The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) is proud to announce the big success with its 55th Anniversary Conference, which is held today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. As one of the signature celebrations of the 55th anniversary program, the Conference was received with great enthusiasm among industrial professionals from Hong Kong and beyond and also related government bodies.

The Organizing Committee of the HKIA 55th Anniversary Conference was much honored to have invited Mr. Donald TSANG Yam-kuen, GBS, GBM, Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government, as Guest of Honor of the Conference. Mrs. Carrie LAM CHENG Yuet-ngor, GBS, JP, Secretary for Development, Development Bureau of the HKSAR Government, and Ms Eva CHENG, GBS, JP, Secretary for Transport and Housing Bureau of the HKSAR Government, have also presented their keynote speeches in the morning session and afternoon session respectively and shared their views on the future development of Hong Kong as an important city in the globe.

Other speakers invited are all renowned architects, engineers, academia, politicians from Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas. Plenary sessions were also hosted to cover infrastructure, transport and the high-density cum high-rise development in Megalopolis.

With all the interesting topics covered, today’s Conference has attracted over 600 architects, legislators, government officials, developers, consultants, contractors and other stakeholders to attend.

Mr. Dominic Lam, President of HKIA, commented, “Hong Kong is a unique city with high density development and full of high-rise buildings. We have to study its merit and problems which will help many other cities in the world of plan for their urbanization development in future.”

Why Megalopolis and Architecture?
Megalopolis is a densely populated urban region embracing one or more very large cities or metropolises. Megalopolis evokes daunting size, a vast scale of infrastructure, organization and governance of an unprecedented order. Academics, architects, planners, city developers and governance designers have explored the concept and the way in which accepted ideas of the city and urban hierarchy needs to be re-conceptualised for a well-balanced living environment in the future.

In today’s context, with economic considerations to the fore, Megalopolis becomes manifest with the joining of a number of independent cities through fast transport and electronic systems. The successful linking and merging of such systems has sparked current concerns with the need to house an increasing proportion of the population who will be moving from the country side to the city to take advantage of employment and the convenience of urban living.

Under the 12th Five-year Plan for China, Hong Kong will play a significant role in the development of the Pearl River Delta region. With the recent development of cross-boundary facilities and infrastructure, Hong Kong would be better connected with the Pearl River Delta and with the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Quality Living Area. The Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta region will surely develop into a Megalopolis in the 21st century.

The 55th Anniversary Conference aimed to explore the development of Megalopolis and its components – the architecture with particular reference to Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta region and other similar developments in the world.

“Green” is often all about design, choice of material, equipment and systems, construction… usually in view of obtaining a green certification for your building (LEED or the local “3-star” label).  In China even more than anywhere else, buyers love technology-based solutions, which seem to solve all problems by simply getting the right piece of equipment. In terms of actual savings in operation, the effect has however been less than satisfactory.

Experience shows that the best green technology and a green label are no guarantee of efficiency. Surveys conducted in the West show that 30% of LEED-certified buildings consume more energy than the average buildings… Although no survey has been done in China, the situation is likely to be even worse in a market, where maintenance is particularly lacking.

Actual performance often differs from the initial design projections. Let’s take a look at a few examples of buildings in China. Read more on Green Buildings Turned Brown…

The Hong Kong Design Institute Building has won its architect several awards but its concept is a simple as a blank sheet of paper.

Four thousand students will decend on Tsuen Wan in Hong kong as the new design centre.  Their centre for learning is an architecturally award winning building, the commission of which was also the subject of a design competition of 162 teams from 23 countries. The winning design is based around the concept of a blank piece of paper, held aloft on four fingers of a hand.

Rather than the usual approach of creating a poduim sunk beneath high-rise towers, in the HKDI the image is inverted with a ‘floating poduim’ sitting several stories up, creating an umbrella of the space beneath for exhibitions, events and, importantly for Hong Kong, public space. The building is not an obstacle, instead it is a natural gathereing point and thoroughfare for people, ideas and the breeze.

Architect Thomas Coldefy of Coldefy and Associates, a firm started by Thomas’  father in 1984, “has a passion to help introduce low carbon living to Asia Pacific”. As such despite the brief not mentioning any environmental requirements, he was keen to develop his programme to be as green as possible.  He belives that part of an architect’s duty is to educate, inform and influence clients, particularly in low-tech green solutions.   Read more on A Blank Canvas…

2011年第四季度全球銀主盤預期供應上升，但需求緩和。巴西、葡萄牙及香港的需求呈下降趨勢

RICS季度全球銀主盤監測調查報告解讀全球25個商業房地產市場的發展趨勢。「銀主盤」是指喪失了抵押品贖回權或由抵押權人發佈廣告出售的房產。「銀主盤」的售價通常低於其市場價值。如果一個國家市場的銀主盤數量不斷上升可被視為是一個消極經濟指標；反之數量下調，則意味著經濟呈現復蘇勢頭。

在這一季度，中國的銀主盤投資者需求量依舊遠超於供應量，繼續維持12個月前開始的趨勢。雖然在第三季度，投資者需求略微適度，但是仍然維持在極大的正值中。展望未來，在短期內，銀主盤的供應量將以類同第二季度的速度下降，淨平均值從-20提高到-18。儘管近期出現了關於房地產部門消極的情況，但是商業部門仍然對其維持良好的支撐。根據最新的RICS全球銀主盤監測調查報告，房產專家預期租用和資本價值在未來幾個月中會持續上升。

中國分會主席李旭先生表示:「今年下半年，中國政府進一步加緊了房地產部門的貨幣調控，多數銀行對房地產削減了貸款並且實施了調控以確保融資。同時，一些物業產權化和上市的專案被凍結，大陸的房地產市場投資量持續下降。儘管政府加緊了房地產市場的調控，但是為了中國經濟的增長而且要比西方國家更強，因此我們並不希望在下一年看到銀主盤銷售增長。」

來自主要房地產市場的房產專家表示，2011年第四季度全球銀主盤預期供應量上升。 值得注意的是，在受訪的60%的國家中，淨平均值顯示其供大於求。這與第二季的約40%形成了對比。

話雖如此，卻仍有希望。2011年第四季度巴西、俄羅斯、中國、加拿大和香港的銀主盤需求量預計收縮，而在馬來西亞和捷克共和國的投資者需求好轉，與上一季相比其淨平均值分別從-13上升至+29和-7上升至+5。

RICS 香港分會外事務及公共關注委員會會員關樂平表示：「香港銀主盤市道與全球趨勢略有分別，現時全港僅有50至60個銀主盤盤源，在第三季度內數量仍持續減少，源於樓價仍未有急跌迹象，未會引發銀主盤供應激增。但是近月二手成交淡靜，估計將於半年後方有明顯影響。」

區域重點
印度
印度房產專家表示在這一季度，雖然淨平均值從+51下降至+20，但是投資者興趣卻上升，預示需求量上升速度較緩。雖然與第二季度的速度相比稍微放緩，但供應量預期水準將在第四季度持續上升。

俄羅斯
與上一季度的趨勢相反，在第三季度，特別基金的需求量水準下降，其淨平均值跌入負值（與上一季度相比，從+17下降至-3）。根據調查顯示，雖然與之前相比，速度更為緩慢，但銀主盤的可利用率在第四季度依舊預期下降。

英國
第四季度的銀主盤水準較上一季度有所好轉。迄今為止，銀主盤已受到有效控制，從而在較大範圍上將限制其對房地產價格的直接影響。

備註：
* 南歐： 義大利，西班牙，葡萄牙

淨平均值：淨平均值百分比計算方法——表示「上升」的接受調查者數量減去表示「下降」的受訪者數量。

關於調查報告：「RICS全球銀主盤監測調查報告」屬於「RICS全球商業房地產調查報告」系列之一。該份季度報告詳細解讀全球25個商業房地產市場中銀主盤的發展趨勢。受訪者在調查訪問中須比較2011年第二季度及2011年第三季度的形勢。本季度的調查報告收集了2011年9月23日前遞交的會員回應，並合併了以國家作單位的三個房地產類別 – 辦公室、零售及工業物業，代表整體商用物業市場的一個廣泛指標。

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