1,721,137 research outputs found
Urban design factors influencing outdoor temperature in high-risehigh-density residential developments in the coastal zone of HongKong
No full textpublished_or_final_versionabstractArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Summertime urban heat island effect in high-rise high-density residential development in the inner-city of Guangzhou, China
No full textpublished_or_final_versionArchitectureMasterMaster of Philosoph
HK-BEAM version 4/04 'New buildings': an environmental assessment for new buildings, version 4/04
No full textLifestyle and housing location choice: a casestudy of residential differentiation of professionals in transitionalShanghai
No full textpublished_or_final_versionabstractArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Addressing human factors in green office building design : occupant indoor environment quality survey in China
No full textAlthough requirements in relation to indoor environment quality (IEQ) have been made in green building rating systems such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and China GBL (Green Building Label) to promote occupant comfort, health and productivity, in practice, very little is known about user perception and satisfaction with IEQ in green buildings. Recruitment and post-occupancy evaluation of 10 office buildings (8 green buildings and 2 non-green buildings) and their 696 occupants for this study generated a dataset representing many potential avenues of inquiry. From the occupant’s point of view, the green offices in buildings with whole-building certification were significantly more satisfactory than the non-green offices, whereas the green offices certified only on the basis of their interiors were comparable to the non-green offices. Mixed-mode ventilation performed much better than other ventilation types (central air-conditioning and split air-conditioning). However, the mixed-mode green buildings were invariably perceived to be too cold in winter. A correlation model showed that green building users tended to appreciate a well ventilated, daylit, and quiet indoor environment for their health and productivity. The findings in the study made critical suggestions with regard to pursuing green building certification and addressing human factors in sustainable building design and research. The strengths and weaknesses of this study were discussed to inform future studies.published_or_final_versionArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Publicness of elevated public space in Central, Hong Kong: an inquiry into the publicness of elevated pedestrian walkway systems asplaces and non-places
No full textThe transformation of Hong Kong into a high-density city has created a unique three-dimensional
urban fabric defined through networks of urban activity and infrastructure within
tight spatial constraints of mountainous slopes and the island shoreline. In Hong Kong urban
development, the government performs a dual role both as landlord and as administrator
determining the development agenda. With limited space available for development high
land price policies have restricted land supplies and priority is given to ‘economic space’
rather than ‘life space’. This has created a city of mobility based on consumption where
privatized public spaces such as shopping malls, corporate plazas and elevated walkways are
linked primarily to promote shopping. Public spaces are increasingly managed by private
parties, and the degree of publicness of such spaces is often not clearly distinguishable to
their potential users. Due to Hong Kong’s population density of approximately 33,000
persons/km2, practices of everyday life are increasingly limited by multiple restrictions
controlling the use of spaces that only seem to be public.
The district of Central, Hong Kong features an urban network of both publicly and privately
maintained elevated pedestrian walkways that provide a secondary circulation space.
Designed according to commercial priorities, the walkway system in Central typically links
privately owned second floor lobbies with similar owners to promote consumption. Although
these regulated spaces are required to allow public access 24 hours a day, pedestrian
connectivity seems merely an after thought. In such private public spaces, pedestrians move
between consumption nodes through a maze of displays and windows filled with luxury
consumer goods. This study takes focus on the walkways in Central thus investigating
publicness specifically within the context of Hong Kong's high-density urban fabric, then
within a wider context of elevated pedestrian walkway systems in Asian Pacific cities. To
this end, this thesis employs an empirical case study methodology consisting of a series of
observational studies. Each of these studies publicness transcribed through observations of
use, users and use patterns. This study identifies a distinction that underlies the discussion of
publicness: that of non-place as opposed to place. The distinction of space and place relates
to whether users establish personal relationships to the spaces they use and has drawn much
critical attention in urban studies over the past several decades. Places typically provide the
stage for social practices. The relationship between place and mobility at an elevated level
has however, not been studied in detail yet. As mobile urban populations pass through places
more than we dwell in them, a new type of space has emerged to facilitate a ‘frictionless
passage’, or non-place. Within this realm of non-place pedestrians pass through zones of
movement like passengers experiencing a lack of relationship or disconnectivity with a space.
This leads to the question whether elevated pedestrian walkways consisting of spatial flows,
movement and transitional zones are only capable of performing as non-places? Can
relationships develop between the walkways and their users, making them more than non-places,
but places?
A case study forms the main part of this thesis and specifically focuses on observing aspect of
movement and circulation within Central that determine perceptions of publicness. Findings
resulting from this study provide an understanding of the ambiguous nature of spaces in
Central. From a background study of elevated pedestrian walkways in six Asian Pacific
cities, indicators of publicness are established that provide a framework to distinguish
characteristics of elevated pedestrian walkways. In Central, gatherings among domestic
helpers are found to contribute to the success of the elevated pedestrian walkway system into
urban context. Results of this study indicate that elevated pedestrian walkways can be both
places and non-places depending on the publicness of space and suggest how a transition of
publicness can occur within such spaces.published_or_final_versionArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Environmental strategies for enhancing the quality of elderly care facilities in an aging society : post-occupancy evaluation on care and attention homes for the elderly in Hong Kong
No full textThe physical environment has a huge influence on both the satisfaction and the health-related quality of life of older adults. This study was conducted in nine care and attention (C&A) homes in Hong Kong in July 2015 (summer) and January 2016 (winter). The author explored the outdoor-environment attributes, indoor-environment attributes, and architecture-related design strategies that may affect the satisfaction and health-related quality of life of residents of typical podium-type C&A homes in Hong Kong.
The chosen method was post-occupancy evaluation, comprising environmental measurements (air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, Predicted Mean Vote, Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied, lighting, noise level, etc.) and questionnaire surveys (occupants’ satisfaction votes and a self-evaluated health questionnaire, SF-12). Correlation analysis and logistic regression were performed using the software package IBM SPSS 20.0 to carry out the data analysis.
The results of the study indicated that attributes of both the outdoor environment (public open / green space, transport space, and service space) and the indoor environment (air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, lighting, and noise level) affected the physical and / or the mental health of the C&A residents. In addition, architecture-related design strategies such as bedroom privacy and floor-plan legibility were found to influence the satisfaction as well as the health-related quality of life of the C&A residents.
In light of these findings, interventive design strategies for enhancing the quality of C&A homes in Hong Kong were developed. Such strategies included recommendations for suitable outdoor-environment attributes around C&A homes; the specification of desirable ranges for indoor-environment parameters capable of enhancing residents’ satisfaction and health-related quality of life; and architecture-related design strategies with the potential to solve related problems experienced by the older adults on a daily basis. Finally, the author concluded that the future post-occupancy evaluation of C&A homes in Hong Kong should focus not only on management but also on environmental attributes that significantly affect the health-related quality of life of C&A residents.published_or_final_versionReal Estate and ConstructionDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Extended kinship and townscape : a morphological study on Wuyi rural markets during the Republican era
No full textStudies on urban modernization in early twentieth century South China usually attribute the development of rural areas to the effort of government and some returned overseas Chinese. In Wuyi, a region in Guangdong Province, South China, traditional clanship which dominated the rural society has usually been considered as a factor slowing down their urban modernization. However, most of the modernized rural markets were in fact developed by the local clan organizations.
This thesis attempts to investigate the neglected role of these clan organizations in the process of urban modernization. Focusing on the rural market townscape in Wuyi during the Republican era (1912-1949), this thesis aims at answering two questions: (1) what was the urban morphology of Wuyi market towns in terms of their geographical distribution, market form, building fabric, and architectural form; and (2) how was the form of urban modernization in these towns influenced by civilian power of extended kinship? Answering the questions, this research presents a morphological analysis by mapping the rural markets based on extensive fieldworks in the region, and explores various models to understand the relationship between market form and social forces.
The mapping starts from the market distribution in Duanfen, a town in Wuyi. By looking into the changes of “marketing areas” where new markets would emerge in the town from time to time, the changes in power among the clans are identified. It is shown that the geographical distribution of the markets could reflect the process of inter-clan competition. It is also discovered that the
agglomeration process of neighbouring markets would result in different modes of twin-markets in Wuyi. During the Qing Dynasty, many local clans complained to the government that the new markets were founded too close to their original ones, thereby forcing those new markets to be relocated farther away. However, during the Republican period when free inter-market competition was allowed, more abutting twin-markets emerged as a new mode. In these twin-markets, the clanship buildings were imparted with symbolic meaning which proclaimed the territories and powers of competing clans.
The morphological study on the thirty-eight market cases in Wuyi illustrates two different sets of market characteristics. Most of the central-square markets, especially those regular ones, were developed dominantly by a single clan. In contrast, markets founded without the domination by a single clan tended to have irregular linear-street forms without any central square.
The study on the architectural forms in Wuyi identifies different shophouse styles developed during different periods of time. It is evident that the development of the two styles were closely related to the market form of the original regular fabric, as compared to the later irregular alterations.
This research concludes that the clan organizations acted as a form of intermediate agents between the government and individual civilians, and facilitated the increase in the number of rural markets in Wuyi during the Republican era. In many aspects, the morphology of market townscape reflected the unique society in the Republican South China where traditional clanship and quasi-modern capitalism were merged.published_or_final_versionArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Design for excellence (DfX) for high-rise modular buildings : a knowledge management-based framework from conception to completion
No full textModular building disrupts traditional cast-in-situ construction by relocating cumbersome material processing and construction activities to a factory-like environment before transporting prefinished, self-standing modules to a designated area for installation. This leapfrog development is prospected to mitigate manifold challenges in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, e.g., resource scarcity, housing shortage, aging workforce, and lackluster productivity. This multi-faceted solution can be fully cultivated in high-rise towers, enabling greater production volumes and safer working milieus. Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) is a companion philosophy to ensure that this revolutionized construction is efficient and that stricter manufacture and assembly requirements are met. Design for excellence (DfX) is a further expansion, holding the prodigious opportunity of design to realize multidimensional desirable attributes of high-rise modular buildings.
DfX-enhanced high-rise modular buildings is neither simple nor linear. It is complicated by involving multidisciplinary knowledge beyond one’s capabilities and introducing new design components to be justified. However, existing contributions focus mainly on DfX ‘conception’ by establishing terminologies and considerations. How to manage this DfX knowledge efficiently throughout a sophisticated design process until its ‘completion’ remains unclear. This understanding can guide future practice systematically and be incorporated with machine learning to smarten the ongoing trend of generative DfX.
This research aims to develop a DfX knowledge management-based framework from conception to completion and establish module design guidelines. With a subjectivist ontological position and pragmatist epistemological stance, this research adopted a mixed-method approach in two stages. First, the DfX knowledge management-based framework was developed by building upon the prior understanding of DfX as a double diamond process, positing it in an open system, and enriching it with its knowledge-intensive nature. This preliminary framework was then elaborated by a series of investigations, including a literature review, non-participant observation, case study, and participatory action research (PAR). Lastly, the framework implementation outcomes, namely module design guidelines, were assessed to ascertain their compatibility with current practice.
This research posits that DfX knowledge, by nature, is highly tacit by drawing heavily on hands-on experience and case-based learning, fragmented into distinct subsets, and often generalized into simplified considerations for dissemination. To efficiently manage the wealthy DfX knowledge, it proposes three transformational processes: (a) DfX knowledge acquisition to extract experiential knowledge, (b) DfX knowledge accumulation to consolidate multidisciplinary knowledge into an integrated whole, and (c) DfX knowledge contextualization to high-rise modular buildings and translation into usable formats. The transformed knowledge, known as module design guidelines, helps designers realize multiple desirable attributes by advocating for simplified module shapes, recommended module size, uniform space across projects, and dimensional coordination between modules and spaces.
The innovativeness of this research is twofold. Firstly, it demystifies DfX knowledge management by articulating this intricate process into three stages for efficient handling by practitioners. Secondly, the guidelines facilitate the justification of four new module design components. Future research is recommended to refine the framework and guidelines, explore their applicability in different contexts, mitigate DfX knowledge management challenges, and integrate the findings with machine learning to develop computational tools, particularly generative DfX.published_or_final_versionReal Estate and ConstructionDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
Neighborhood scale and market-responsive urban design: a study of large-scale suburban private residentialdevelopments in the transitional economy in China
No full textpublished_or_final_versionArchitectureDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph
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