Digitalisation to Rejuvenate Kwun Tong

Kowloon East is transforming into a new CBD to unveil a new page of development. Ir Thomas HO, Chairman of the Construction Industry Council, has previously visited the “KTIL 240” project located in How Ming Street, Kwun Tong, where it is redeveloping on the site that was once home to the KMB bus depot. The project team has invested enormous resources on Building Information Modelling (BIM), working as a team by integrating advice from building and facility management teams as early as in the design stage. In face of different construction obstacles, digitalisation and smart design are fully utilised to foster efficiency and sustainability.

The Power of Collaboration

Redeveloped by Sun Hung Kai Properties, “KTIL 240” features a two-tower office building and a retail podium with a total GFA of 1.15 million square feet. As the site is situated in the busy downtown, digitalisation, especially BIM, is very much needed to facilitate the construction processes. According to Andy Mok, Senior Project Manager at SHKP, their in-house BIM team consists of around 40 engineers, who work closely with other teams throughout the process. Mok says that though BIM has been introduced for years, nevertheless, due to computers’ hardware constraints, BIM could only be applied to clash tests back then. Things have changed in recent years and the application of BIM doesn’t only confine to the construction stage, but throughout the whole asset life cycle. The needs of facility maintenance and repair are taken into considerations from the very beginning, “Our FM team has been contributing from the model design stage, and the design can thus modify the models in response to their needs. It would be hard to adjust at the later stage.” Mok says.

Despite the fact that the construction industry is often being stereotyped as an aging business with heavy manual labour, “KTIL 240” has rejuvenated the industry as the young team embraces digitalisation to boost efficiency, as Mok says "In order to minimise error during construction, teammates onsite will create a digital model and digital twin in the virtual world before proceeding to the building stage.” He further explains that the construction team can ride on the digital twin to visualise the working environment, facility management can also be benefitted when digital twin integrates with IoT and Artificial Intelligence..

Spiral Staircase in 3D Model

Given the complexity of the project, the team was able to solve some challenging construction issues credited to the aid of BIM. For instance, the structure of the iconic spiral staircase of the mall is irregular and the headroom constraints have added difficulties to the construction. The team thus made use of BIM to design a 3D geometrical model. Different parts of the staircase were then prefabricated in MiC to reduce onsite works. The team kept monitoring the process with laser scan throughout the building process, 3D drawings are also presented in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to make sure the outcomes are in line with the design.

The size of the site is limited by its downtown location; therefore, the project has extensively employed Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) to reduce onsite works and wastage. Different from the conventional practice where parts of the Air Handling Unit (AHU) are installed onsite, KTIL240 employed DfMA to combine different parts offsite. As the elements are orderly mounted in a single module, making the AHU more spacious. However, a coin has two sides, logistic challenges are met when elements of AHU are combined into a module and hence the team addressed this issue in a “n-3” lifting method, in which space is preserved in the floor area for lifting the modules. On one hand it provides flexibility in installation, on the other hand other E&M components could also be transferred in advance through the hole to speed up the whole construction processes.

Putting the Neighbourhood in Mind

Technologies are indispensable in the construction of KTIL240 to raise efficiency and sustainability. Compared to the ordinary projects, KTIL240 consumes 16% energy and 40% indoor water consumption less. There are over 20,000 square metres of green space in total in different areas like the rooftop gardens. Besides, KTIL has a strong tie with the community as the team has always put the mission of improving the traffic of the neighbourhood in mind, for example they have engaged with the Transport Department and the District Council to widen How Ming Street from two lanes to three lanes, they are also planning to build a footbridge linking itself with the MTR station. Ir Thomas HO congratulates the teams’ achievements as he believes that the project has well demonstrated how construction could improve liveability and the sense of wellness, “I’ve visited many sites while KTIL240 is extraordinary in a sense that this project has taken Design for Safety, Design for Buildability and Design for Sustainability into account, which these elements are exactly what CIC is always advocating about.” says Ir HO.