Hysan Place sets new heights for environmental protection

Causeway Bay will be home to the greenest building in the city when redevelopment of the old Mitsukoshi department store is completed next year.

Mitsukoshi and the Hennessy Centre, which housed the store at 500 Hennessy Road, are long gone, closed in 2006 and knocked down. Their replacement, Hysan Place, is the first building in Hong Kong to be pre-certified for the platinum, or top, rating from the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) organisation. It has also won the top rating from the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method.

Although there is a confusingly large number of green-rating agencies, not all are members of the supervisory World Green Building Council.

The LEED standards, though, are highly respected and the basis of systems developed in China and India. The top rating for Hysan Place came as a result of a design by developer Hysan Development Co and architects Kohn Pedersen Fox.

The design incorporates 'urban windows' -gaps in the lower floors of the building- to reduce the wall effect notorious in many new Hong Kong neighbourhoods. That should improve air flow and reduce the heat trapped by the 40-storey structure. Plants will add a green touch.

The building will also feature louvres designed to open and close, allowing more natural lighting and low-emission glazing to ward off strong sunlight. Vents in the curtain wall are part of a natural facade that allow air to flow through the building.