Foreword
On behalf of the Organising Committee, it is our pleasure to welcome you all to the Seventh International Conference on Tall Buildings organised by The University of Hong Kong, and co-organised by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and The Hong Kong Institute of Architects.
Since the turn of the 21st century, tall buildings with growing heights, increasingly complicated shapes and innovative structural systems have been built worldwide. China has now become one of the countries in the world where tall buildings are being developed. The new CCTV headquarters building with a unique shape has been finished. The 432-meter Pearl River New City West Tower in Guangzhou has been constructed up to 350 meters high. The construction of the proposed 580-meter Shanghai Center will start at the end of this year. The recent Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province has especially highlighted serious cause for concern over the safety of building structures. All of these have made China a focus of world attention. The comfort, amenity and sustainability of these buildings have been the focus of world attention. In view of the numerous landmark skyscrapers being built all over the world, it is timely to organise an International Conference on Tall Buildings to allow experts and researchers worldwide to share information pertinent to the latest practise, lessons learnt, and research outcomes of tall buildings.
Tall buildings feature prominently in many of the infrastructure developments in Hong Kong namely in office and residential high-rise developments. Like other previous successful conferences in the series, the 7th International Conference on Tall Buildings (ICTB-VII) is founded on a series of prevailing themes ranging from innovative and sustainable design/construction aspects, to comfort and amenity of occupants and social-economic issues as well. The conference, therefore, provides a forum for all construction stakeholders to exchange ideas on how to further advance the development and management of tall buildings so as to fulfill the needs of the society and the end-users.
We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the keynote and invited speakers and authors of all papers whose contributions have made this conference possible. Our thanks goes to all those who have devoted their time and effort in the organisation of the conference.
Hope you all have a pleasant stay and fruitful exchange in Hong Kong.
Y. K. Cheung
The University of Hong Kong
October 2009