Are our residential buildings healthy and safe? A survey in Hong Kong

Purpose – The most fundamental requirement of a habitable building is that its occupants can live in it healthily and safely. However, given the proliferation of building‐related accidents recently in Hong Kong, the extent to which our buildings have fulfilled this basic requirement is doubtful. For the benefit of the entire society, more public information on building quality is needed. Aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach – This paper extends the Ho et al. assessment model to evaluate the combined health and safety performance of residential buildings in Hong Kong. The model consists of a set of performance‐based objectives and can be translated into a hierarchy of parameters concerning the quality of building design, building management, and the surrounding environment. A total of 99 residential buildings in two urban areas, namely Mongkok and Tsimshatsui, were assessed with the help of a simple and user‐friendly performance indicator called the Building Quality Index (BQI).Findings –...