Smart Cities

Shiny new smart buildings are wonderful. They have energy efficiency built in to provide cost-saving and reduce environmental impact, they apply lighting and environmental controls to ensure all occupants are comfortable and productive, and they offer a wide variety of health, safety, and security benefits. These buildings offer a glimpse of our high-tech future with […]

“The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has hit the commercial real estate sector hard. Containment measures implemented in response to the pandemic severely affected economic activity and reduced the demand for commercial property,” states the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) April 2021 Global Financial Stability Report: Preempting a Legacy of Vulnerabilities. “Part of the adverse impact — […]

Net-zero feels like the ultimate green goal for our buildings to reduce their collective impact on the environment. Currently responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions, the decarbonization of the buildings sector has long been seen as one of the most effective ways to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. The reality, however, is […]

During the last 12 months, since the pandemic triggered mass lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, the focus of the commercial real estate sector has been on buildings being empty and how or when they can safely welcome occupants back. The truth, however, is that buildings have not been completely empty because, even in a lockdown, buildings […]

Some of the most symbolic images of the past year have been of empty city centers. Deserted images Times Square, Covent Garden, Champs-Élysées, and Shibuya commercial district would have been impossible to capture before the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders that COVID-19 brought about. Our cities have felt the greatest impact of the pandemic and this […]

The Internet of Things (IoT) in smart buildings, homes, and cities has triggered a digital revolution for the built environment. Billions of sensors and devices now transmit real-world data to cloud computing systems in order to help us understand the physical world in quantifiable digital terms. IoT data is often sensitive in terms of privacy […]

Scandinavian design is a design movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism, democracy, and functionality that emerged from the five Scandinavian nations in the early 20th century and has flourished across the world since the 1950s. Scandinavian designers are known especially for household goods including furniture, textiles, ceramics, lamps, and glass, but the Scandinavian design phenomenon has […]

This week, the 250-year-old UK department store Debenhams finally announced it would close all of its 178 outlets after nine months of struggle with the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, the 118-year-old US department store J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy in May 2020, just 2-months after the pandemic began. Business […]