Coronavirus: How Hong Kong opened a new hospital in record time to strengthen the city’s pandemic fight

Opening just months after construction started, the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre provides 816 isolation beds for Covid-19 patients

‘The time pressure was something that I had never experienced’, says architect leading the project

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Winnie Ho (centre) with staff from the Architectural Services Department that she leads. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 9:30am, 11 May 2021Updated: 9:52am, 11 May 2021

The colossal task of designing and building a temporary hospital in record time to care for Hong Kong’s Covid-19 patients was one of the most challenging projects government architect Winnie Ho Wing-yin had undertaken.

The North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre – equipped with 816 isolation beds for people with mild Covid-19 symptoms – opened in late February following five months of construction, after it was commissioned during the city’s third wave of infections last summer.

Rapid progress was only possible through harnessing new design software and communications technology, said Ho, director of the Architectural Services Department.

While the scale and complexity of completing the temporary facility were the same as that involved with a typical hospital in architectural terms, the time constraints were unique, she added.

“We only had a very short amount of time for what was a great emergency. We had to provide the facilities as soon as possible to help Hong Kong, so every day counted. The time pressure was something that I had never experienced,” she said in a recent interview.

Even the quickest architectural projects that she typically encountered took at least a year to complete, she added.

The six-ward facility was constructed between September 2020 and January this year under a fast-track process to provide relief to hospitals squeezed by the rising number of coronavirus cases. It opened its doors on February 26.

It can provide patients with oxygen supply and antiviral medication, but is designed for people exhibiting relatively mild symptoms. Those suffering a deterioration in their condition can be moved to the city’s major hospitals.