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LettersHeat resilience should be baked into buildings across Hong Kong

Readers discuss heat-resilient building design as public health policy, and how to better safeguard teachers’ and students’ well-being

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A rooftop farm at Metroplaza in Kwai Fong in 2022. High-rise developments should prioritise operable windows and sky gardens to ease vertical heat accumulation. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Letters
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Deadly record-breaking heatwaves are no longer sporadic news events. Sustained high temperatures across Europe and Southeast Asia have triggered heat illnesses and fatalities. Hong Kong faces the same threat: the Observatory has recorded a steady rise in extremely hot days and sweltering nights. Our city’s dense tower blocks create urban canyons that trap heat, making many buildings stifling each summer. The burden falls disproportionately on vulnerable groups – elderly singletons, people with chronic conditions, and low-income households living in poorly ventilated subdivided flats.

It is important to recognise the authorities have launched a comprehensive suite of climate adaptation initiatives, including long-term climate projections, green building certification, mandatory landscaping for new developments, blue-green drainage infrastructure and public housing retrofits.

These measures form a solid foundation, yet deep-seated structural challenges remain which cannot be resolved by the government alone. Hong Kong’s massive ageing building stock lacks passive thermal protection; private property upgrades are hampered by fragmented ownership, funding constraints and technical barriers.

Our uniquely compact urban layout also complicates natural ventilation at neighbourhood level. Progress demands joint efforts from government departments, built-environment practitioners, property managers and communities to embed heat resilience from the planning stage, rather than relying on emergency heat alerts and medical support.

Over-reliance on air conditioning creates a vicious cycle. Surge demand strains power grids during heat peaks, while waste heat from air conditioners intensifies the urban heat island effect. Passive cooling architecture offers a sustainable alternative. Green and cool roofs, external shading, insulated facades and well-designed natural ventilation substantially reduce indoor heat gain. High-rise developments should prioritise operable windows and sky gardens to ease vertical heat accumulation. Simple, low-cost retrofits such as external sun screens and communal ceiling fans can rapidly improve thermal conditions in older buildings.

Heat resilience criteria should be integrated into green building standards, backed by thermal modelling for extreme heat scenarios. Extreme heat represents a mounting public health threat. Heat-resilient building design is not merely an environmental goal, but equitable public health policy. Through cross-sector collaboration on embedding thermal protection into new construction and targeted retrofits, Hong Kong can safeguard its most vulnerable residents well before heat warnings are issued.

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