The Building Information Centre at the New Headquarters of the Buildings Department

  • New Headquarters of the Buildings Department

  • Reused Furniture, Feature Wall and Display Panels at BIC

  • Reused Service Counter at BIC

  • Interior Green Wall to Enliven the Interior Space

  • Non-bottled Water Policy and Recycling Bins to Reduce Carbon Footprint

  • 80% Workstations Having Direct Sight Line to the Outdoors

  • Independent Exhausts at Central Photocopy Areas

  • Paperless Meeting in Connecting Spaces

  • Real Time Environmental Display System

  • Interactive Wall to Promote Green Building Design and Building Safety


Interiors V1.0
Platinum

Overall Score
Green Building Attributes
Management
Materials Aspects
Energy Use
Water Use
Indoor Enviro. Quality
Credit(s)    Innovations and Additions

Buildings Department (BD) plays an important role in promoting green buildings in Hong Kong.  There is no better way to show BD’s commitment and support to the development of sustainable buildings by incorporating green building design and construction practices in the new BD Headquarters (BD HQ) office building.  In the BD’s new Building Information Centre (BIC), we have adopted various measures including use of building materials with high recycled content, energy efficient air-conditioning and lighting system, real time energy monitoring, re-use of service counters, feature walls and furniture from previous office, as well as providing more indoor greenery and implementing no bottled water policy for staff and visitors.  Apart from hardware, we have adopted green cleaning product and promoted green operation practice to reduce our carbon footprint and consumption on natural resources.

Green Features

Green Building Attributes

  • Local public transport is within 500m walking distance of the host building
  • Baby care room is provided in the host building
  • The new office will be in use for more than 6 years. Hence, wastes generated by office relocation and associated demolition works are reduced

Management

  • Green cleaning products are adopted to minimise pollution
  • Construction IAQ management for the benefit of workers and adjacent neighbours
  • Occupational safety and comfort are addressed by strategies, covering Ergonomics, Indoor Environmental Qualities, etc

Materials Aspects

  • Reused timber was adopted for temporary works during construction
  • Carpets, false ceilings and walls used contained high recycled content
  • Over 70% of construction waste is recycled
  • Over 80% of the furniture is reused
  • Over 70% of newly installed partitions and ceilings are modular design materials

Energy Use

  • Electrical meter and thermal energy meter are installed to monitor the energy consumption
  • Heat recovery system is adopted to reduce the cooling demand of air conditioning
  • Over 35% of energy saving in LPD is achieved compared to latest BEC code

Water Use

  • All water taps are WELS Grade 1 certified
  • Sensor type urinal and dual flush water closets are provided in the toilets
  • Water dispensers are adopted to replace bottled water service

Indoor Environmental Quality

  • Excellent IAQ Certificate is awarded
  • Over 85% of workstations has a light illuminance level of at least 100 lux
  • Over 80% of all workstations have a direct line of sight to external vision glazing
  • Indoor greening are provided

Innovations

  • Real time energy monitoring display provided in the public circulation area

Story

To promote green buildings in the private sector, BD has implemented additional green measures in its new BD HQ at North Tower of West Kowloon Government Offices (WKGO) to demonstrate its commitment and support to a quality and sustainable built environment.  While the scope of assessment of BEAM Plus Interior Certification is confined to the BIC, green concepts and initiatives are introduced on every floor of the BD HQ. 

The nice interior of BIC is not a new outfit.  The interior components and furniture of BIC including the service counter, inspection stations, feature wall, AV system and even mobile file racks were largely relocated from previous office and reused in WKGO.  Meticulous planning and coordination of the project team is critical to allow seamless relocation of those reused items without interruption of public service.

To promote the culture of recycling, recycling facilities for glass, metal and plastic together with general waste collection are systematically arranged in a single cabinet at convenient locations.  To further reduce carbon footprint, BD has abandoned the use of bottled water by installing water dispensers to provide high quality drinking water for its staff and visitors.  Measures have been incorporated in the detailed design to prevent water leakage.

The office layout in the BD HQ is purposely designed to maximise the incoming daylight.  Direct sight line to the outdoor is available to 80% of workstations in the open plan office.  Together with indoor greening at various locations, the new office provides an open and pleasant working environment and atmosphere with a nice view of the blue sky and greenery.

For better IAQ, on top of achieving excellent class under the IAQ Certification Scheme, the central photocopy areas are equipped with additional independent exhausts for effective removal of airborne contaminants.  To encourage less print-out, AV provisions with internet connection and back-painted glass panels serving as whiteboards are provided in our breakout spaces on each floor to encourage paperless meetings.

BD understands and values the importance of staff participation in cultivating a green culture.  A “Floor Manager” scheme is in place to formulate house rules and collect staff feedback to facilitate effective implementation of the green initiatives.  For public education, a video wall is installed at the lift hall of BIC to display the real time energy consumption to the visitors.  This video wall also features some interactive games to disseminate important building safety information to the visitors in an interesting way.


Project Details

Completion Year 2019
Number of Blocks 1
Number of Storeys 1
Type Government, Institutional and Community

Project Team

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