The role of Facades in decarbonizing Hong Kong
Held on Thursday the 20th of July 2023 at the Cordis Hotel in Hong Kong, the Zak World of Facades Conference brought together over 100 building practioners across the spectrum of design, engineering and construction.
Lizette McNeill was invited by the conference organisers to shape and moderate a panel for the event. The panel included Mr Donald Choi - CEO of Chinachem, Mr Stefano Tronci - Associate Principal of Woods Bagot (now at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), Mr Simon Chan - Technical Director of Far East Facades, and Mr Rumen Yordanov - Managing Director of Asian European Engineering.
The panel explored the theme of decarbonization of the existing built environment. Given this is one of the biggest challenges facing our industry, how might we enable our façade industry – our designers, engineers, manufacturers and contractors – to design the world’s most energy efficient buildings? What support might be required from the government in the way of policy and regulation?
The key discussion points raised during the panel focussed upon:
How façades play a key role in defining the energy demand of buildings. Reducing the demand via high performing envelopes is one of the best measures to achieving long-term energy savings - could air infiltration become a measurement target, could NABERS be adopted (or similar) in Hong Kong?
How to platform from the existing body of research to facilitate the enaction of regulatory embodied and operational carbon targets - from the Business Environment Council (BEC), Construction Industry Council (CIC) and Hong Kong Green Building Council guides, including the Retrofitting Guidebook and the Climate Change Framework.
How to align stakeholders in the commercial and residential property market, to ensure scaleability of effective decarbonization measures.