URA encourages young people to unleash innovative spirit to help achieve ageing in place for elderly in old districts

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has been collaborating with the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE) and Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI), both under the Vocational Training Council (VTC), to co-organise an Innovative Design Competition for three years.  This year’s competition, with the theme of “Smart Living for Elderly”, aims to encourage tertiary students to unleash their creativity and apply the knowledge acquired in schools to create devices for use in residential flats or building designs that can help achieve “ageing in place”, thereby fostering an elderly-friendly living environment and a sustainable community.

As the Government’s latest social-distancing measures are still in force in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the URA organised the Final Adjudication cum Award Ceremony on 28 July 2020 in the form of a web conference, enabling the contesting student teams to present their entries and participate in the Ceremony with the assistance of technology.

Having considered the URA’s efforts in taking several redevelopment projects in To Kwa Wan in recent years to rejuvenate the overall environment of the old district as well as enhancing the living quality of residents, the competition of this year aimed to promote among the participating students the thorough understanding of the living conditions of elderly people in the old districts. The participants were hence required to study the old districts in To Kwa Wan and employ their innovative thinking and professional knowledge learned from schools to submit proposals that could improve the environment of old areas and enhance the living quality of elderly.

Kicked off in April 2020, the competition invited participation from higher diploma students of the engineering and architectural design programmes of IVE and HKDI. The URA presented, through multimedia means such as presentation slideshows, videos and photos, the living conditions of elderly in To Kwa Wan in the context of the community environment including the building issues, hygiene and road system, enabling the students to familiarise with the different subjects of urban renewal and elderly's needs from multiple perspectives.

On 3 July 2020, nine entries out of twenty-four submissions were shortlisted for the Final Adjudication by an adjudication panel formed by URA and VTC representatives. The award winners were then decided by the members of the Final Adjudication Panel, including URA Non-Executive Director Mr Andy Ho, VTC Deputy Executive Director Ir Dr Eric Liu, and URA Managing Director Ir Wai Chi-sing, based on a variety of criteria covering technical feasibility, creativity, application of smart concepts and sustainable living designs.

Mr Andy Ho remarked at the ceremony, “I am pleased to see the empathy demonstrated by the students with the residents in old areas and that they employed their subject knowledge and grasp of technology to help improve the living environment of elderly in old districts. I hope that everyone can keep on making use of your creativity and empathy to bring benefits to our society in the future.”

Ir Dr Eric Liu said, “This competition, being held for the third year, saw improvements in students’ entries in terms of technical feasibility and practicality, creativity, and application of smart concepts. To facilitate the sustainable development of community, we need young students to devote efforts in understanding and attending to the needs of various community stakeholders. I look forward to the students deepening their understanding of our communities and designing more and better products to help people in need.”

Ir Wai Chi Sing commended the participants, “I am glad to see that in the situation of pandemic, the students can overcome the difficulties encountered in the course of the competition with a positive and proactive mentality. I hope you can hold a positive and innovative spirit to solve problems in your future job position and make contributions to society.”

New Graduates of the Higher Diploma in Civil Engineering programme of IVE (Tsing Yi), Chow Wai-keung, Tsang Chung-chung and Chan Leung-kwan, were awarded the “Gold Award”, “Smartest Design Award” and “Best Model/Digital Presentation Award” by their entry “U-trap Refill Automator”. The students noticed that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government advised the public to pour water into the U-traps of drain outlets of the flat weekly to reduce the risk of the spread of virus from entering into the indoor areas through drainage pipes. However, for those elderly who were forgetful or in poor health condition, repeatedly filling water into the U-traps on a weekly basis could be a difficult task for them.  By applying smart technology to assist the elderly to enhance home hygiene, the students created a device that can monitor the water level in the U-traps while refilling water automatically when the contained water is insufficient.  The team’s representative Chow Wai-keung said after the Award Ceremony, “We are delighted to have this device created successfully. We will continue improving its design with an aim to put the prototype into practice and promote to residential flats for real-life use, hence helping needy elderly and residents to safeguard themselves from the spread of virus.”

To encourage the student team to further improve the design of the “U-trap Refill Automator”' for application in actual home environment, the URA will provide flat units from its properties for them to conduct field tests for the prototypic device. Depending on the research and development outcome, the URA would study the feasibility of adopting the device in its properties or becoming a standard provision of future redevelopment projects to enhance living quality through the use of technology.

Photos of the winning entries and events of this year’s competition are available at the Facebook Page of the URA (www.facebook.com/URAmity). Members of the public are welcome to visit and enjoy the excellent creations of the participating students.

Event schedule of “Smart Living for Elderly” Innovative Design Competition 2019/20

Winner list of “Smart Living for Elderly” Innovative Design Competition 2019/20

(ENDS)