Objective

Subtropical regions are urbanizing rapidly as climate risks intensify, creating an urgent need for climate-resilient, low-carbon, and health-oriented building and urban solutions. Establishing the Hong Kong Base for the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building and Urban Science (SKL-SBUS) leverages Hong Kong’s unique role as both a challenging real-world testbed and a gateway to wider impact across the world. High-rise compact cities concentrate people, assets, and critical infrastructure; thus, targeted advances in standards, operational efficiency, and risk management can generate outsized gains in climate security, emissions reduction, public health, and productivity. The Hong Kong Base’s distinctive strength lies in its integration of architecture and urban science, enabling coordinated innovation across design, materials, structures, environmental performance, sensing, modelling, and governance. The Hong Kong Base will advance subtropical building and urban science through high-quality collaborative research across four themes, supported by signature forums and conferences that position Hong Kong as a regional knowledge and innovation hub. It will coordinate joint grant applications anchored in Hong Kong and GBA, targeting major competitive schemes including the MoST, NSFC, RGC, and ITF, among others. In teaching and training, the Base will establish joint taught postgraduate and executive programs, complemented by recurring summer school and related initiative. Through long-term industry partnerships, it will translate research into practical tools, workflows, and benchmarks for real-world adoption.