By John Lam Building Technology • Design 0 Comments

Boundaryless collaboration to turn state-of-art Architecture design into “down-to-earth” reality solution

In a highly congested urban context, how can a building stand out from the backdrop and become memorable ? There are strategies such as a practical internal layout, modern interior design and impressive building facade. Since buildings are usually arrayed in highly dense urban areas, the building facade becomes the first impression and first touch in many metropolitan cities. To create a distinct impression in international city likes Hong Kong, the architectural design created by powerful multi-cultural collaboration is the bespoke element underpinning the design solution.  

It is to the benefit of future users, landlords and every stake-holder of the development when the building is positioned and presented in the right site, right angle, right context and right location. To gear the architectural design toward practicality rich solutions, a down-to-earth technical analysis becomes profoundly important. K.P.D.O + GBE like many leading edge internationally award-accredited architects, believes a good balance of design, usage, layout, cost, and site features are essential to the development.

Grateful and thankful to collaborate, rather than presenting a simple yield diagram, K.P.D.O.+GBE. presented an aspirational solution showing the full site potential. K.P.D.O+GBE has analysed the details, negated technical deal breakers and prepared a sensible and approvable layout for the future user’s consideration. The turn-around for these are 6 days only. This assignment showcases and highlights our strong ability to find additional value whilst producing distinctive and memorable architecture.

 

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Technology • Uncategorized • 0 Comments

“Loose of Neutral” in Electrical Circuit in traditional expensive residential apartment

The night scene of Hong Kong is always representing the prosperity and the stunning pictorial attraction for many people . The backdrop of the night scenery is the densely packed high-rise buildings being lit up.

With the air-conditioning became introduced in Hong Kong , some traditional luxury residential development was designed with 3 phases supply to cope with the loading consumption

Effect of Neutral Loss and Over-heat

The 3-phased live wiring is pairing with the neutral wire. The power runs into your apartment through “live” and return through “neutral . There is a defect called “nentral loose” which means the neutral wire loose contact or in bad connection. If there is “neutral loose” , that may be caused by various reasons, there will be abnormal arcing around the point of connection, a flash phenomena or spake fire will be occurred from time to time to heat up the already loose connection point and adversely causing unpredictable loading of electric current passing through the entire circuit. This circuit connects the load side appliance such as air-conditioners, the electronic parts or protection fuses of these electrical appliances may be damaged.

Inspection by Infra-red scanning and WR 2 checking

Unfortunately, it was not always detectable the abnormal heat up around the connection point . I prefer to adopt the infrared thermography scanning technique in my project or my inspection. However, the electrician today prefer to do by visual inspection which in my view may be subjective in some occasion. Our in-house infra-red is E4 model from FLIR. This is not the latest model, but still fit to our general routine checking.

 

 

 

By Candy Yip Building Law • Design • • • • 0 Comments

Structural Appraisal to the Loading Case in Yuen Long Premise

When I was an undergraduate in Building Surveying, I learned from many textbooks that the structural design process usually starting with the loading assumption. This assumption is presented by outlining different loading cases. In simplicity terms, some loading cases are what we called UDL while some are point load.

Example of UDL

Example of point Load 

When we deepen the idea of loading further, there are generally three types of load including dead loads, live loads, and wind loads. Dead loads are due to the self-weight of the structure. Live loads consist of all the loads which are designated to be placed on the structure, For example, loads of people and furniture. This live load is strongly correlated to the usage and obviously the heavy-load machine will demand strong live load capacity.  Wind loads generally come from the pressure of wind acting on the structure.

Example of live load, dead load and wind load

In order to ensure safety and health for the built environment, Buildings Authority has enforced the Building (Construction) Regulations under HK CAP 123. There emphasizes the minimum imposed load or live load in our term for different usage. For instance, the distributed load for the domestic floor is designed as 2 kPa while the general restaurants are designed as 4 kPa. The structural design should follow this stipulated requirement to attain compliance.

 

Drifting down the river, the user of the structure, i.e. the occupier in the premises, may mis-sue or alternate the usage without carefully considering the designated live load. In our many Structural assessments.We noticed the occupier might have over-loaded the structure unintentionally or might have alternated the usage which exceeds the permissible live load.

 

In the situation like aforesaid said, the structural element itself may exhibit some undue behavior like the development of a huge crack on beam component or deformation. Adversely speaking, it is a very unfavorable observation because the structural damage may cause immutable damage to the elements. Sometimes, immediate propping or secondary support may be required to stop the damaging.

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Technology • Uncategorized 0 Comments

Acoustic performance in Curtain Wall

Curtain wall system is such a complex external envelope of the building . It is more than an enclosure but also to serve to reduce heat gain and sound proof. The evaluation of  heat gain is commonly considered by the amount thermal transfer in the energy unit. Nevertheless , lesser attention is given to the acoustic consideration . Thank to my friend Dr Man and our peers Lixil who shares me one table. The airborne acoustic reduction is considered by STC value which varies as per the glass panes composition and thickness of glass. STC is to measure the degree of decibel reduction. The reduction is further related to the hertz of sound transmission. For easy communication , each composition of glass panes will be assigned the STC value. The interesting observation is that the “laminated glass” is achieving similar STC value compared to similar glass panes thickness of “insulating glass unit”. Furthermore , A 12mm thick single panes can achieve similar STC value to 6+12+6 insulating glass unit. Indeed, there are more consideration to the curtain wall acoustic including the impact-borne sound transmission caused by impact to the mullion or transom . Sometimes, the provision of the noise barrier or the provision of the balcony projecting out from the external facade can help to reflect the unwanted sound such as traffic away.

 

By Ricky Chau Building Law 0 Comments

Expert Witness (Construction)

Acting as the “Expert witness” to offer expert opinions to the court is a very meaningful assignment for the building professionals. Nevertheless, the Expert should act impartially to provide his expertise and experience to the matter or direction given by the court.

Sometimes, the court discredits the weighting of expert witness opinion because the expert may cherry-pick on providing the expert analysis on the matters concerned.

”In Dr Chan’s report, he appended a number of “assessment” and “condition survey” reports (Reports) prepared by Wong & Cheng Consulting Engineers Limited (WC) for the Owners prior to the 2015 Order. The assessment/survey reports attached to an expert report were inadmissible on the basis that although leave had been given to adduce the expert report, it had not been given to adduce the assessment/survey reports attached to it. The Court pointed out that expert evidence is not only evidence of opinion, but also factual evidence which goes to an expert issue. ” (Expert reports within expert reports and the need for leave to adduce them – Deacon, 2019)

It is undeniable that the factual evidence and dispute could become the admissible opinion but not only the jargon words. As seasoned experts in the construction field, we adhere to the Code of Practices (COP) and construction standards, therefore we can provide reliable professional advice and expert witness testimony.

Dedicating to the construction assignment of “Expert witness” can showcase our superior knowledge and skill in the construction industry, and can also tackle the deadlock situation and bring to light in court.

Paramount importance is to assist the parties in approaching the fact of matters and hopefully the contesting parties can settle the disputes eventually.

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Technology • • • 0 Comments

Protect your roofing membrane

When I was a boy, I saw the construction worker at roof heating up the Asphalt block with very bad odour smell. Bituminous asphalt were usually applied in liquid form in row by row with some over-lapping at even interval spacing. Although this materials are proven to be very weather resistance and durable once after curing and set, it is not encouraged to use in new works as per the General Specification (ASD) Clause 12.50. With the advancement of technology , there are now coming with various type of ready-applied roofing felt and some type are even in spraying form.

Nevertheless, the typical defects like blistering of membrane, sagging of membrane, incorrect surface water fall , poor outlet details , lack of backing rod for sealant in expansion, add-on structure impairing the roofing are still prevailing. These are attributed to the poor workmanship, lack of inspection and inadequate design details consideration. Indeed, even though the defects exists , it does not mean we have to end the life of roofing by complete re-roofing. A more sensible way is to carry regular inspection and maintenance than to leave the roof undue long time unattended.

 

By John Lam Asset Enhancement • Building Law • Building Technology • Uncategorized • • 0 Comments

Coring the rock stratum engineering our pile foundation

Site investigation is a term to cover a lot of aspect about the site. For the Engineer in construction site, it means the process to find out the soil and rock condition. From the project management perspective, we see the most essence is whether the quality control system is working well in place . This control system involves sampling , inspection, recording and counter-check. Although the PNAP has imposed a lot of restrains in the site investigation, the entire controlling mechanism still heavily rely on the professional site staff. The sample taken will be inspected the the engineer. This inspection is to be fed back to the Designer to confirm the design assumption of piling coincide well to what happens on site. This is the feedback loop essentially important in the entire QA process.

I witness the coring process and I can say the coring of soil / rock is not a pleasant job. Sometimes, the sample was damaged in the process, sometimes, the sample was dropped in pieces. Thus , a good sampling and coring process did demand patience by labour, right machine set up, on-site engineer inspection and recording.

 

 

By John Lam Building Technology • 0 Comments

Surveying technique to the structural opening found in the RC beam

Professional Building Surveyors are always called on board to do structural survey. There is one situation where the RC beam is cored with the opening and this caused a lot of anxious to the occupier about its structural safety. Usually , the surveying to this kind of damaged structural elements are tricky and professional. It needs to review the original structural frame ; RC beam rebar details , slab thickness and the exact position of opening being formed on the beam section

Details of infrastructure – Construction worker hands securing steel bars with wire rod for reinforcement of concrete

Since the reinforced concrete beam is composed of the rebars configured in designated position to achieve different structural purpose, thus , the inspection to the opening . To ensure a complete and proper visual inspection to the rebar is in place , we adopt the endoscope to inspect also the inside view of the opening . It is to technically identify whether any rebar has been damaged. Also , it helps to ensure the opening was not backfilled with undesirable materials.


Once the visual inspection is done and recorded , we need to cross check with the original design and identify the fall-short and assess the physical damage. Sometimes, we need the input from Structural Design to advise the structural loading capacity effect from the physical damage

Since the portal frame can be either fixed joint or pin joint in nature , thus the beam may exhibit different bending moment . The opening formed on the beam may diminish much the bending moment capacity of beam if the opening were wrongly poised and erred sized

By John Lam Building Technology • 0 Comments

Maintenance Problem from “Party Wall” in Urban area

According to the Land Surveyor “Word Press” 16, Aug 2012 “by Edmond Cheung,  “Party wall” is the physical separating wall of two adjoining building. It functions to divides houses of two different owners buildings but the wall is in shared ownership. In the DEVB(PL-CR) 2/15-08 dated 29th Mar 2010,

A party wall is an integral element, and it is unlikely that half of the same can be removed with the other half remaining intact. Therefore, the removal of the party wall is subject to heavy control stated in Buildings Ordinance Cap 123. To the very least, the lot looking for removal of his own part of “party wall” must have the consent from the rest of owners of the “party wall”. To ensure the integrity of remaining half , we usually apply the structural strengthening by in the steel bracing bolted and mounted to the structural element of the building.

This remains of party wall structure , i.e usually the half of its original wall, becomes some maintenance issues attributed to the already aged cement mortar in brick and rusting of the steel bracing by weather. The steel members sometimes become rusty and decomposed to have lost its strength and also becomes bittle . This also creates the problem of water seepage through the bolt hole path to the interior space. Owners also need to aware that the thickness of party wall is GFA consumable. Since the problem of maintenance is impairing much the integrity of wall and also poses the water seepage problem , it is important to pay attention to it maintenance and to carry out routine inspection.

The steel bracing is bolted to the structural frame of the RC building and this bracing to strengthen the integrity of the “party wall”

By John Lam Uncategorized • 0 Comments

Revitalizing and unlock the potential in Asset

GBE <> KPDO is teammed to give a touch to turn around the simple corner becomes seductive and eye-catching art piece . Apart from aesthetic pleasure, the new architectural design regenerates the lobby and enables the vertical transportation to the podium levels. The capex and the technical-know-how are low and simple, but the magical effects is profoundly sharp.