Wai Kin Lau and Daniel Chi Wing Ho
Aging of building stock is emerging. Open Building as a sustainable approach to deal with the problems associated with the aging housing stock is seldom applied in high-rise…
Abstract
Aging of building stock is emerging. Open Building as a sustainable approach to deal with the problems associated with the aging housing stock is seldom applied in high-rise, densely populated built environment. With aims to identify the constraints and seek rooms for Open Building implementation in aforementioned context, a survey of 495 building layout plans from ten major housing estates in Hong Kong is conducted. The floor plans are analysed against the Open Building characteristics and criteria laid down by Tiuri (1998). Facts and obstacles of achieving Open Building in the territory are unearthed, and opportunities for implementation are then discussed.
The layout and structure of the surveyed private residential buildings in Hong Kong are very much alike. They are in fact closed buildings without the capacity to adapt, so any change in user requirements cannot be accommodated easily. Implementing Open Building using flexible and green fittings remains a viable option that enables transformation in existing housing stock.
Details
Keywords
Ervi Liusman, Daniel Chi Wing Ho, Hiu Ching Lo and Daniel Yet Fhang Lo
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between office rents and mixed-use development in the context of agglomeration economies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between office rents and mixed-use development in the context of agglomeration economies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 10,209 observations in 100 Grade A office buildings in Hong Kong from January 2001 to June 2011, the authors estimated office rent regression using unbalanced panel data analysis.
Findings
The results show that rents decreased with an increase in distance from retailers and hotels. Furthermore, the results revealed that, ceteris paribus, office tenants were willing to pay higher rents in a mixed-use than in a single-use office development.
Research limitations/implications
There is an existence of agglomeration economies due to the clustering of various industries in mixed-use developments, which allow for their close proximity to potential clients.
Practical implications
The diversity of activities in a mixed-use development benefit its tenants and, thus, convince them to pay higher rents. Higher rents generated by a mixed-use facility will attract more investors to it. Investors should seek opportunities to capitalize on their equity in mixed-use developments.
Originality/value
This paper attempts to uncover a relationship between office rents and mixed-use developments by drawing on the concept of agglomeration economies.
Details
Keywords
Lawrence Wai‐chung Lai and Daniel Chi‐wing Ho
This short paper presents the lessons learnt for conservation planning of heritage sites from a pilot study on disused military structures on Devil’s Peak, Hong Kong…
Abstract
This short paper presents the lessons learnt for conservation planning of heritage sites from a pilot study on disused military structures on Devil’s Peak, Hong Kong. Stakeholders’ interest and surveying as facilities management factors should be well considered in the planning stage for heritage conservation. Thus, public education and involvement and on‐site land surveying is essential for future project success.
Details
Keywords
Daniel Chi‐wing Ho, Yung Yau, Siu‐kei Wong, Alex King‐chung Cheung, Kwong‐wing Chau and Hing‐fung Leung
There has been a growing public concern over the importance of building management in apartment buildings. However, people's views toward the effects of building management on…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been a growing public concern over the importance of building management in apartment buildings. However, people's views toward the effects of building management on building performance have long been divergent due to a lack of empirical study. This study aims to empirically test the relationship between building management regimes and the conditions of private apartment buildings in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
An assessment scheme was developed to assess the health and safety conditions of 134 apartment buildings. Multiple regression models were then applied to analyze the effect of building management regimes on building conditions. The optimal functional form of the regression models was selected using Box‐Cox transformation.
Findings
The empirical results suggested that the presence of incorporated owners and property management agents (PMA) are significant factors in enhancing building conditions.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was confined to single block buildings located in one particular district in Hong Kong. Further research is needed to validate the findings in estate‐type developments as well as those in other districts.
Practical implications
The empirical results assisted building owners in determining which management regimes to adopt should they want better building conditions. The government may also consider giving more support to owners by incorporating them and employing PMAs to create a pleasant living environment for society.
Originality/value
Our study is the first in the literature to provide an empirical test reconciling the divergent views toward the effects of building management with the conditions of buildings.
Details
Keywords
Yung Yau, Daniel Chi‐wing Ho, Kwong‐wing Chau and Wai‐yip Lau
For the sake of public health and safety, a territory‐wide evaluation of the quality of buildings in Hong Kong is crucial. However, it is a lengthy process to assess the…
Abstract
Purpose
For the sake of public health and safety, a territory‐wide evaluation of the quality of buildings in Hong Kong is crucial. However, it is a lengthy process to assess the performance of the whole stock of buildings in the city. To get around this predicament, this paper aims to propose a statistical approach for a fast and reliable building evaluation algorithm using the Building Quality Index (BQI) developed by The University of Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the BQI assessment framework, the condition of 133 and 160 private apartment buildings in Yau Tsim Mong and the Eastern District respectively are assessed and rated. The data of the Yau Tsim Mong buildings are used to estimate a regression model associating the relationships between building performance, measured by the BQI, and other exogenous factors. The resulting model is then employed to predict the performance of the surveyed buildings in the Eastern District.
Findings
The regression analyses on the Yau Tsim Mong data indicate that building age, development scale and building management mode are significant determinants of the existing condition of the sampled buildings, echoing the findings of previous studies. BQI scores of buildings in the Eastern District are estimated using the resulting regression model, and there is a highly positive relationship between the predicted BQI and in‐situ BQI scores.
Originality/value
The study is the first in the literature to provide an algorithm for estimating building condition in a densely developed high‐rise urban area.
Lawrence Wai Chung Lai, Kwong Wing Chau, Daniel Chi Wing Ho and Frank T. Lorne
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Coasian interpretation of a model of sustainable development for Hong Kong that incorporates three segments, namely economy, society, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Coasian interpretation of a model of sustainable development for Hong Kong that incorporates three segments, namely economy, society, and environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is analytical, using concepts of property rights informed by Coasian neo‐institutional economics and Yu's ideas on the Schumpeterian process in innovation.
Findings
First, the sustainable development criteria must be non‐dictatorial, decentralized, and compatible with market economics. The emphasis is contractarian rather than legislative or administrative. Second, the essence of segment cooperation is to create a win‐win situation rather than an “integrated” rent seeking game, which will likely result in more values being created. Third, the requirement that it be progressive over time implies that programs and policies that are duplicative need to be avoided, and innovations are to be encouraged. Fourth, the requirement of satisfying only two aspects of the three segments of cooperation implies a less stringent standard of making stepwise improvements, and thus makes entrepreneurial efforts more likely. Last, the three segments of cooperation, if practiced simultaneously and improved over time, can achieve most, if not all, the principles in the Rio Declaration without aiming at a specific principle in the Declaration.
Research limitations/implications
This paper should focus on a “win‐win” rather than a mutually exploitative approach to public participation in sustainable development promotion.
Practical implications
This paper should assist policymakers and politicians in understanding how sustainable development may be conceptually modelled.
Originality/value
The paper is the first paper that defines for Hong Kong a model of sustainable development on the basis of Coasian economics, and contrasts it with other proposed models.
Details
Keywords
Lawrence Wai‐Chung Lai, Daniel Chi‐Wing Ho and Hing‐Fung Leung
This paper was motivated by the absence of a government examination of and professional interest in planning conditions as a means of development control in Hong Kong. Proposes to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper was motivated by the absence of a government examination of and professional interest in planning conditions as a means of development control in Hong Kong. Proposes to examine this situation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research objective is achieved by a field survey and legal analysis of its findings. The field survey of all the 60 residential development projects in Hong Kong under comprehensive development area zoning subject to conditional planning permissions from 1998 to 2000 involving 119 planning applications was conducted to assess factual compliance with planning conditions.
Findings
The findings show that, while most physical planning obligations have been duly fulfilled in these projects, the non‐depositing of master layout plans for development poses actual and potential public domain problems of planning enforcement, building permission, conveyancing and property management. The major problems of non‐compliance are property purchasers being unable to fully appreciate the environment of a development when making a decision to buy; subsequent titles defects, unauthorised building works and operations. Suggestions are made to close the loopholes in planning law and to introduce a formal channel for retrospective rectification in the light of the social consequences of non‐compliance.
Originality/value
This paper is the first serious attempt to evaluate the importance of compliance with planning conditions in Hong Kong and its analysis should be of interest not only to local policy makers and professional people in particular, but also to researchers in comparative development control in general.
Details
Keywords
Yung Yau, Kwong Wing Chau, Daniel Chi Wing Ho and Siu Kei Wong
The paper's objective is to empirically study the effects of building refurbishment on the prices of the dwelling units in a contiguous housing estate in Hong Kong.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper's objective is to empirically study the effects of building refurbishment on the prices of the dwelling units in a contiguous housing estate in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
In a congested living environment like Hong Kong, it is difficult, if not impossible, to have a view unobstructed by buildings. As such, the quality of views is dependent on the aesthetic quality of surrounding buildings. It is likely that poorly maintained buildings will impose negative visual effects on their immediate surroundings. Refurbishing these poor buildings should, therefore, reduce or even counter this negative externality. To study the positive externality brought about by building refurbishment, a hedonic price analysis was conducted on a set of panel data consisting of property transactions in a large housing estate located in Pokfulam. This estate was chosen because its adjoining buildings underwent refurbishment in 1998.
Findings
The results showed that the refurbishment increased significantly the prices of those properties which faced refurbished buildings, keeping other things constant. The increments, on average, amounted 6.6 per cent of the prices of the properties.
Research limitations/implications
Building refurbishment can have various scopes and scales but this study did not consider how the characteristics of the building refurbishment affected the prices of neighbourhood properties.
Practical implications
Given the problems of aging buildings in most urban areas, the results presented significant practical implications for building refurbishment and urban renewal as a whole. Developers or property owners may be lured to invest in the refurbishment of adjacent dilapidated properties with a view to enhancing the values of their own properties.
Originality/value
Although previous studies analytically suggested that building refurbishment created positive externality, this study is the first attempt to explore this connection.
Details
Keywords
Lidwine Spoormans and Ana Pereira Roders
Although residential neighbourhoods are the largest and most resilient share of a city and the process of urban conservation and renewal is ongoing, methods to assess their values…
Abstract
Purpose
Although residential neighbourhoods are the largest and most resilient share of a city and the process of urban conservation and renewal is ongoing, methods to assess their values are limited. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review, revealing the state of the art and its knowledge gaps with regard to methods for assessing values of architecture in residential neighbourhoods.
Design/methodology/approach
The systematic literature review is based on studies selected by a research protocol, using a digital database of peer-reviewed literature. A metanarrative approach is used to synthesise the qualitative data from reviewed articles. This review has two stages: (1) giving an overview of the field and (2) categorising research methods and disciplines.
Findings
The review revealed a wide variety of studies from different disciplines and deduced its key trends, titled as “storylines”, concerning the methods to assess significance, integrating a broader scope of values and different perspectives. In particular, the “storylines” outside traditional heritage disciplines offer methods to include more stakeholders, link value assessment to policy development or highlight heritage potential. Results reveal the diversity in concepts and strengthen the need for an interdisciplinary vocabulary on values and methods, enabling planners and policymakers to compare their results and help to create more attractive and resilient cities.
Originality/value
By reviewing and comparing the selected studies from a wider range of disciplines and research fields, this paper shares insights into the complementary characteristics of the different types of value research, outlining the added value of the different perspectives.