THEME

PAPERS
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POLICIES AND PLANNING OF TALL BUILDINGS IN HONG KONG

MARC0 WU
Director, Buildings Department, HKSAR

Hong Kong’s realm of tall buildings makes the place not only magnificent to look at but also exciting to be in. As the
authority for enforcing building laws, the Buildings Department has provided the appropriate framework and facilities to
secure and promote the construction of tall buildings that are not only safe and healthy but also environmentally friendly
and sustainable.

1. The Hong Kong Story 2.2 Social Benefis

Less than two centuries ago, on this piece of “barren
rock” along the South China coast, lies a quiet fishing
village. Its topography was so treacherous that early
trading settlement in 1842 was compelled to align itself
along a narrow strip of foreshore fronting the harbour.
Within 9 years of the city’s foundation, the first of
many reclamations from the sea was undertaken.
Throughout the years, the amount of usable land has
multiplied with subsequent extensions of the shoreline.
On this reclaimed harbour frontage springs many
splendid buildings that have since been replaced,
reshaped and rebuilt by bigger, taller and more imposing
towers. These tall buildings together with the dramatic
harbour in the forefront and the rocky mountains at the
backdrop have created one of the world’s most instantly
recognizable panoramas.
2. The Need for Tall Buildings
Erecting tall buildings in Hong Kong does not only
answer the developer’s zealous pursuit for the
spectacular or satisfy the designers’ expression of
architectural and engineering excellence, it also makes,
to a certain extent, practical sense, economically,
socially and environmentally.
2.1 Economic benefds
For any places on this planet, land is a precious
resources. This is especially so in Hong Kong with its
rugged terrain and scarcity of usable building land.
Buildings have to be tall in order to maximize the
development potential and to obtain the best returns.
Reduced travelling time in a highrise compact city also
contributes to make a city more efficient and
economically more viable.
When World War I1 ends, Hong Kong has a population
of 1.8 million only. Since then, this figure has grown at
a rate of almost 1 million every decade. In order to
house a fast growing population with limited land
resources, building high-rise has become the inevitable
solution. By 1960s, many public housing estates rose up
to 16 storeys high. Taller and bigger buildings also help
to satisfy the rising aspirations for larger living space.
Furthermore, high density built environment meets the
general public demand for proximity from home to place
of employment. It makes life more convenient. Homes,
offices, shops, utilities, transportation nodes are all
packaged into one convenient neighbourhood, or located
in districts not far from each other.
2.3 Environmental benefas
A high density development can obviate the problems
otherwise associated with urban sprawls such as those
commonly found in some countries, such as those in
Northern America. It enables more efficient utilities
services and infrastructural support. As a result, it
reduces overall energy use and traffic fumes. It also
helps the city with limited land resources to save land
for parks and recreational use. Indeed, Hong Kong is
blessed with large expanses of country park with lush
woodlands, and some with sparkling waterfalls that lie
beyond our city margins but yet easily accessible to its 6
million residents.
3. The Perils of Tall Buildings
Despite all the benefits offered by tall buildings, they
also contribute to the environmental problems and, at
times, pose threats to public safety and health.
Tons of construction and demolition waste are
generated each day which make up a fair proportion of
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the total municipal waste in Hong Kong. Buildings
consume over 50% of all the electricity used in Hong
Kong for lighting and space-conditioning alone, and
energy used locally be it gas, petroleum or other forms
are all imported.
Densely packed tall buildings trap air and dust in
the city. They reflect sunlight and heat to its
surroundings, causing glare and compounding the heat
island effect. Wind travels through street canyon and
tunnel effect to scour our plazas and gardens. Busy
traffic on narrow roads makes pedestrian walking an
unpleasant experience. Housing units facing each other
and stacked one above the next deny our psychological
need for privacy. Monotonous tower blocks dull our
minds.
The recent spate of incidences of falling concrete,
rendering, windows etc. highlighted the danger related
to dilapidated structures, and in particular, dilapidated
TALL structures. The outbreak of SARS in 2003 also
reminded us, inhabitants of tall buildings, the need to
properly use and maintain our buildings. Indeed, we
have come to know that it does not require total collapse
for buildings to cause catastrophic effects that can be
detrimental to the environment as well as our health and
safety.
4. Facilitating the Design and Construction of
Tall Buildings
4.1 Building (planning) regulations
Since the major overhaul of the Buildings (Planning)
Regulations in 1962, the size of development is no
longer determined by the width of the street using
volume calculation. Instead, it is linked to the height of
a building. So, the building law in effect has been
promoting the construction of tall buildings.
4.2 Performance based requirements
In step with the development of new technologies, the
Buildings Department has undertaken major reviews of
the Buildings Ordinance, its subsidiary regulations,
Codes of Practice, Practice Notes and Guidelines.
The review has to address the two major aspects of
tall buildings, namely safety and serviceability, making
use of a risk analysis and reliability check approach.
Moreover, the review must be able to facilitate
innovation, minimize wastage of energy and material
resources and promote sustainability. We are therefore
modernising our standards from an essentially
prescriptive regime to one based on performance and
results.
In the last two years, we have completed the
review and drafting of various new Codes of Practice
including those relating to demolition of buildings,
loadings, structural use of concrete and steel, pre-cast
concrete construction, foundations and wind effects on
buildings. These Codes have incorporated the latest
local data and have introduced new concepts such as
dynamic response under the new Wind Code. They
have plugged deficiencies in previous standards, such as
building acceleration and vibration in concrete. The
Codes have been well received by the building industry,
and have become new milestones in advancing the
application of structural engineering in building control.
We are currently undertaking other consultancy
studies including the review of three fire codes, and the
plumbing and drainage regulations. Once completed,
these will no doubt help to guide designers in creating
tall buildings that are safer, healthier and easier to
service and maintain.
5. Promoting Sustainable Development
5.1 Strengthen our buildings laws and
requirements
Throughout the years, we have strengthened our
buildings laws to promote quality living and sustainable
high rise development. Examples include new site
supervision requirements to ensure the quality control
and safe operation of construction sites; the restriction
on overall thermal transfer value for hotels and offices
to conserve energy; the provision of material recovery
chamber to assist the recovery of waste; the provision of
access facilities for telecommunications and
broadcasting services to enable occupiers of a high rise
building to enjoy the full range of broadcasting,
telecommunications and Internet services at their choice.
We are currently preparing a Code of Practice on
the design, construction and maintenance of drainage
system that will address the issues concerning durability
of the system. We are also close to completing the
consultancy study on the Design Manual for Barrier
Free Access that aims to improve the accessibility of tall
buildings to persons with a disability as well as for the
elderly. Thus, our buildings will be better designed to
cater for the needs of our aging population.

5.2 SARS
Since the outbreak of S A R S in 2003, we have required
widening the width of re-entrants in buildings, the
provision of a protective coating in all cost iron pipes
and improving the quality of cast iron pipes and siting
U-traps on external walls of buildings. We have also
encouraged the provision of better ventilation in toilets
and internal corridors, provisions of automatic refilling
device for U-traps and other measures to facilitate the
access to and maintenance of drainage systems.
5.3 Promote green designs and construction
Removing barriers is an important strategy that we
pursue in the advancement and implementation of
environmentally friendly and innovative tall structures.
We have also set up a dedicated Building Innovation
Unit to spearhead the Green Building Movement within
the industry and the Department.
Through the issue of practice notes and guidelines,
we encourage the increased use of recycled aggregates
and pulverised fuel ash in concrete to reduce
consumption of material resources. We relax the
minimum requirement on the volume of flushing water
to pave way for the dual flushing system for water
conservation. We build in greater flexibility in the
control of site coverage and open space provisions to
facilitate innovative designs.
5.4 Provide incentives
Since year 2001, the Buildings Department has put in
place an incentive scheme to encourage the
incorporation of green features in buildings. The
incentives we offer in the two Joint Practice Notes
exempt a number of green features from gross floor area
and site coverage calculations. Since implementation,
the scheme has been well received and we have already
given approvals to over 200 building proposals bearing
one or more of such green features.
We also promote building set back by granting
bonus plot ratio and site coverage. With greater set
back, the resultant widened pavement can ease the
pedestrian flow, enhance greening at street level and
improve the micro-climate, air quality and ventilation at
street level.
Furthermore, to meet the aspirations for modern
living, facilitate easy management and maintenance and
to increase durability of buildings and facilities, covered
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walkways, recreational facilities, plant rooms and floor
height over and above the norm may also be accepted or
exempted from gross floor area calculations.
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5.5 CEPAS a green labelling scheme
After wide consultation with the industry, we have
completed the study on the development of a
Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment
Scheme (CEPAS) for buildings in Hong Kong. This
assessment scheme for rating and benchmarking the
environmental performance of individual buildings will
enable us to identify building developments with special
merits in environmental performance. It will give an
added impetus to the momentum for the construction of
green buildings. The Provisional Construction Industry
Coordination Board is considering setting up a special
task force to hammer out the implementation details for
the scheme.
5.6 Arrest urban decay
Environmentally friendly structures do not stop short at
the design and construction stage. Neither can our tall
buildings be sustained in the absence of proper
maintenance.
Since year 2001, we have intensified our
enforcement actions and embarked on a number of
large-scale operations to clear unauthorized building
works and repair defective drains and buildings. We
provide a wide range of social, technical and financial
support to assist building owners and owners’
corporations to maintain their buildings in a safe and
sanitary condition. We have since removed over
170,000unauthorized building works, issued over 5,700
repair orders and assisted owners in 6,000 buildings to
repair their defective drains.
In addition, to obtain a community consensus on a
long-term solution to the problem, the government has
conducted a first stage public consultation on building
management and maintenance in 2004. Results of the
first stage consultation which were released in January
this year, point to a community consensus on owners’
responsibility to upkeep their buildings, including
bearing the necessary financial commitment. The
community also generally favour some form of
mandatory requirement on owners to ensure the
discharge of their maintenance responsibility. We will
soon conduct the second public consultation on a
proposed mandatory building inspection scheme. This
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scheme, if taken forward, will help make Hong Kong a

clean, safe and healthy living place.

6. The Challenges Ahead

To conclude, tall building development has definite
economical, social and environmental advantages. It
may well be a necessity for cities like Hong Kong,
which has scarce buildable land resources, and which
has limited opportunity for expanding into its hinder
land. It, therefore, behoves upon us as regulators, town
planners, architects, city engineers and builders alike to
take up the challenge of overcoming the problems in tall
buildings so that we can sustain the advantages offered
by living high rise. We believe good designs, durable
building materials, quality construction methods, well
supervised site construction work, good maintenance
and management, all help in providing tall buildings that
can withstand the test of time.
As a facilitating regulator, we provide a conducive
flexible environment and the kick starting mechanism.
Building professionals and developers are invited to let
the idea flourish by taking up the challenge to invest,
design and produce tall buildings that benefit not just the
occupants but the human race at large.