This project was done in collaboration with Paul Y. Construction and Paul Y. – iMax to assist the Hong Kong government in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

As one of Hong Kong’s pilot cases for Modular Integrated Construction (MiC), it set the city’s record by using only 77 days to design and build three blocks of three-storey temporary quarantine facilities from scratch. Based on the concept ‘factory assembly followed by on-site installation’, free-standing integrated modules are fabricated, finished and inspected in the factory before being transported to the site in the mini soccer pitch of Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre for installation.

Every building consists of 33 temporary units, making up a total of 99, all with their own toilets and connected through steel staircases and open-air corridors. A single corridor design was adopted to contain virus spread. All corridors are placed at the front of the buildings and the bathroom vents at the back. The blocks are arranged front-to-front or back-to-back to ensure a clear divide of ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ air.

LWK + PARTNERS is one of Hong Kong’s first architectural firms to adopt MiC. In 2019, it worked with Paul Y. – iMax on an MiC installation system which secured ‘pre-acceptance’ from Hong Kong’s Buildings Department, providing critical technological foundations for this project.

Photo credit: Paul Y. – iMax