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This event is organised by Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC).

(1) Sustainability at Schools in Australia

Education facilities provide a unique opportunity for sustainable development. Facilities are often owner occupied, enabling direct benefits of incorporating sustainable features. Students also benefit from high quality environments, and sustainable features can provide opportunities for passive learning and understanding of key sustainability ideas.  Schools can embed sustainable principles throughout their campuses and inspire and educate a new generation of students and staff in best practice sustainable design. 

Recent research has shown clear links between factors such as indoor environmental quality (including air quality, daylight, thermal comfort, acoustics, etc) and student health, wellbeing and productivity. School design is also evolving to enable greater collaboration and interaction and take advantage of technology to change the way lessons are delivered.  There are opportunities for resource conservation, including energy, water, materials and waste, and creation of an integrated resource for the wider community. To achieve these ideals for both new build projects and existing facilities, it is important to align factors such as government policy, client vision and a knowledgeable and coordinated design team. 

This session will focus on some of the sustainability initiatives and design considerations from some recent Steensen Varming projects in Australia. The projects include an assessment of Australian government policy into improving thermal comfort in schools, the development of a sustainability roadmap for an existing school campus, and the design of a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) school. Each project required an appreciation of the broad sustainability goals, but also understanding of the detailed technical aspects required to make the design work.

Speaker: Mr Jonny Perks, Associate, Steensen Varming

Jonny is an Associate within Steensen Varming’s Sustainability team in Hong Kong. With diverse experience, primarily within urban development, he is passionate about improving the sustainability of cities, and understanding the climatic, cultural and site-specific influences for developing sustainable design solutions. Having lived and worked in Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and the Middle East, he understands the importance and complexity of adapting design solutions to the local context.

Jonny has developed sustainability and energy strategies for a range of masterplans, campuses, buildings and infrastructure developments, including microclimate analysis and optimisation of passive thermal comfort design for outdoor and indoor spaces. He has also produced strategic carbon and energy reduction analysis for government bodies and educational campus owners.

He has experience managing many international sustainability rating systems and has carried out assessments for projects around the world. This includes LEED, WELL, Green Star and EEO assessments in Australia, GSAS and CEEQUAL in Qatar, LEED on a range of international projects, and BREEAM in the UK. He has developed bespoke sustainability frameworks for both masterplans and buildings, incorporating strategies to optimise the efficient use of resources, while ensuring designs can adapt to future climatic conditions.

(2) Case Sharing of BEAM Plus Provisional Platinum School Project in Hong Kong - Chai Wan Campus for the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi)

The project is a new campus development for tertiary education near the harbour front in the vicinity of public housing estates, public open spaces and another member institute campus. The design of the campus addresses the challenges of sub-tropical urban climate, development height limit, urban environmental impacts due to surrounding traffic and elevated railway line, close proximity to existing public housing, and poor connectivity before the development especially to the waterfront. Users enjoy the enhanced and comfortable urban microclimate, community-centric learning environment that is inductive to the creation and exchange of knowledge, permeable and connected design within and extending beyond the campus.

Design features include a twin-block design for high building permeability, daylight and views, extended public realm with shade and greenery in the campus, sustainable skyrise greening for enhanced urban biodiversity and biophilia, adaptable design to cater for future changes, a highly energy-efficient HVAC system (VSD chiller with COP 5.82 and 5.02 for 575TR and 200 TR respectively), rain water harvesting system for irrigation, a smart application integrated with HVAC systems and smart sensors for thermal comfort and  an environmental performance dashboard to monitor and display real-time energy use data in the campus to promote green living.

Speaker: Mr MK Leung, Director / Director of Sustainable Design, Ronald Lu & Partners

Mr MK Leung is an award-winning architect and laureate of the first Singapore Institute of Architects-Uniseal G-Architect Award in 2014, a director of HKGBC since 2016, Panel Chair of Site Aspects of Technical Review Committee of BEAM Society Limited and a member of Green Building Faculty of HKGBC since 2012.  He is highly recognized for his specialized knowledge and integrated design skills in sustainable building design for his projects, ranging from high-performance new buildings, green retrofit of existing buildings, sustainability master planning and research.

He has contributed to numerous remarkable projects including CIC ZCB, the first zero carbon building in Hong Kong; the new Chai Wan campus for the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi); the pioneering sustainability master planning for Hong Kong Science Park Phase 3; and a number of research studies related to sustainable design such as the latest Passive Design for BEAM Plus Upgrading and the Study for Design and Construction Requirements for Residential Buildings for Energy Efficiency. His latest on-going works include a study for the HKSAR Government on Design Considerations for Government Infrastructures in Hong Kong under Extreme Temperatures

MK graduated with distinction from the Department of Architecture, Hong Kong University in 1992 and pursued his further study on green architecture / passive environmental design in the University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom in 1995 and 1996. He has been also accredited in several environmental related affiliations, including a LEED Accredited Professional in 2008, a BEAM Pro (NB and EB) in 2010 and a BEAM Pro (ND) in 2016, a BREEAM Accredited Professional in 2015 and a WELL Accredited Professional and a member of the WELL Faculty in 2017.

He is active in academic and professional circles related to the issue of building performance, energy efficient building design and green architecture. He has served as the past chairman of the Committee on Environment & Sustainable Development of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA), Council Member of the Professional Green Building Council (PGBC) since 2007, past chairman (P&RC) of Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) as well as serving in the government committees related to green buildings.