Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: firm uses 3D-printed tiles to build coral reefs

In 2014, a University of Hong Kong research team watched two years of reef restoration work collapse in Sai Kung.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department had asked the researchers to speed up coral recovery. Cement structures were placed on the seabed and coral began to grow. But as the colonies became larger, they became unstable.

“They have no roots,” said Vriko Yu Pik-fan, then a doctoral student on the project. “The bigger they got, the less stable they were.”