Safety Draped in Style: GELEC’s Smoke Curtains at Skycity A3

Spanning approximately 25 hectares with a total gross floor area of about 350,000 square meters, Skycity is an effort to transform Hong Kong International Airport into a comprehensive Airport City. It is set to be a massive integrated development, featuring retail, dining, and entertainment (RDE) facilities, aiming to create a new destination for both international visitors and residents.

Skycity will feature an extensive array of international shops and restaurants, Hong Kong’s first indoor and outdoor karting track, cutting-edge interactive games, and much more. It will be the largest facility of its kind in the country.

Skycity Entertainment Group, the owners of Skycity, anticipates leveraging HKIA’s immense footfall of about 70 million passengers annually at this strategic location. That number is forecasted to balloon to up to 100 million by 2030.

To ensure the safety of its visitors and cement its status as a premier destination, Skycity is committed to installing only the top safety systems.

Integration of GELEC’s Smoke Curtain

For this, GELEC was commissioned to provide its highly efficient smoke and fire engineering solution, the Automatic Smoke Curtain. Known for its ability to contain scalding gases within an area, this state-of-the-art product is the perfect choice for Skycity’s safety and emergency system.

These smoke curtains are made from excellent heat-resistant materials and equipped with a gravity fail-safe system. This guarantees deployment even during power failures.

GELEC’s Automatic Smoke Curtains will compartmentalize various sections of a building during a fire, enabling occupants to evacuate safely. By creating a safer environment, these curtains help reduce panic and ensure orderly movement among visitors and staff.

Since GELEC’s Automatic Smoke Curtains are highly customizable to fit various architectural designs and configurations, integration was easy at Skycity’s new infrastructures.

• Strategic Placement: The curtains are strategically installed in key areas such as corridors, lobbies, and around staircases to maximize effectiveness. Installers ensured minimal aesthetic impact by discreetly tucking the curtains within matching housing units in ceiling and wall cavities.
• Automatic Deployment and Retraction: The smoke curtains are equipped with automatic retraction mechanisms that pull them back into their housing units upon reset of fire signal, ensuring they do not obstruct or interfere with the aesthetic or functional aspects of the space.
• Coordination with Other Systems: GELEC’s Smoke Curtains are designed to automatically deploy when the fire signal is activated, ensuring immediate containment without human intervention. They work in conjunction with other fire safety measures like sprinklers, alarms, and emergency lighting systems for a comprehensive safety strategy.
• Testing and Maintenance: Regular testing and maintenance ensure that the smoke curtains remain functional and ready to deploy in case of an emergency.

Incorporating GELEC’s smoke curtains in the A3 project highlights Skycity owners’ and stakeholders’ dedication to providing a safe, secure, and modernized environment for all visitors and staff. GELEC’s smoke curtains have a proven track record of reliability and effectiveness in various high-profile projects, making them a trusted choice for the project.

GELEC’s smoke curtains were also installed in the Skycity A2 Project, the expansion phase of Skycity’s existing hotels, casinos, and entertainment venues, completed in 2023.