Heritage comfort : achieving LEED standard for historic buildings in Hong Kong

Abstract

Sustainable development has to be adopted for Hong Kong’s built environment. Conserving historic buildings is one approach by reducing waste and utilizing existing resources. However, historic buildings are not designed for the current climate, codes or technology. Installing modern services within historic buildings may bring comfort to occupants, but can also negatively impact to the building. As the adaptive reuse of historic buildings is a common trend in Hong Kong today, it is critical to understand how to evaluate and maintain the comfort of building occupants as well as integrate these systems within the heritage buildings sensitively. Designing energy efficient guidelines for historic buildings in Hong Kong is one of the measures to begin with. Comfort of occupants, buildings and the environment are vital to strike a balance necessary for sustainable development. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the leading global standard for green buildings today. Based on LEED v4: Existing Building and Operation, this paper will focus on providing guidelines for how thermal comfort in historic buildings can be implemented in an energy efficient way. Historic buildings on the campus of HKU will be utilized as a case study and GBC Historic Building will be studied to understand the approach and possible measures taken for historic buildings. Finally, based on the study of LEED and case studies, recommendations will be formulated to serve as the basis in developing energy efficiency guidelines for historic buildings in Hong Kong. It is hoped that these guidelines can be a platform to reveal the potential of historic buildings and their relationship with sustainable development.