HARMONIZING TALL BUILDINGS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT - FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BUILDING CONTROL IN HONG KONG

Hong Kong is well-known as a compact city with a large number of skyscrapers, creating an efficient living and working environment for the residents to meet the needs for housing accommodation and economic growth. The Government has been constantly modernizing the building legislation and building codes to ensure and to facilitate the design of tall buildings that can meet the basic needs of the occupants. Moreover, various incentives are in place to encourage green and innovative buildings for quality living. In recent years, there arc rising public concerns over various environmental issues in particular the impact of tall buildings on the built environment in terms of urban air ventilation and visual impacts. Obviously, tall buildings should not only provide a harmonious accommodation for their occupants but also be harmonious with their neighbours. To this end, the Buildings Department has formulated certain sustainable building design guidelines to enhance the urban living space, which together with the review of incentive policy on green and amenity features and energy efficient building features are the key issues in the on-going public engagement exercise to gather the community's view on measures to foster a quality and sustainable built environment.