A ceremony was held on 19 December to mark the commencement of the MiC installation work for the new halls of residence located at Whitehead in Ma On Shan for students at City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

The construction of the new halls of residence is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, and residents are projected to move in by 2024, two years ahead of schedule. The halls will provide CityU students with top-class facilities that will greatly enrich student life and learning and will promote cultural diversity and nurture global citizens while at the same time addressing the acute shortage of hostel places experienced at CityU.

Officiating guests at the ceremony included Ms Winnie Ho Wing-yin, Secretary for Housing, HKSAR Government; Mr Lester Garson Huang, Council Chairman of CityU; Professor Way Kuo, CityU President; and Mr Gilbert Tsang, Executive Director, Gammon Construction Limited.

At the ceremony, Mr Huang said, “CityU attaches great importance to students leading a fulfilling hall life.” He added that with a shorter construction time, more students would have the opportunity to experience an enriched hall life sooner than expected.

Ms Ho believes that the MiC technique is changing Hong Kong’s construction industry. “The effort from the government alone is not enough. We also need the support from the industry and also clients with foresight like CityU under great leadership and pursuing this high productivity construction method,” she said, adding that she hopes Hong Kong will become a regional hub for MiC applications.

“CityU is a strong advocate for the idea of ‘excellence in both academics and sports’, and the new hostel at Whitehead will offer ample opportunities for our students to learn and research and relax through sports, plus mixing with other young people from all over the world,” said President Kuo.

In his address, Mr Tsang expressed that Gammon Construction was pleased to take part in this student hostel project, the world’s largest one using modular integrated construction (MiC), calculated by the number of bed places.

MiC refers to modules, or units, assembled in the factory and then transported to a project site where they are installed as part of the construction process. This approach to building accelerates the construction project and leaves a much smaller carbon footprint.

The student hostel will offer a healthy mix of learning, recreation and sports space. There will be six halls with over 100 single rooms and over 1,000 double rooms, providing more than 2,000 bed places for CityU’s undergraduates and postgraduates, significantly reducing the shortage that CityU is currently experiencing.