With the aim of advancing Hong Kong towards a net zero emissions future, the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) and Swire Properties sponsored an Advancing Net Zero Ideas Competition at their recent international conference held from 24 to 26 November at the Business Environment Council Headquarters in Hong Kong.

In the Future Building category, Grimshaw’s Sydney Studio working with Eckersley O’Callaghan, Transsolar, Mott Macdonald and RLB designed a building which is based on culture, amenity and the productivity of work in the post-pandemic era. The 50-storey building provides for transformative workspaces which embrace and exploit climate and context, combining natural ventilation with adaptive tempering and conditioning for open collaborative space with external landscaped spaces on the amenity floors. 

Environments with variable comfort for the inhabitants were attuned to the real sub-tropical climate impacts of humidity, limitations of air speed, and air cleanliness, which exist for any development in the Hong Kong urban area. The building incorporates high intensity technology and convention facilities. The approach sought an optimisation of material, structural and servicing elements enabling a minimisation of embodied and operational energy and the elimination of redundancy due to requirements for tenant modifications.

The fully costed proposal included a life-cycle cost assessment, whereby capital investment and operational costs achieved alignment to the base reference design within seven years, defining the parameter of investment to asset value. The distinguished jury recognised our proposal with an Award of Merit for the Future Buildings category.