Meet the smartest office building in the world
With most of us choosing to work from home for at least part of the time, the need for physical offices is probably dwindling.
Many businesses (especially those that have to pay rent or lease to run) are looking to address this dropout with perks like free meals, flexible hours, or other perks. , but is the answer to a better workplace really better technology?
Smart buildings (and smart cities) are nothing new, but TechRadar Pro was invited to Singapore to see the potential next step in making office buildings smarter than ever.
go smart
From the outside, JTC Summit might look like any other office block. Located in the Punggol district to the west of Singapore, its sparkling glass windows and bright, airy lobby make it a friendly 24-story building bustling with workers commuting to their daily jobs. . Beneath the surface, however, a network of some 60,000 sensors powers an organization that makes the building almost the equivalent of a living organism.
As an island nation, space in Singapore is limited, with the government decentralizing the central business district (CBD) into other zones such as the Punggol Digital Zone that the JTC Summit fits into. The nearby Singapore Institute of Technology, with 12,000 students, makes Punggol an attractive location for the next generation of tech, especially when testing the potential city of tomorrow.
Making such a large area “smart” is no easy task, so Govtech, the development arm of the Singapore government, has developed a new framework that can incorporate many types of technology. technologies from smart energy to building management and even robotic delivery. services into one platform.
It is an Open Digital Platform that serves as middleware to combine multiple verticals in addition to infrastructure pillars from networking to compute and storage, to sharing data across multiple systems to provides everything a smart office building could want through the Smart District Operating System.
At the JTC Summit, building owners work alongside a complete digital twin of the building, meticulously recreated in the virtual world, to enable them to make informed decisions. from improving efficiency to just turning on the right lights.
Smart District OS can monitor almost any connected part of a building, providing detailed information on items such as entrance gates, elevators and escalators to detect if there are any problems or malfunctions. or any power failure needs attention.
The movement of these items can be viewed in real time, meaning that a manager can detect if an elevator is stuck between floors, while also allowing remote control, so that the entrance can be unlocked. to allow the delivery person to access or the escalator to shut down at night to save energy.
Smart District OS’s reach also extends to the building’s rooms, all of which are similarly equipped with smart sensors for maximum customization. If the CCTV feed detects that the meeting room is overcrowded, or the outside weather data indicates an increase in temperature, the air conditioning can be turned on to ensure attendees do not overheat and use Room usage can be tracked over time to see if certain. meetings are worth moving to smaller locations or even canceling altogether.
In parking lots, EV chargers have been installed to address the growing demand for such vehicles, however they can present certain fire risks. Again, however, CCTV feeds can detect any significant plumes of smoke, while also cutting power to the charger and raising the alarm before a fire has a chance to break out.
JTC Summit is also packed with adorable robots that can perform a variety of tasks, from delivering packages, detecting maintenance alerts, or just patrolling the lobby to spot any potential problems. These robots can be monitored in real time to make sure they don’t get lost or trapped, and can be redirected or paused if another mission or emergency arises.
At our visit to JTC Summit, James Tan, Director, Sensors and IoT, GovTech, noted that the ultimate plan is to deploy the Smart District Operating System across the entire Punggol Digital Park , covering an area of ​​about 50 hectares, offers governments, businesses and citizens alike a much smarter way of life.
While much of it is still in beta, Govtech aims to deploy the ODP and Smart District Operating System throughout Punggol around 2025 and it is clear that the agency has high expectations for the platform.
Along with cost savings due to reduced maintenance and manpower costs, Tan notes that it can also help improve productivity and save resources, while encouraging businesses and governments to work smart. than. The Punggol rollout alone is expected to create around 28,000 jobs, and in a dynamic city like Singapore, this could only be the start.
In control
During our visit, Tan showed off a series of demos showcasing a range of information layers the system is equipped with, starting with the arrival time of the live bus, the number of available parking spaces on certain streets and track taxis. all over the island – specifically which ones are free, for ease of publicity.
Using data shared by other government agencies, the system is also able to track flights arriving and landing at the island’s Changi airport and has data on hundreds of ships waiting to enter the terminals. Singapore’s major port, information may be needed for police and security forces.
At the environmental level, we demonstrated a demo of how the Smart District OS can monitor the water levels in the city’s sewers and overflow channels in near real time, which can help with flood monitoring. scan during the rainy season or even detect suspicious discharges from neighboring factories.
All of this could prove to be extremely useful in the real world, but Tan adds that an additional advantage of having a digital copy is that Govtech can run all sorts of simulations to prepare. for any situation, from plotting traffic patterns to figuring out where trees can be planted to helping build a shady bus stop on a new street.
All in all, it looks like JTC Summit and the Punggol Digital Zone are just the beginning, and if Govtech’s dream comes true, your next office building could truly be a smart workplace. and more comfortable.
“No one else is doing (what we do) on such a large scale,” said Tan, “and we wanted our property to be the leading light.”