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COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Sustainable Infrastructure
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsc.2025.1553276
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Role of Construction in Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals View all 4 articles
Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) as a Development Strategy for Post-COVID Urban Sustainability: the Case of Hong Kong
Provisionally accepted- Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) suggest a broader concept of health as the focus of development, i.e., economic growth to take into account of the health and wellbeing of a diversity of people included by age, gender, ability, ethnicity, economic status, region, and generation. With this understanding, a city's development strategy should aim for win-win solutions for the broadest inclusion of people. The global pandemic has caused world economic recession and rising geopolitical tensions, but also the opportunity of digitalization and economic restructuring for more sustainable solutions. This study aims to explore sustainability solutions for the Hong Kong government under this situation, with particular reference to strategic choices related to construction. The Hong Kong government initiated the modular integrated construction (MiC) project delivery model, embedded in a cross-border supply chain, as a major strategy for industrialization of construction, enabled by an updated institutional infrastructure and growing digital capabilities. On this basis, MiC will gain more market share in construction project businesses, necessitating closer regional collaboration. The MiC model is set to create a pathway towards participation in the carbon market and a gateway connecting green construction project activities with the eligibility for green fund.
Keywords: modular integrated construction (MiC)1, Sustainability2, digital capability3, institutional infrastructure4, green finance5, carbon market6
Received: 30 Dec 2024; Accepted: 06 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jia, Zhang and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jianfu Shen, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
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