Bulletin No. 1, 2016

28 o C 27 o C 12 Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2016 CUHK’s School of Architecture and Institute of Future Cities have been helping Hong Kong and other major cities to achieve better ventilation and thermal comforts as urban areas become warmer. Prevailing winds and sea breezes carry heat away and lower urban temperature Maintain low-rise structures along prevailing wind direction Less heat is generated and retained compared with the urban areas 1 4 6 5 3 2 1 2 4 3 5 6 Introduce non-building areas to create ventilation pathways Create permeability in the housing blocks Increase green space Adopt green building design to reduce thermal load Main streets to be aligned in parallel to the prevailing wind direction Rural Area Urban Area with Good Ventilation and Low UHI Effect Prevailing wind driven into the city centre via ventilation pathways Climate and the City n a hot summer’s day, when the temperature of a country park in Hong Kong is 27°C, that of the densely built districts, for example, Mong Kok, may be 2–4°C higher due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, as concrete structures absorb and trap more heat than areas covered extensively by vegetation. The situation will be worsened at night when the wind is weak and air ventilation is poor. Under the combined effects of global climate change and UHI, the densely built areas in Hong Kong will become much warmer over the decades. ‘We need to re-consider the way our city is planned and built, in order to ensure a comfortable and sustainable living environment in the future, especially during the hot seasons,’ remarked Prof. Edward Ng, Yao Ling Sun Professor of Architecture and Director of the MSc Programme in Sustainable and Environmental Design at CUHK. O Warmer Hong Kong: Urban Heat Island + Climate Change The Here and Now