On October 26th, the Innovation For Urbanization Challenge (I4U challenge)—When architectural design meets Internet of Everything, held its first major competition, the Urbanackathon.
The competition aimed to encourage cross-border innovation, explore the application of intelligent IoT technologies in architectural design through the dialogue between IoT and the urban architectural environment, promote the development of intelligent buildings, and create comfortable, convenient, environmentally friendly and interactive architectural space.
The challenge provided a platform for industry enthusiasts and professionals to showcase their capabilities and experience in the application of intelligent IoT technology, think about how to improve the operation and management of existing buildings in the Lee Gardens area in Hong Kong, and bring more possibilities to the space.
Sponsored by B4B Limited, participants from different industries formed 14 teams for the competition. The event’s main sponsors also included Ronald Lu & Partners, Paul Y. Engineering, ENEURON, and Hysan who Development Co. Ltd., who provided a briefing and judged the competition.
1 Opening Speech
Mr. Francois Lee addressed the opening ceremony on behalf of the organizers. Representatives of the main sponsors, Ronald Lu & Partners, Paul Y. Engineering, ENEURON and Hysan Development Co. Ltd., also spoke at the event, wishing the Urbanackathon a great success.
Mr. Francois Lee, B4B Limited ▲
Bryant Lu，Ronald Lu & Partners ▲
AlvinWong，Paul Y. Engineering▲
Ben Liu， ENEURON ▲
Mark Tung，Hysan Development Co. Ltd. ▲
2 Briefing
Next, the instructors provided in-depth explanation on the key points of “architectural design +IoT” in various fields to the participants.
Ronald Lu & Partners focused on four cases to showcase specific scenarios integrating IoT architectural design.
Leveraging its local intelligence and professional knowledge, Paul Y. Engineering provides customers with comprehensive one-stop construction services. It specializes in a wide range of civil engineering and building services projects. The services include three aspects of engineering, development and project management, and include concept planning, land procurement, asset appreciation, design, architecture, decoration engineering, and mechanical and electrical engineering, with the aim to overcome challenges faced by customers and help them achieve their goals.
ENEURON focuses on the building facilities and energy field. Taking into account the challenges in the operation and maintenance of building facilities, such as high risk of facilities failure, insufficient guarantee capacity of serviceability rate and heavy pressure in facilities operation, key data are output to support managers to carry out management changes and to guide decision-making through IoT, Cloud-Edge hybrid computing and AI. The solutions provide more authentic and reliable data services for building facility manufacturers, owners, operators, and supervisors.
Ms. Winne Wong from Hysan gave a detailed presentation on the historical evolution of Hysan Place at Lee Gardens, providing the teams clearer background information on the theme.
Finally, Ms. Jacqueline Yu from Ronald Lu & Partners, the main sponsor of the challenge, formally unveiled the four themes of the challenge: Retail area, Streetscape, Elevated open space, and Low-rise community. The competition officially began.
3 Start Working
In the afternoon, each team started making plans, and actively communicated and consulted with the onsite instructors. From traditional architectural design, to property management system, IoT building applications, intelligent cloud platform… people from different industries discussed and collaborated with each other, and it was an excellent exchange and learning opportunity for both the participants and guests. After the 7-hour time limit, each team submitted their works and left the competition site.
This URBANACKTHON is only the first step of this challenge. Next, the organizers will score and select the top 8 teams according to the works submitted by the competitors. On November 2, the team will be invited for an on-site interview to select the next round of top 8 teams. Please continue to pay attention to more exciting content.
