Page 67 - URA Annual Report 2021-22

The URA not only dedicates its effort to promote new green building space, but also strives to improve the green elements of existing buildings through rehabilitation. The URA introduced the Green Item Subsidy (which won a Hong Kong Green Building Council Award in 2016) under the ‘Common Area Repair Works Subsidy’ to encourage property owners to use environmentally-friendly building materials and install energy-saving facilities when carrying out building maintenance and repair works. As of June 2022, the URA has approved a total subsidy of around $23 million under the Green Item Subsidy, benefitting owners of about 370 building blocks (involving approximately 18,700 units).
Green Item Subsidy
370building blocks with approved applications amounting to $23million subsidy
‘Smart Building’ Elements
To support smart city development in Hong Kong, the URA is keen to incorporate ‘Smart Building’ concepts into its development projects covering five aspects in Design, Information, Environment, Convenience and Management. Smart buildings enable efficient and economical use of resources while creating a safe and comfortable environment for occupants. Smart systems like home energy and water consumption, health and wellness, smart displays, home waste management, as well as building management were adopted in buildings of the URA projects.
Adopting the BIM-Facility Management system, Central Market can now monitor the visitors traffic and analyse their engagement data for effective crowd management and better customer experience.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been extensively applied to various stages of URA projects in recent years, leveraging digital information to improve efficiency and accuracy. With the use of BIM- Facility Management (FM) system for 618 Shanghai Street developed in 2019, the FM system has further integrated with two other URA projects, the eResidence and Central Market, enabling a centralised BIM-FM platform for effective cross-project comparisons.
During the year, the URA collaborated with industry practitioners to conduct research and development of an AI-enhanced, BIM-based application to automate Gross Floor Area (GFA) calculation and prescribed checking of a selected number of regulatory requirements for compliance purpose, aiming to streamline and shorten the project development process and hence, expedite housing supply. The application, which was tested successfully in calculating the GFA of the URA’s self-developed eResidence project, is ready for further expansion to cover the full spectrum of regulatory checking.
URA ANNUAL REPORT 2021-22 61
Corporate Sustainability Management Discussion and Analysis Projects at a Glance Corporate Governance