Daniel Leung oversees the development and application of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Geographic Information System (GIS) and other construction technologies to enhance the business practices of the Development and Construction Division of the Housing Department. He shared with Construction Plus some of the emerging construction technologies that are facilitating the development of public housing and benefiting the local industry as a whole.
Please share with us the application of advanced building technology in public housing development.
The government has identified sufficient land for meeting the supply target of 308,000 public housing units in the coming 10-year period. To cope with the vast demand, the Hong Kong Housing Department (HD) has been embracing innovation and technology to not only enhance productivity and efficiency, but also to fuel safety and sustainability of public housing development.
With a huge production volume, as well as highly repetitive and standardised nature of our flat design, HD is able to innovate and test platforms for our stakeholders to try out and validate the viability of their innovative technologies for both construction and maintenance of public housing. Amongst them, Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) is one of the cutting-edge technologies that can offer shorter construction timelines; improved quality control; reduced waste; and increased cost efficiency.
Besides, we have also embraced other state-of-the-art technologies such as construction robotics; remote sensing and reality capture technology employed in the Mobile Mapping System (MMS); and the one-stop Housing Authority Project Information Management and Analytics Platform (HA-PIMAP).
To what extent would robotics technology and other advanced building technology help enhance construction quality, management and sustainability of public housing projects?
CONSTRUCTION ROBOTICS
Construction robotic is one of technologies that will play a significant role in addressing the challenges of ageing and shortage of skilled labour force. To plan ahead, HD has included bonus marks in the tender submission since March 2020 to incentivise tenderers to adopt construction robotics. Till now, we have over 40 building projects adopting different types of construction robots.
“3-in-1” multifunctional wall rendering robot can apply paint with accuracy; all images by Housing Department
MMS
Recently, HD has collaborated with a start-up service provider to develop this innovative inspection and record management tool that applies reality capture technology. The MMS is an integrated system of navigation and remote sensors to collect geospatial data through laser scanners and high-resolution cameras. It is made up of a compact, lightweight backpack equipment that allows the technician to move freely for scanning the interiors of a building. With a set of 360-degree camera and laser scanner provided at the front and back, the equipment can capture both vertical and horizontal images simultaneously to create a combined panoramic view and point cloud model with an accuracy of up to 10 millimetres.
Demonstration of indoor scanning using MMS
HA-PIMAP
As construction projects involve numerous stakeholders and generate vast amounts of data, HD needs a centralised repository to store, track, manage as well as to integrate data from different construction stages. It aims to enable effective communication and collaboration amongst project stakeholders. The all-in-one HA-PIMAP, developed in July 2023, provides a single source of project data, ensuring that all parties have access to the most up-to-date information.
This is an excerpt. The original article is published in
Construction+ Q1 2024 Issue: Construction Technologies Now.
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