TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme B: Creating a livable, healthy and environmentally viable citiesmillion people living in 1,100 sq. km of which, only about 200 sq. km is developedand another 400 sq. km is devoted to country parks. There is a global trend in theshift from rural to urban populations and the corresponding increase in populationdensities and urban consumption patterns is reflected in every urban city.About one-third of Hong Kong’s population is residing in public housing. Amongthe stock of over 2,300,000 permanent residential flats, over 674,000 flats arepublic rental housing stock under the management of HKHA. It is always HKHA’sprime objective to provide healthy living environment in sustainable housingdevelopments. Environmental aspects of sustainable housing design comprises lowenergy consumption and high performance concept. In 2001, HKHA initiated theapplication of Micro-climate Studies, based on holistic approach, in the planningand design process of public housing developments to optimize the developmentpotential and enhance the built environment of the neighbourhood. In the ensuingsections of the paper, we present some key features of the micro-climate studies inour planning and design process for enhancing wind profile, natural ventilation,daylight and solar heat gain of the living environment.2. WIND ENVIRONMENTWe use the micro-climate studies as urban planning tool to optimize estateplanning, disposition/orientation of blocks and building permeability to enhancewind environment for the housing development and as-built neighbourhood.2.1 Site Wind Availability DataIt is necessary to account for the characteristics of the natural wind availability ofeach housing development site. We make use of wind data from weather stationsof local Observatory to qualitatively estimate the prevailing wind directions andmagnitudes of the site for evaluation. For sites with weather stations nearby, windrose with reduced set of prevailing directions covering most of the time in a typicalreference year is vital for micro-climate studies whereas for those with specific site482