FuturArc Forum 2008 comes full circle in Hong Kong (10 April 2008)
The last of the series of the forums—FuturArc Forum 2008 Hong Kong witnessed a turnout of 200 participants. These attendees came with the sole purpose of working towards a more sustainable built environment.
Held on 8 April at the Hotel Intercontinental Kowloon, the forum gathered green building experts from around the world who addressed various issues on sustainability, and called for the move towards green architecture. The forum is organized by FuturArc journal’s publisher, BCI Asia, and held in eight cities across Asia Pacific. The conferences have been attended by an estimated 4,000 architects, engineers and property developers as well as students of these professions.
Forum attendees
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Dr. Deo Prasad, Director of the Sustainable Development Program at the University of New South Wales, kicked off the forum by sharing on the principles and fundamentals of green design, focusing mainly on the designed product. Next, FuturArc’s Chief Editor, Dr. Nirmal Kishnani, described the greening process, highlighting five myths of green buildings. Bruce King, Founder and Director of the Ecological Building Network, then explained how energy and materials could be used more effectively. Following, Wendy Lee, Regional Sales Manager of Autodesk Far East Limited for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, shared on the advantages of Building Information Modeling, and how it could be used to achieve sustainable design. Kevin Edmunds, Chief Operating Officer of the Business Environment Council, went on to outline the different green building labeling schemes used in the Building Environment Assessment Method. And rounding up the day’s talks was Thor Kerr, Managing Director of BCI Asia, who presented a ground-breaking survey of green building markets in Hong Kong, Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The forum concluded with a Question and Answer session with all the speakers. The speakers’ presentations will be made available on the FuturArc website at www.futurarc.com.
As one of the jurors, Dr. Nirmal Kishnani also presented the highlights and results of the inaugural FuturArc Prize design competition held from 15 October 2007 to 15 January 2008. Attracting a strong international field of entrants, the competition called for green building designs on one of three development sites in Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia. Prizes for the winner of the Professional Category include SGD12,000 cash and SGD10,000 worth of design software; the winner of the Student Category receives SGD3,000 cash and SGD6,000 worth of design software. All prizes are sponsored by Autodesk.
Top 10 Awards Dinner |
A dinner was held after the forum to recognize the 10 most active architectural firms in Hong Kong. The firms in the BCI Asia Top 10 2008 for Hong Kong are Aedas Ltd, Andrew Lee King Fun & Associates Architects Ltd., CYS Associates (HK) Ltd., Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers (HK) Ltd., Ho & Partners Architects Engineers & Development Consultants Limited, Leigh & Orange Ltd., P&T Architects and Engineers Ltd., Ronald Lu & Partners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. and Wong Tung & Partners Limited.
The Hong Kong forum’s Platinum sponsor is Autodesk, and Gold sponsors include Bosch & Siemens, Interface and Philips Lighting. The Top 10 patrons are BMT Fluid Mechanics, Bostwick, Jardine Engineering Corporation, LifeFitness and Nippon Paint.
In coming years, the FuturArc Forum aims to be a catalyst for change by altering expectations of green buildings in Asia Pacific, and being a channel of communication between players in the industry. |
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Biography |
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Deo Prasad, PhD is Director of the Sustainable Development Program at the University of New
South Wales. He has worked on milestone projects including Australia’s solar village, Sydney
Olympics, advanced tools for building performance assessments, emerging green building
technologies and numerous other projects. He has published in excess of 150 key papers in this
field including books such as Designing with Solar Power (EarthScan commissioned by IEA),
Energy efficient Australian Housing (AGPS) and Global WArming and the Built Environment
(FPSpon). He has directed the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Built Environments for 12 years. Dr
Prasad sits on many boards and Committee internationally in this field (Canadian Net Zero Energy
Buildings Network, Korean Eco-Peace Leadership Foundation, Tongji Institute of Environment for
Sustainable Development, Shanghai, Special Committe on Urbanisation at UNEP, Bangkok,
International Solar Energy Society(Freiburg), Standards Australia committee on Energy Efficient
Buildings and many more). He has won the Australian National Innovation Award and the NSW
Government 2004 Green Globe Award as well as the 2006 Royal Australian Institute of Architects
National Award for contribution to research and design of sustainable buildings. |
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Dr Nirmal Kishnani, PhD is Chief Editor of the FuturArc journal. He is both an educator and
practitioner in the area of green buildings, and presently teaches at the Department of
Architecture at the National University of Singapore. He has lectured and written widely on the
subject of greening Asia and has been a consultant to projects across the region, most recently as head of a sustainability unit operating from Singapore. |
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Bruce King is the founder and Director of the Ecological Building Network
(www.ecobuildnetwork.org), and the founder and senior editor of the Green
Building Press (www.greenbuildingpress.com). He is the author of: Buildings
of Earth and Straw (1996), Making Better Concrete (2005), Design of Straw
Bale Buildings (2006), and dozens of papers and articles for conferences
and journals. His articles have also appeared in publications such as the
Los Angeles Times,USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Bruce is a
registered Structural Engineer with a private structural consulting practice
in San Rafael, California. He also serves as a Clean Technology
advisor to a number of venture capital firms near San Francisco. |
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Wendy Lee has been working in the information technology and CAD/CAM/BIM
software industry for over 10 years. Wendy was graduated from The University
of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver and she holds bachelor degree of
Electrical Engineering. She also holds the Master of Business Administration
at The University of Leicester and she is now a Doctor of Business Administration
(DBA) Candidate at the University of South Australia with research topic
related to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Technology adoption in Hong Kong. Currently, Wendy is Regional Sales Manager for Autodesk Hong Kong and Taiwan. She
is responsible for sales and marketing the software solutions for the AEC and Media & Entertainment Industries, and to expand corporate customer base and manage the
sales team. Wendy has got very strong relationship with technology professional bodies in
Hong Kong and China and she has organized various tours including R&D, customer
visits, large-scale academic research conferences etc. Communications has been
greatly enhanced between the two regions under those events.
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Kevin Edmunds is Chief Operating Officer of the Business Environment Council (www.bec.org.hk), Hong Kong's not-for-profit business association dedicated to sustainability. With 15 years
of experience in Asia and Europe, Kevin's particular interest is in buildings. He has conducted
green building labeling assessments such as the Building Environment Assessment Method or
BEAM for over 300 premises, written green specifications and design briefs, enhanced long-term
energy use and indoor quality, and overseen research assignments into life cycle analysis, costing
and demand side management. Kevin is a Founding Executive Committee Member of the BEAM
Society and a frequent public speaker on sustainability issues. |
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Forum Sponsor
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