Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

Precast Concrete Construction for Buildings in Hong Kong

Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben1

Wong Wai Hing2

1.0 Introduction

Precast concrete construction has been used in Hong Kong for many years. In the past, most of the
use of precast concrete construction was limited to civil structures such as tunnels and bridges /
flyovers. However, there were still some examples in building structures such as the Ocean Terminal
in Tsim Sha Tsui and the Grandstand of HKJC Shatin Racing Course. But the use of precast concrete
construction in building structures was still rare in Hong Kong. It was until 1990s, Hong Kong
Housing Authority started to employ precast facades in their public housing estates, which commenced
the large-scale use of precast concrete in Hong Kong.

Even after the use of precast concrete façade in the public housing estates for nearly ten years, the
private building sector in Hong Kong were still quite reluctant to adopt precast concrete construction
in their projects. The main reasons for not using precast concrete construction in privately developed
buildings in Hong Kong were probably due to the following:

Most of the sites and building forms in Hong Kong are irregular and non-standard and therefore
precast element is not economic;
Most of the sites in Hong Kong have insufficient space for the casting and storage of precast elements.
There were insufficient casting yards in Hong Kong;
Precast concrete construction needs an early coordination between architects, structural engineers and
building services engineers which requires more time in early planning than cast-insitu concrete
buildings;
Precast concrete construction requires long lead time for fabrication of the precast elements and
therefore not suitable for the quick pace of construction programme in Hong Kong;
Precast concrete construction is less flexible for last minute changes

1
Ir. Chartered Engineer (UK); HK Registered Professional Engineer (Civil, Geotechnical, Structural); 1 RSE – PRC; Past Chairman,

Structural Division HKIE; Council Member, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers;

Chairman , Board of Sustainability, Professional Green B uilding Council

2
Ir. WONG Wai Hing MBA, MHKIE, MIStructE, AFPWS, RPE, RSE, CEng

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 1
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

2.0 Incentives to Promote Green & Innovative Buildings (IPGIB)

In February 2001, in order to protect and improve the built and natural environment in Hong Kong, the
Buildings Department (BD), the Lands Department (LandsD) and the Planning Department (PlanD)
(3-Departments) of the HKSAR Government jointly issued a practice note to promote the construction
of green and innovative buildings. The objective is to encourage green design and construction of
buildings that encompass the following features:

(a) Adopting a holistic life cycle approach to planning, design, construction and maintenance;
(b) Maximizing the use of natural renewable resources and recycled/green building material;
(c) Minimizing the consumption of energy, in particular those nonrenewable types; and
(d) Reducing construction and demolition waste.

Practice notes were issued jointly by the 3-Departments on the subject. The joint practice notes set out
the incentives that the Government would provide to encourage the incorporation of these features in
building development, and the procedures for application for them under the Buildings Ordinance, the
Lease Conditions and the Town Planning Ordinance, where relevant.

The first package of incentives introduced a list of green features that might be exempted from Gross
Floor Area (GFA) and Site Coverage (SC) calculations for residential buildings. This list was included
in the Joint Practice Notes No.1 of the 3-Departments encompassing the following:

(a) Balconies;
(b) Wider common corridors and lift lobbies;
(c) Communal sky gardens;
(d) Communal podium gardens;
(e) Acoustic fins;
(f) Sunshades and reflectors;
(g) Wing walls, wind catchers and funnels.

In February 2002, the Joint Practice Notes No.2 issued by the 3-Departments included the following
green features that might be exempted from Gross Floor Area (GFA) and/or Site Coverage (SC)
calculations under the Buildings Ordinance:

(a) Non-structural prefabricated external walls;

(b) Utility platforms;
(c) Mail delivery rooms with mailboxes;
(d) Noise barriers; and
(e) Communal sky gardens for non-residential buildings.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 2
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

Under this Practice Note, the developers may gain some benefit in GFA and SC if they adopted the use
of non-structural prefabricated external walls (precast concrete façade) in their residential building
developments.

3.0 Review on the use of Prefabrication Construction in Hong Kong

The most commonly used prefabricated elements used in Hong Kong construction industry include
precast concrete segments, beams, façades, parapets, staircases, partition walls and semi-precast slabs
etc. Precast concrete segments and beams are more common in civil and infrastructures such as
tunnel, flyover and footbridges. It is less common in the building constructions but examples can
still be found in Hong Kong such as the Ocean Terminal and the buildings in the Hong Kong Science
and Technology Park Phase One. The other elements are more commonly applied in the building
industry in Hong Kong.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 3
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

3.1 Use of Prefabrication Construction in Civil/Infrastructure

The use of prefabrication construction has a very long history in Hong Kong but most of the
applications in the early days were limited in civil engineering / infrastructures projects such as
bridges, flyovers, footbridges, culverts, tunnels and cross-harbour tunnels etc.

3.2 Use of Prefabrication Construction in Public Housing Developments

Due to the high population

growth in the 1980s, the Hong
Kong Housing Authority
(HKHA) was facing a high
demand in the public housing
flats. In this respect, in April,
1987 the HKHA introduced a
Long Term Housing Strategy.
At the same time, the private
housing market was also facing a high blooming rate. As a result, Hong Kong was facing lack of
skilled labours and quality issues in the construction industry. The HKHA, in view of their highly
standardized building units, introduced the use of precast façade, precast staircase, dry wall partitions
and large panel formworks in the construction of their residential housing estate buildings. This
started in their public housing estates at Tin Shui Wai in 1989 and the fabricated elements were then
applied to all standard residential units of the HKHA housings.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 4
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

3.3 Use of Prefabrication Construction in Private Developments

The use of prefabrication construction in private

building developments especially residential buildings
was very limited but there was still a long history in
Hong Kong in using precast construction. It can be
traced back to 1960s in the construction of the Ocean
Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui and the Hong Kong Jockey
Club Shatin Racecourse Grandstand.

But the general application of prefabrication

construction was still rare and generally could only been
seen in non-structural elements such as lintel beams etc.

It
was
in
gen
eral
up
until the introduction of IPGIP 2002, the use of prefabrication construction became more common in
the Hong Kong private housing developments. Below is a quick review on the use of precast
construction based on the projects designed by Meinhardt Hong Kong office before and after the issue
of IPGIB.

3.3.1 Use of Prefabrication Construction in Private Developments before IPGIP 2002

Hong Kong has faced the downturn in the property market since the financial crises in 1998 and
therefore the number of new buildings designed and / or constructed during this period was limited.
The following phenomena based on Meinhardt’s experience were observed.

Table 1A: Examples of Meinhardt’s Projects using Precast Construction for the five years before
IPGIB

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 5
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

Other Benefits
Precast Precast Semi-pre Precast
Development Precast from
Facade Stair cast Slab Partition
Elements IPGIB
Residential
Precast
Development at
Spandel N
Aldrich Bay, Sai
Beams
Wan Ho (Private)
HKHA Development
at Shek Lei Phase 12 √ √ √ N
(Public)
HKHA Development
at Tseung Kwan O
√ √ √ N
Area 59 Phase 9
(Public)
HKHA Residential
Development at
√ √ √ N
Tuen Mun Area 29
(Public)
ASD Shatin
Government Office √ N
(Public)
5 Schools at Tseung
Kwan O Area √ N
(public)
82 Peak Road (1998) GRC
N
(Private) Cladding
Hong Kong
International Airport Precast
Passenger Terminal T&TT N
East Hall Extension Beams
(Public)

It is worthwhile to note that some items in the above projects are proposed by the contractors.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 6
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

3.3.2 Use of Prefabrication Construction in Private Developments after IPGIB 2002

Table 1B: Examples of Meinhardt’s Projects using Precast Construction after IPGIB

Other
Benefits
Precast Precast Semi-pre Precast Prefabricat
Development from
Facade Stair cast Slab Partition ed
IPGIB
Elements
The Orchards –
Residential Lost-Form
√ Y
Development & Balcony
(Private)
Residential
Development at √ √ √ Y
NKIL6275 (Private)
Residential
Development at
√ Y
Belcher Street
(Private)
Hotel Development
at Kowloon Bay √ N
KIL11103 (Private)
Hotel Development External
√
at Penny’s Bay √ Architectur N
(toilet)
(Private) al Features
International
Christian Quality
√ N
Music School
(Public)
Theme Park at
GRP
Penny’s Bay N
Cladding
(Private)

From the above tables, although due to the down-turn of

property market in Hong Kong there were not too many
buildings adopted prefabrication construction even after the
introduction of the incentive schemes, there have actually
relatively much more buildings been opted to use

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 7
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

prefabricated design.

It is expected that more and more building

developments in Hong Kong would adopt precast
construction due to the IPGIB.

4.0 Discussion

It is noted that the IPGIB only gives incentives to the clients to adopt prefabricated construction in
their projects as they are the only people that could get benefits directly from the scheme. Therefore
before the issue of the IPGIB, private sector building development rarely adopted precast elements.

A further look into the above tables, it is noticed that there are still a considerable projects that adopted
the use of prefabricated elements even without any benefit from the IPGIB or using prefabricated
elements other than that can get benefit from the IPGIB. It is considered that after the start of using
prefabrication construction in Hong Kong, not only the clients but also the architects, engineers and
contractors of Hong Kong realized that there are many advantages in using prefabrication construction.
Some of the advantages are suggested by various parties as follow:

· Well controlled condition in factory ensures high quality of workmanship in both structural
work and finishing work;
· Better concrete quality means more durable and less long-term maintenance;
· Close tolerances minimize thickness of plastering and eliminate need of false ceilings;
· Prefixed finishes requires less scaffolding;
· Prefixed windows ensure better watertightness;
· Repetition of elements enable easy planning at factory and minimize waste of material;
· Less formwork on site, less wet concreting work hence less construction waste and less
pollution;
· Speed of construction both from the installation of the prefabricated elements, less time
required for finishing, less time in the final cleaning of site etc.
· Increase of labour cost in Hong Kong vs lower cost of fabrication yards in the Mainland

In return, the previous hindrances to the use of prefabricated construction such as the limitation of
casting yards, non-standard building forms etc., that prevented the use of prefabrication construction in
Hong Kong, as time goes by, have been changed. The following table gives the current responses to
the previous mentioned reasons of not using prefabrication constructions.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 8
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

Reasons of not using prefabrication General Current Responses

elements

1. Most of the sites in Hong Kong and the Cost of precast elements are not expensive as
building forms are irregular and non-standard most of them are now manufactured in Mainland
and therefore precast element is not economic. where both material and labour costs are lower;
Part of the cost is also off set by other savings
such as less propping, less formwork, less
cleansing requirement, pre-application of
finishes, saving in external scaffolding etc.
2. Most of the site areas in Hong Kong needed As the transportation from the manufacturers in
have insufficient space for the casting and Mainland to Hong Kong is easy nowadays, by
storage of precast elements. adopting the ‘just-in-time’ principle, storage
location on site can be kept to minimum.

3. There were not sufficient casting yards in Adequate lower cost casting yards are now
Hong Kong. available in convenient locations of Mainland
with easy transportation to Hong Kong.
4. Precast concrete construction needs an early When industry gets used to the way of working,
coordination between architects, structural this should not be a problem. By the way, early
engineers and the building services engineers planning is a good practice to ensure good
which requires more time in early planning quality.
than traditional cast-insitu concrete building.
5. Precast concrete construction requires long With good coordination and planning between
lead time for fabrication of the precast the client and the consultant team, the building
elements and therefore not suitable for the form could be consolidated at early time as this
quick pace of construction programme in would also affect the GFA and SC calculation
Hong Kong. which the architect needs to fix as early as
possible.
For most of the Hong Kong buildings, there are
usually a few storeys of podium below the main
tower of typical floors. The construction period
for this podium usually gives sufficient time for
the fabrication of the precast elements required.
6. Precast concrete construction is less flexible Early planning is a good practice to ensure good
for last minute changes. quality.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 9
 Chu Pui Kwan, Reuben – Abstracts and Papers

Based on our findings, it reveals that for those clients, adopting prefabrication construction without
benefit from the IPGIB would concern more on the better quality and more environmental friendly
nature that prefabrication construction can give to their projects. For those items as suggested by the
contractors other than those required by the clients in the original design, they would concern more on
the quality, economic and time factor that prefabrication construction can benefit them.

Under the current circumstances and future trends, the previous mindset on the preference of adopting
in-situ construction by Hong Kong developers, architects, engineers and contractors may change due
to the benefits such as IPGIB, better quality and greenness. With more experience on using
prefabrication construction, it is hoped that the way forward for such construction of better quality and
more environmental friendliness would become a preferred type of construction in the future
regardless of IPGIB.

The First Shanghai Hong Kong Symposium for Sustainable Building, Shanghai 2004 10