Awards and Recognitions

The Hong Kong Institute of Architectural Conservationists (HKICON) Conservation Awards are awards dedicated to the recognition of professionals in the field of architectural conservation. The awards recognise architectural conservationists for achieving excellence in conservation projects in Hong Kong.

Central Market is appreciated for its efforts to conserve a reinforced concrete building in the sub-tropical climate of Hong Kong, which extends its physical life as well as showcasing solutions for the conservation of similar buildings in Hong Kong. With its ambitious public engagement activities, the project revives a local landmark for Hong Kong reinstating a place of collective memory for public use.

In driving the “Smart Urban Renewal” work, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) decided to build a Geographic Information System (GIS) based system, named “Urban Renewal Information System” (URIS) and embarked on the journey to become a data-driven organisation with an IT-savvy workforce.  A dedicated training plan with a series of customised in-house training programmes was implemented to support the development of URIS, sharpen our staff’s mindset for change and groom them to become Location Intelligence talents.

Nurturing our staff is one of the missions of the Urban Renewal Authority (URA). We developed our own all-in-one enterprise learning management and knowledge exchange platform to safeguard URA’s critical knowledge and unique project experience, enrich staff’s learning experience and automate the training administration for better operational efficiency.  The Learning Platform was launched during the COVID-pandemic period, offering a flexible and effective learning experience for all staff regardless of their work locations.

With the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) developed the Urban Renewal Information System (URIS) in 2019 to improve the organization's capability to process and analyze planning information and spatial data, facilitating the implementation of the "planning-led" direction in urban renewal. The award recognizes the outstanding performance of URA in applying and practicing GIS. Specifically, URIS utilizes GIS technology to improve URA's ability to process and analyze planning and geospatial data in order to better support the implementation of urban renewal initiatives.

Carrying the mission of bringing new life into the historic buildings, surveyors of URA are determined to showcase a sustainable leasing project by incorporating conservation elements and social values into business. The legacy of 618 Shanghai Street is first introduced with illustrations of four core character defining elements including streetscape and architectural merits that make the shophouses the talk of the town. The conservation-cum-revitalisation project has given new life to the last remaining Cantonese verandah cluster in Hong Kong, allowing local residents, different generations of other districts and visitors to have their footprints and stories told at 618 Shanghai Street to which we all belong.