H6 Conet Spatium Publicum Apertum

Press Kit

Unique Properties

It is divided into Community Corridor, Urban Renewal Exploration Centre and offices. Featuring ideas rooted from local history, it offers public enjoyment and enhances connectivity by opening up its access to six adjoining lanes. Leisure seating area and flexible furniture set up also enhance the amenity. The success of the bio-filter system would extend to other urban renewal projects, while the Urban Renewal Exploration Centre provides a new experience for the public to explore urban renewal in a creative and interactive manner.

Dimensions & Packaging

The community space area is 2,660 square meters including a 858.5 square meters Community Corridor in the form of art and culture, the 237 square meters Urban Renewal Exploration Centre with a 204.5 square meters conference room, a multi-purpose room 238 square meters and 7 NGO offices.

The total wall area in the venue is 562.4 square meters and the green wall coverage is 76.7 square meters. The vertical green wall area is 59.3 square meters plus bio-filter area of 17.4 square meters. The green percentage is 13.5%.

Tags

community, open space, network, GIC, NGO, sustainability

Production Technology

Indoor vertical greening reduces indoor air pollutant by bio-filtration and acts as a natural cooling system. Condensate Water System was built to collect condense water from fan coil units and reuse it to cultivate the plants, serving as a bio-filter-system. Achieved removal efficiencies in VOCs, PM10 and CO2 of the bio-filter module in the mock up site by 37%, 20% and 13% respectively on average under the measurement for two fan flows gained green building certifications. The final plant mix and a number of performance measurements of the mock-up were made afterwards.

Design Challenge

Since there was no quantitative in investigations on the removal efficiencies on VOC, PM and CO2, and no useful design guideline for real life applications, two stages of study have been involving to test the real life applications including the set up of facilities,the irrigation requirement, the lux illumination level, the optimal temperature, the suitable vegetation mix, and its irrigation schedule, the measurement challenges in a public area, the optimal set up of fan coils, etc.

Research

Monthly bio-safety tests are also carried out by sampling of the flowing air before and after bio filter module at low fan flow mode and taking water sample from the recycle water tank for plant irrigation. The collected samples are then taken to laboratory. The airborne fungi was reduced through the bio filter. In any case, the airborne fungi levels are well below IAQ guide of 500 CFU (colony-forming unit) / cubic meter. On the other hand, Legionella bacteria have not been detected in the water irrigation system. Hence no bio-safety issue in the use of the bio filter is evident.

Inspiration

There was not open to public with only one access point before. The refurbishment offered a chance to improve the connectivity and review the layout. It came up a green concept by applying a bio-filter system as a green wall. Incorporating living nature into city not only looks much more inviting, but also echoes urban renewal process, in which greening plays a vital role. The system actively draws air through the green wall to filter air pollutants hence clean the air. It is a pioneer project in the world for fostering a quality living environment and contributing to a sustainable future.

Project Duration

The project started in September 2016 and finished in August 2017. It is on the ground floor of The Center, 99 Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong.

Operation Flow

An off-site mock up was built to simulate the flow to obtain operation parameters following the literature review and research methodology. After that, experiments under different operation scenarios were carried out in the controlled environment. Mechanical, plant health and measuring instrumentation challenges of the mock up site was subsequently overcome. The final plant mix and performance measurements of the mock-up were made afterwards. Separately, bio-safety sampling for airborne fungi and Legionella bacteria in irrigation water were also made monthly.

Image Credits

Photo Credits: Oval Design Ltd., 2017
Video Credits: Oval Design Ltd., 2017