doi:10.3850/9789628014194_0085

ABSTRACT

Around 30% of the families in Hong Kong are living in about 680,000 public rental housing units provided by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) in a high-rise high density urban living environment. We are building an average of about 15,000 flats per year. One way to achieve sustainable development is through the use of precast and prefabrication construction technologies to bring forth sustainability benefits that include: better quality of works, enhanced buildability and site safety, and more environment-friendly site operations — conservation of construction materials and minimization of construction wastes. Since its introduction of precast facades, semi-precast slabs and precast staircases in the 1980s, the HA has viewed prefabrication as a change for sustainability benefits and a challenge to explore prefabrication opportunities amidst constraints. As a result, the HA has made good progress on this front, from planar to volumetric and from minor to major structural prefabrication. In 2008, the HA completed a pilot project that pioneered two prefabrication innovations: precast structural shear walls and large-scale volumetric precast components (VPC). For each domestic block, the precast concrete volume reaches a record of 60%, involving about 10,000 pieces of precast elements which include about 1,200 VPCs per block. Its completion bears witness to the fruit of success of Research & Development and lays good foundation for further technological advancements for enhanced sustainable construction in future public housing developments.

Keywords: High-rise domestic blocks, Prefabrication, Public housing, Sustainable development, Volumetric precast components.

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