Chinese Medicine Hospital MiC Project: Mock up to Level Up

Modular Integrated Construction is widely adopted in projects such as housing, schools and other public works projects, which also includes the Chinese Medicine Hospital (CMH) and Government Chinese Medicines Testing Institute (GCMTI). The CMH is the first multi-storey hospital project to adopt MiC. Ir Thomas HO On-sing, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council, has previously visited the Fanling MiC mock-up of the project, to learn more about how the team solves potential problems through mock-up to raise efficiency.

Offsite Finishes 80% of the Internal Furnishing of the Modules

Located in Pak Shing Kok of Tseung Kwan O, the CMH and the GCMTI covers 4.29 and 1.72 hectares of land respectively, and are expected to be completed in 2025. With the support and commitment of all parties involved in the project, from ArchSD through to the suppliers, the project demonstrated breakthroughs in the building height and logistic arrangements in MiC medical projects , and has become a pioneer of the industry to widely adopt MiC. In total, there are 8 types of rooms, including wards, consultation rooms, treatment rooms, operation theaters and lavatories, etc. constructed in MiC, a large proportion of the E&M installations are also installed adopting Multi-trade Integrated MEP (MiMEP).

80% of the internal furnishing of the MiC modules is pre-finished off-site, leaving only minimal works such as joints, lighting fixtures, wiring, etc. to be completed on-site. Chung Ming Sze, Eva, Assistant Design Director of China State Construction Engineering (HK) Limited (CSHK) points out the significance of adopting MiC in uplifting the project’s performance in terms of time, manpower and integrated management as much works are done off-site.

MiC Off Main Structure for Ease of Future Alteration

The development of MiC in Hong Kong is still in its infancy, the project team had overcome different challenges during design and construction. Different from the preceding MiC hotel and hostel projects in which module sizes were standardised, 8 types of rooms constructed in CMH are of different sizes located in different parts of the buildings, which added complexity to the project.

On-site trial for Assembly of MiC Modules

The working environment of the construction site varies from time to time, therefore a mock-up site was set up in Fanling to ensure a smooth installation of MiC and MiMEP modules. The main purpose of the mock-up is to try out the most challenging installation processes of assembling the different off-site and in-situ components. The team simulate the module design, production, transportation, installation and finishing process through a mock-up, to prepare solutions to the challenges and enhance the process. Eva Chung explains.

As more projects will be adopting MiC, Ir Thomas Ho was pleased to see that the project has shown a very mature and elaborate adoption of MiC and MiMEP, and he appreciated the team’s efforts for pioneering such MiC adoption in the CMH project and setting a new benchmark of Mi-infinity for projects around Hong Kong.