CUHK
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Master degree students of the Department of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received two honors from the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Sustainable Design Student Project Award 2007 in December last year. Supervised by Prof. Edward Ng, Department of Architecture, both projects are recognized for their thoughtful and environmental concern in benefiting the well-being of human.

The project, “A Pilot Study of Urban Ventilation and Wall Effects of Buildings – An Experience of Hong Kong” led by Karen Kiang , Millie Lam and Echo Yuen won the First Prize in the Graduate Category. The project aims at raising public concern over the effect of wall buildings in Hong Kong by scientifically studying the perceived visual wall length and the effective wind wall length. Its result will serve as a basis for the establishment of an urban design guideline for controlling and minimizing wind shadow areas so as to improve inner city ventilation.

Another project of Millie Lam and Echo Yuen, “Hainan Forest Reserve Visitor Centre – Adaptive Reuse Proposal of the Abandoned Army Camp” for Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG), received an Honorable Mention from HKIA. With an aim to revitalize an abandoned army camp in the Hainan Yinngeling Reserve in China into a visitor center, one of the most distinctive features of the design is the vertical bamboo solar louvers which help reject excessive heat from the sun and provide shading for users and maintain cross ventilation. It successfully minimizes the design intervention while at the same time increases the building’s environmental performance. “There are some initial costs in implementing green features into a building and we are happy to see that developers have started to incorporate green design in recent years,” Millie and Echo remarked. The students are now working with KFBG to have the visitor centre built.