How one UK town used digital twins to model retrofit costs

Major organisations recognise that operations systems, whether building management systems or factory assembly lines, aren’t necessarily fully optimised just because they work, writes Chintan Soni.

What would you do differently if you had to design The Edge, arguably the world’s most recognisable smart building, today? If you’re anything like the project’s own developers, almost everything.

Rather than pour money into expensive, sophisticated tech, The Future Works took an “organic approach” with strong design fundamentals to achieve superb air quality.

Supporting scientists measuring everything from glacier movements to volcanic activity, the AGU pledged to put the environment at the heart of its HQ renovation. The result? Washington DC’s first net zero office retrofit.

With a distinctive diagrid structure and an atrium that functions as “lungs” for the office, the 33-storey Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank HQ is a model for healthy buildings in a post-pandemic world.  

Wisag, a leading European FM provider with over 50,000 employees operating across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Poland, serves 5,000 customers with supervisors making 60,000 visits annually.

Located at the former EXPO ´92 Seville site, in Isla de la Cartuja, the new 9,900 m2 building by BIG Architects and Buro Happold engineers, ties into the Spanish city’s goal to become a global benchmark for sustainability by 2025.

The international developer set out to raise the bar with its first premium multi-family project in Germany. Fully let within six months and several awards later, the project team explains how they approached the challenge and the lessons learned along the way.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, QuadReal and Thor Equities have completed 800 Fulton Market, and it’s packed with tech and amenities galore.