1. Emerging Areas School of Architecture

2. Current Research Strengths 1. Green Building, Environmental and Sustainable Design, and Urban Climatology for City Planning 2. Centre for Architectural Heritage Research, with focus on historic architecture of Hong Kong

3. Emerging Area of Thought Leadership Innovation through Integration: Inside the Production Chain of Architecture Traditional separation of construction and manufacturing in the building industry Innovation through integration inside production chain of architecture Potential and value of technological integration Professors try to integrate the construction and manufacturing through systematic invention and excellent design (1) How to redefine the building production chain? how to create links, manage and improve the production chain? (2) In the context of globalization and concerns for sustainability, how can a design school lead the local building industry to keep processing?

4. Details 01 Basic research areas involved: Light-weight building systems, total design method, principles of integrating structure and space Research applications involved: specialised product development, customized prefabrication, adaptability testing, compatibility testing, management and integration of production chain, BIM tools Knowledge-transfer and large-scale applications : post-disaster reconstruction, nature conservation, rural construction, urban commerce Grants and other funding (2008-2015): about 15 million HKD. 14 built works as on-going experimental instruments Multiple parameters of performance, surprising technical parameters, & significant low-cost attributes.

5. Details 02 Works located in 6 provinces in the Mainland China and Kenya in Africa. Works in 5 different climate zones, the wide adaptability gets revealed, and large amount of data has been accumulated. Extremes: one construction is remote 8000 km away and one is on a 4000m- high arctic plateau Network has grown to a 9-person team, collaborating with 4 external research partner universities and more than 20 collaborating factories. PhD graduate 1, two current PhD students, and two new courses generated. Nearly 30 papers and design projects published, exhibited in 5 universities, and 4 research papers from master graduates in other universities. 7 awards, with various kinds of impact (professional, technological and social) Invited to give lectures in universities in Japan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria. Japanese researchers is making on-site project survey.

6. Strategies to develop, support, and sustain this emerging area Extend existing working methods to heavy construction, testing more innovative possibilities. Promote inter-school cooperation, specifically to overcome local CUHK limitations in respect of structural and manufacturing aspects Organize intra-school seminar series, to promote deeper and interdisciplinary discussions. Support team members to make more research applications and joint research, Recruit new staff members with overseas research and publishing experience, strengthening international publishing and promotion. Seed funding and logistical support for international exhibitions and conferences. Assistance for seeking sponsors for establishing research center.

7. Strategies to increase international visibility of research output Non-Chinese publishing, exhibition and research seminars International & multi-university summer real-construction programs.

8. Criteria and Measures for Tracking Research Achievements Research target: highly influential research reports, and presentations in top universities Social impact : care for the communities and areas in need, more media reports