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Construction is one of the most important economic activities in Hong Kong, which accounts for around 4% of the gross domestic product in the city. With more and more buildings and infrastructure facilities being built to make Hong Kong an Asia’s World City, there is a strong and incessant demand for professional architects, civil engineers, building services engineers and surveyors to satisfy the local market needs. Construction professionals can also seize the opportunities generated by increasing urbanisation and the post-pandemic economic recovery plans around the world.

Hong Kong is at the forefront of architecture, civil engineering, building services engineering and surveying, as evidenced by the modern skyscrapers, world-class airport, efficient transportation network, revolutionary cavern service reservoirs and sewerage treatment facilities, and green buildings, just to name a few. In recent years, the architecture and civil engineering sector has brought in a series of technologies to improve the smartness, sustainability and performance of the construction industry and built facilities. Examples of these include the building information modelling, geographic information system, virtual reality, drone, lidar, 3D printing, internet-of-things, artificial intelligence, robotics, modular integrated construction, etc. The education sector has the responsibility to equip our future leaders with an innovative mindset and life-long learning skill to ensure they remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment.

The Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong is unique in Hong Kong, as we offer a broad spectrum of construction-related programmes, from architecture to civil engineering, building services engineering (or architecture engineering) and surveying, within a single department. With this advantage, students are not only able to acquire professional knowledge of their chosen discipline of study (e.g. architecture), but they can also interact with students of other programmes (e.g. civil engineering) to broaden their horizon. The interdisciplinary knowledge and team working ability have made our graduates very sought after in the construction industry.

While innovation, professionalisation and revitalisation are at the core of the construction industry in future, our Department strives to integrate the latest research and technological findings into teaching, create various opportunities for students to interact with the industry and successful professionals through internship and mentorship schemes, and support students to take part in exchange programmes and overseas study tours to improve their international exposure, and nurture talents to become young inventors and entrepreneurs.

With our mission of ‘Meeting the World’s Challenges: Build Tomorrow, Create the Future’, I am sure that students would find studying or conducting research in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering exciting and rewarding.