Ada Fung

Ada Fung

Role: Chairperson Hong Kong

Where do you live? Hong Kong SAR, China

Work history: I am an Architect by profession. I joined the Hong Kong Housing Authority since 1984, until I retired in end 2017 as Deputy Director of Housing, supervising all facets of public housing development to provide affordable housing for around 45% of the 7.5 million population in Hong Kong, driving continuous improvement and sustainability on all fronts.

How long have you been involved in openBIM and buildingSMART?

In quest for integrating BIM and GIS, I was first introduced to the use of IFC in 2010, and it worked!  It was not until December 2018, when I first attended buildingSMART International’s Standards Summit in Tokyo. This gave me the impetus to drive openBIM in Hong Kong.

What do you like the most about your work in your chapter?

I am proud of my passion to bring together our three Founding Members to establish the Chapter within a few months’ time. It was a miracle. Our three Founding Members are:

  • Hong Kong Institute of Building Information Modelling (HKIBIM);
  • Hong Kong Institute of Civil and Building Information Management (HKICBIM); and
  • Hong Kong Geographic Information System Association (HKGISA).

These three organisations comprised a total of over 1,700 members from a full spectrum of professions. We established Hong Kong Alliance of Built Asset & Environment Information Management Associations (HKABAEIMA) in September 2019, and then we got admitted as the Hong Kong Chapter of buildingSMART International in October 2019.

The greatest success achieved within your chapter?

We foster collaboration and overcome challenges to promote the use of openBIM..

Within a couple of months since establishment, more than 35 organisations had joined us as corporation, society or education members. We build rapport with our vision to foster societal collaboration for smarter information management across built asset and environment, and to enable full benefits from digital ways of working in the built asset industry.

In face of challenges posed by coronavirus, we had drastically adjusted our action plan for 2020. We hosted a special webinar to mark the opening of our “Virtual Training Centre” with more than 600 attendees, and thereafter we conducted openBIM webinars regularly, proactively shared experience, facilitated the active use and dissemination of open data standards in lifecycle processes.

What does openBIM mean to you?

OpenBIM means “open opportunities” to enable reliable, sharable project information to support seamless collaboration amongst all project participants, with a view to improving the value achieved from investments in built asset and enhancing opportunity for growth and sustainability.

What is the biggest challenge the community is facing today?

One of the biggest challenges is to facilitate successful exchange of built asset information at all stages of the complicated workflow throughout the entire supply chain, and enhance communication throughout the whole lifecycle of asset. Challenges also lie within the development of openBIM standards and the role of interoperability.

What challenges do you encounter in your country?

Insufficient expertise, compliance driven mindset, limited collaboration throughout the supply chain are major challenges. Smaller projects and organizations have limited knowledge and resources to practice BIM technology.

What are the main opportunities for your market?

The BIM community is constantly growing in Hong Kong with the strong support of Construction Industry Council (CIC) and is increasingly paying more attention to openBIM. The HKABAEIMA not only serves as the Hong Kong Chapter of bSI, but also forms a platform in Hong Kong to gather all experts and professionals in built asset and environment information management for sharing their experience and collaborating to develop cross-discipline information flow for better integration of the use of information within our built asset and environment industry and to drive digital transformation in line with global development.

Digitalization is more and more present today; what do you do in your chapter to meet the challenges it poses:

Thanks to the corona virus, and we have been seeing an acceleration in the pace of digitalisation across different sectors in the recent months. We need to work smarter and faster too. The Chapter will promote and advance the general education, understanding, appreciation and interest of and in built asset and environment information modelling and management by conducting more training for practitioners and publics and will also establish and advance standards of built asset and environment information management practices in the industry.

What vision, as a chapter leader, would you give to the whole community?

As a chapter leader, I would uphold  buildingSMART’s vision, which is “the full realisation of the societal, environmental and economic benefits of open sharable infrastructure and building asset information into commercial and institutional processes worldwide”, also bearing in mind Patrick MacLeamy’s motto that “IFC has another meaning, which is ‘International Friendship Club’ for the whole community”.

What is your overall vision of the future?

Our overall vision is to foster societal collaboration for smarter information management across built asset and environment.  The scope includes all man-made asset in the built environment, as well as all the natural environment on Planet Earth, embracing Sustainable Development Goals promulgated by the United Nations.

Would you like to add something else?

Our Core Values: Bold, Accountable, Embracing, Inclusive, Motivational and Agile.

Our mission:

(a) Industry level: to connect information management communities across built asset and environment industries;

(b) Society level: to serve society by building capacity, sharing experience and enabling information exchange;

(c) Global level: to drive digital transformation in line with global development.

Our Chapter is proud to be part of the family of bSI. Our core values are in keeping with the commitment of bSI “to improve the built asset industry during a transformative age through innovative and agile standards and solutions” (bSI Chairman, Mr. Patrick MacLeamy).

Website URL: http://www.hkabaeima.org

LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hkabaeima

Twitter URL: NIL

Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/HKABAEIMA/

Resumé:

Ar. Ada FUNG is the Founding President of the Hong Kong Alliance of Built Asset and Environment Information Management Associations, cum Chairperson of Hong Kong Chapter of bSI.  She is the Chairperson of Committee on BIM of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Council (CIC). Ada has over 33 years’ of experience in development of affordable housing in Hong Kong. She is an active member in the Architectural field as well as in the construction industry. She been serving numerous not-for-profit organisations in civil society straddling various sectors including construction, logistics and supply chain, smart city etc. Ada is President of Lighthouse Club (HK).. Ada is Board Secretary (2019/20) and Director (2018-2020) of the World Green Building Council, and Director of Hong Kong Green Building Council (2014-2019). She is Past President of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (2013 - 2014), Past Chairperson of the APEC Architect Monitoring Committee of Hong Kong (2012/13 - 2015/16), and Past Chairperson of the Architects Registration Board (2010/11 - 2011/12).