects, and has handled a number of government projects in East Asia such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.

Besides, with the project experiences & expertise, Tony was nominated by IWBI as the WELL Faculty in Asia to suggest and implement the healthy & wellness building designs in East Asia region. The world’s first WELL pre-certified project is led by him.

Focus 2: Lesson Learnt From International WELL Office Implementation

Cundall will share quantitative results from their offices which have achieved WELL certification, particularly how it enables the ability to retain, support and attract key staff. As designers, Cundall believes in the need of a human centric approach whilst we design our projects to ensure a net positive environment and health impact can be achieved – not one that achieves one or the other, as they are not mutually exclusive. During the seminar, Cundall will also share case studies on how sustainable and healthy designs facilitate the creation of innovative and successful operating built environments, as well as demonstrate the importance of Indoor Environment Quality monitoring and surveys, which provide vital feedback for improving retrofits.

Speaker: Mr Jonathan Yau, Associate Director, Cundall Hong Kong Limited

Jonathan joined the Cundall Manchester office in 2006 and relocated to the Hong Kong office in 2008. He has 12 years of mechanical and sustainability design experience and is responsible for the sustainability team in our Hong Kong office. Jonathan has wide range of sustainability development experience in Hong Kong, China across various building types including hospitals, hotels, government building, residential development and retail spaces. With strong focus on eco-efficiency, he believes that a truly sustainable development can only be achieved by integrated approach.

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