Earlier this year, James McHale of (the brilliant) Smart building research company Memoori wrote a LinkedIn post entitled ‘The Need for Real Human Experiences in our Smart Cities and Buildings’. It really struck a chord with us, as it raises some interesting points about whether the technological advancements that are often at the core of Smart technology are actually of benefit to the individuals using the spaces.
Vanti Project Coordinators take ownership for projects from start to finish and are responsible for cost control, profitability and making sure we keep to the plan. More importantly than that, you will be key to ensuring both our clients and internal teams enjoy a quality Vanti Experience. One that is organised, proactive and communicative. Project Coordinators are the people who make things happen and remove road blocks for our Engineers and Service Team so they can complete the job they’re supposed to. Ultimately, ensuring a great working environment and happy engineers, suitable for the project in hand.
(Midlands based with some UK Travel)
The use of buildings, especially commercial premises, has changed. Until relatively recently, if you were offered employment with a company, the chances are that you would have been expected to report to your company’s premises when you were working.
In a world of increasingly collaborative working and knowledge sharing, that is no longer the case. In fact, commercial buildings are rapidly changing from places we go because we work for someone, to tools we use to get our work done.
Business leaders must begin to appreciate the relationship between the spaces in which their people work and the key business challenges they are trying to address:
We currently construct buildings with a product mentality, handed over by a developer or construction company to an owner-occupier or management company with little thought as to the efficiency of its long term operation and maintenance. This model de-incentivises developers to build Smart buildings because the rationale behind Smart is that significant gains and savings can be made via the performance of the building over time. Developers have long since left the scene before those benefits are fully realised.
Building User Experience (or UX for short) describes how people interact with buildings and the technology contained within them as tools that help them live, learn and work. This system driven (as opposed to silo or unit driven) approach brings some very unique challenges due to the number of service disciplines involved, but the potential rewards for all can be massive and highly sustainable, let’s explain…
Next week will see Ecobuild 2016 take place at ExCeL London, bringing together professionals from across the construction and energy market. Ecobuild does a great job of pushing the construction industry forward, inspiring innovative new ideas, and enabling people and companies to come together and collaborate on exciting projects that benefit the entire sector.
I recently had the opportunity to present Vanti’s thoughts on Smart & Intelligent Buildings during UK Construction Week 2015 at the NEC in Birmingham. We used the show as an opportunity to consolidate our research to date, engage in conversations with construction industry professionals and attempt to help answer the question ‘What really makes a Smart or Intelligent space?’