Comments due by Oct 9, 2015
It knows where you live. It what car you drive. It knows who you’re meeting with today and how much sugar you take in your coffee. (At least it will, after the next software update.) This is the Edge, and it’s quite possibly the smartest office space ever constructed.
A day at the Edge in Amsterdam starts with a smartphone app developed with the building’s main tenant, consulting firm Deloitte. From the minute you wake up, you’re connected. The app checks your schedule, and the building recognizes your car when you arrive and directs you to a parking spot.
Then the app finds you a desk. Because at the Edge, you don’t have one. No one does. Workspaces are based on your schedule: sitting desk, standing desk, work booth, meeting room, balcony seat, or “concentration room.” Wherever you go, the app knows your preferences for light and temperature, and it tweaks the environment accordingly.
Photographer: Ronald Tilleman
The Edge is also the greenest building in the world, according to British rating agency BREEAM, which gave it the highest sustainability score ever awarded: 98.4 percent. The Dutch have a phrase for all of this: het nieuwe werken, or roughly, the new way of working. It’s about using information technology to shape both the way we work and the spaces in which we do it. It’s about resource efficiency in the traditional sense—the solar panels create more electricity than the building uses—but it’s also about the best use of the humans.
The building of the future necessitated invention. Several stand out. The super-efficient LED panels, made by Philips specifically for the Edge, require such a trickle of electricity they can be powered using the same cables that carry data for the Internet. The panels are also packed with sensors—motion, light, temperature, humidity, infrared—creating a “digital ceiling” that wires the building like synapses in a brain.
All told, the Edge is packed with some 28,000 sensors.
“We think we can be the Uber of buildings,” says Coen van Oostrom, chief executive officer of OVG Real Estate, the building’s developer. “We connect them, we make them more efficient, and in the end we will actually need fewer buildings in the world.”
Fifteen-Story Atrium
The atrium is the gravitational center of the Edge’s solar system. Mesh panels between each floor let stale office air spill into open space, where it rises and is exhaled through the roof, creating a loop of natural ventilation. Slight heat variations and air currents make it feel like the outdoors. Even on a stormy day, the building remains opalescent with natural light and angles of glass.
Photographer: Raimond Wouda
The atrium and its iconic slanted roof, which looks from the outside as if a wedge has been sliced off the building, floods the workspaces with daylight and provides a sound buffer from the adjacent highway and train tracks. Every workspace is within 7 meters (23 feet) of a window.
“A quarter of this building is not allocated desk space, it’s a place to meet,” says Ron Bakker, architect of the Edge at London-based PLP Architecture. “We’re starting to notice that office space is not so much about the workspace itself; it’s really about making a working community, and for people to have a place that they want to come to, where ideas are nurtured and the future is determined."
New Way of Working
About 2,500 Deloitte workers share 1,000 desks. The concept is called hot desking, and it’s supposed to encourage new relationships, chance interactions, and, just as important, efficient use of space. Desks are only used when they're needed. Some tiny rooms at the Edge contain just a lounge chair and a lamp (no desk)—perfect for a phone call. There are also game rooms and coffee bars with espresso machines that remember how you like your coffee. Massive flatscreens around every corner can be synced wirelessly with any phone or laptop.
Photographer: Raimond Wouda
Since workers at the Edge don’t have assigned desks, lockers serve as home base for the day. Find a locker with a green light, flash your badge, and it’s yours. Employees are discouraged from keeping a single locker for days or weeks, because part of thehet nieuwe werken philosophy is to break people away from their fixed locations and rigid ways of thinking.
A Dashboard to Rule Them All
Deloitte is collecting gigabytes of data on how the Edge and its employees interact. Central dashboards track everything from energy use to when the coffee machines need to be refilled. On days when fewer employees are expected, an entire section might even be shut down, cutting the costs of heating, cooling, lighting, and cleaning.
Source: Deloitte
Deloitte’s general philosophy with the Edge was that anything with a return on investment of less than 10 years is worth a try. The digital ceiling was one of the most expensive innovations; Deloitte wouldn’t disclose the cost, but Erik Ubels, chief information officer for Deloitte in the Netherlands, says it will take 8.3 years to earn it back.
There’s no doubt, says Ubels, that in the future all buildings will be connected, both internally and to other buildings. “The multi-billion-dollar question is who is going to do it. Whoever is successful is going to be one of the most successful companies in the world.”
An Evolving App
The smartphone is your passport to the Edge. Use it to find your colleagues, adjust the heating, or manage your gym routine. You can even order up a dinner recipe, and a bag of fresh ingredients will await you when the workday is over. All desks are equipped with built-in wireless chargers so your phone can keep itself charged.
Electric Car and Bike Parking
When you arrive at the Edge, garage entry is automated. A camera snaps a photo of your license plate, matches it with your employment record, and raises the gate. Even the garage uses sensor-equipped LED lights, which brighten as you approach and dim as you leave. It’s the Netherlands, so a separate garage for bicycles and free chargers for electric vehicles aren’t surprising. In Amsterdam, even the airport taxis are Teslas.
Photographer: Raimond Wouda
Don’t worry, your boss can’t access personal data from the Edge’s sensors and has no idea how many meetings you’ve missed this year. To be sensitive of privacy concerns, Deloitte surveyed employees before it installed the license plate scanner. The vast majority of respondents thought it was fine, as long as it made work life easier.
Long Blue Tubes
The Edge is wired with a vast network of two different kinds of tubes: one that holds data (ethernet cables) and another that holds water. Behind each ceiling tile is a massive coil of thin blue piping that delivers water to and from the building’s subterranean water storage for radiant heating and cooling.
During summer months, the building pumps warm water more than 400 feet deep in the aquifer beneath the building, where it sits, insulated, until winter, when it's sucked back out for heating. The system developed for the Edge is the most efficient aquifer thermal energy storage in the world, according to Robert van Alphen, OVG's project manager for the Edge.
Powered by the Sun
The southern wall is a checkerboard of solar panels and windows. Thick load-bearing concrete helps regulate heat, and deeply recessed windows reduce the need for shades, despite direct exposure to the sun. The roof is also covered with panels. The Edge uses 70 percent less electricity than the typical office building, but it wasn’t until OVG installed panels on the rooftops of some neighboring university buildings that the Edge was able to boast that it produces more energy than it consumes.
Is It Hot, or Just Me?
Sensors in the LED light panels report detailed temperature and humidity readings across a floor (above). A Deloitte survey found that while fewer than a quarter of employees actively use the app’s thermostat features, three-quarters say they love it. Maybe that’s because precision controls eliminate the problem of natural hot and cold spots, often found near windows.
Source: Deloitte
A coming app upgrade will boost efficiency further by suggesting desk locations to employees based on their temperature preferences and meeting locations throughout the day.
Trickle-Down Toilet Water
A massive concrete tub in the back of the parking garage gathers the rainwater used to flush the building’s toilets and water the gardens. It’s a loud room on a rainy day. The water rushes down from collection systems on the roof and outdoor balcony.
RoboCop and the Vacuum
This little robot (bottom left) comes out at night to patrol the grounds. If an alarm goes off, the camera-equipped automaton can identify the culprit or let security know it was a false alarm. It cruises around automatically like a Roomba or can be commandeered by remote control. Deloitte's Erik Ubels says he noticed similar robots in shipyards, tracked down the manufacturer, and asked if they could be modified for office security.
For smarter cleaning, activity is tracked by sensors built into light panels, so at the end of the day, the people and robots (above right) responsible for cleaning can focus on the areas that have been used most heavily that day.
Human Power
The on-site gym encourages employees to break for a midday workout. Flash your phone at the check-in station and the gym’s app automatically tracks your progress. Some of the exercise stations here will actually harness the energy from your workout, sending hard-earned watts back to the grid—as if you didn’t already feel like a hamster in a wheel.
Not Just a Towel Dispenser
The Edge watches you in the bathroom, too (but not in a creepy way). A normal-looking towel dispenser provides a spool of cloth for hand-drying. Unlike a typical hand dryer, though, this one is connected to the Internet. It lets the cleaning staff know when a busy bathroom is probably ready for a cleanup.
Ecological Corridor
Birds, bats, bees, and bugs. These are the building’s neighbors on the north-facing terrace. OVG worked with Amsterdam officials to establish a continuous path of vegetation that supports beneficial insects throughout the city. Birdhouses and bat boxes are tucked discreetly into the landscaping. These pockmarked towers support various species of solitary bees, which buzz about the flowers on the public terrace.
This article on the Edge, "possibly the smartest office space ever constructed" was an interesting read. The possibility of a sustainable building that stores gygabites of data such as your routines, your security information, identity, all the way down to the amount of meeting you've missed throughout the year, is quite astounding. The edge is defined as a sustainable building; the "uber" of buildings. It is meant to get users/employees out of their habits, in order to inspire new thoughts and trends. Some forms in which it achieves such a concept is through "hot desking", where employees share about a thousand desks with others. From efficient use of office space to green energy use, one can assume that sustainability of buildings and housing can be achieved. Only thing is, who is willing to pay and implement such a concept. That is prospect with possibly high returns in investment. Let's be on the lookout for this in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe Edge, an office building in Amsterdam, received the highest ranking by the BREEAM, an environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings. This article showcases the many different futuristic characteristic of the building, and predicts a bright future to smart buildings.
ReplyDeleteThe new method of working, encouraged by this new building, which allows people to work more efficiently, uses less resources and generates more energy than it consumes.
The building is equipped with many devices that are able to allocate the workers to a different desk everyday depending on the availability, limits the need for desks. The numbers are shocking, there are 2.5 times more employees than desks.
Buildings of the such are futuristic for many different reasons; the technology, through an app, to customize their own workplace exactly how they like it, and will remember the adjustments, it is environmental friendly as it uses solar energy and reuses the water to water the gardens, and lastly, by not assigning people to certain desks, it keeps their mind from becoming rigid.
The Edge in the Article is a smart and unique office building that is located in Amsterdam. The building is able to automatically recognize your preference of temperature and lights, check your schedule and direct you to your park spot with only a smartphone app. The building is full of green and it has the highest sustainability score of 98.4 percent in british. the whole building is about using technology to improve and help with our working environment and lives. The building is controlled by extremely efficient LED panels, The ceiling is created with digital which allow the temperature, humidity , light and motion to be changed by simply with touching the LED panel. The Building Edge is packed with total of around 28000 sensors. The building does not affect by the outside weather, The temperature and natural light remain the same even on a super stormy day . In addition, The building has a quarter part that is not allocated desk space , it is designed by Ton Bakker who is the architect of the Edge for the purpose to create a friendly working community for people to express their ideas and relax.
ReplyDeleteThe whole building Edge has only 1,000 desks for 2,5000 Deloitte workers to share. the concept go hot design is to encourage the workers to develop friendships, chance interaction and efficient use of spaces. The smartphone is essential tool in Edge, it allows you to order a dinner recipe and be sent at the time your workday is over and manage you gym routine and temperature preference. In addition, The southern wall of the building is made with solar panels and windows which is not only able to regulate heat and and reduce the need for shades from the sun, it also benefit of using 70 percent less electricity than the typical office building.
It is fantastic and relaxing of working in a building like Edge , it allows the workers to truly express their ideas and shared thoughts with other workers. The environment and designs encourage the workers to make friendship and manage their preference of temperature and lighting with a mobile app. It is also environmental friendly and brillIant of using solar energy for power and have a digital ceiling to create a bright and natural sunshine weather for everyday.
Edge is the smartest office space car constructed. Edge is a smartphone app. The app checks you schedule and the building recognizes your car when you arrive and directs you to a parking spot. The app also finds you a desk. Edge is the greenest building in the world because it uses information technology to shape both the way we work and space in which we do it. Deloitte is collecting gigabytes of data on how Edge and its employees interact. This building and app is very expensive to design. The question is does the reward outweigh the cost?
ReplyDeleteWith the app, employers are able to order a dinner recipe. All desks are equipped with built-in wireless chargers so you can keep your phone charged. When you arrive at Edge, garage entry is automated. A camera snaps a photo of your license plate, matches it with your employment record, and raises the gate. The garage used LED lights, which brightens as you approach and dims as you leave. This is a great example of building that is sustainably developed. It uses less resources.
DeleteVinay Kaushik
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses a very unique office space, the Edge, who's employees' daily schedule is monitored and decided by an app. There are many benefits to Edge. It allows employees and team members to be in an environment that promotes the expression of ideas and team work. Employees are in an encouraging environment that in turn, boosts efficiency. This futuristic building is also extremely environmentally friendly. The building gathers rain water and solar energy, making it more environmentally conscious and efficient. Depending on how rewarding this building is, it is possible that there will be heavy investment in the future from major companies in search of this type of work enviornment.
“The uber of buildings”, the Edge, is a new development in the sustainability sector. It is impressive how the internet has changed our lives. The App that was created for the Edge lets you control everything you want to, it even remembers your favorite light, and seat height, so you are always comfortable and ready to work more efficient than before. You come to work and don`t have to worry about anything. You get the same coffee, the one you like, the one that the Edge has stored for you. The Edge received the highest sustainability score ever awarded with 98.4%. It is great and super convenient how the app/the internet know everything about you, but it is also scary how someone knows everything about you. I like the efficient use of space. Only 1000 desks for 2500 workers, which means without the intelligent system they would have needed 2.5 times the space and maybe even more or higher buildings, for which they would have needed more land, that now is i.e. being used for vegetation
ReplyDeleteThis story of the Edge was a very interesting read for me. This building seems almost too good to be true and it makes me wonder that if it is efficient in some aspects is it not efficient in other ways. Buildings like this can change the way office space is created all over the world. I can almost see a construction boom coming from it because people all over will want there buildings to be like this not only for the efficiency of it but also how convenient it would be. This would cause new construction to replace old construction or complete renovation of old construction. I would love to know how much this building cost to build which would allow us to figure out how much office space rents for in it because we know the payback period of 8.3 years. This building is truly the new technology and I can see changes coming from this all over in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThe above post describes a sustainable building called the Edge. The Edge has been described as the "smartest office space ever constructed." The building has been recognized by the British rating agency BREEAM as being the most sustainable building, having the highest sustainable rating. The building is equipped with solar panels, LED panels, sensors, and other forms of technology that promote a sustainable economy.
ReplyDeleteThis building focuses on efficiency through "making the best use of the humans." Deloitte has created a unique workspace where new work relationships are encouraged, efficiency is stressed, and workers are encouraged to make the most out of the space the building offers.
The development of the Edge was very costly. Admitting to the high cost incurred, CIO of Deloitte stated that the ceiling alone would take about 8.3 years to pay off. This investment in the sustainable sector is one that they stand by, as they believe that any investment that takes less than 10 years to gain a return on is successful.
This article interestingly describes a sustainable building called as the Edge. Usually there is a conflict between technology and preservation of natural resources. Technology is at times blamed for the harm that is caused to these resources. However, Edge changes that completely. It is like a bridge between environment and economics. It proves that optimization of resources without harming them is possible. What Deloitte has created is unique and revolutionary. Although it is true that the expenses are very high, a good thing is that companies like Delloite are willing to pay that much to create something sustainable. It seems to me that the UN with its new goals SDGs can benefit from technology like this.
ReplyDeleteThe edge is a major innovation in sustainable technology. The use of solar energy and aquifer thermal energy storage go a long way towards earning the edge it's sustainability score of 98.4, the highest ever awarded. The new way of working encourages efficient output while exhausting less resources. The concept of an open work space is kicked up a notch at the edge. With 2500 workers sharing 1000 desks, workers are encouraged to adopt a sense of community atypical from the usual cubicle work space. The use of the smartphones at the edge propels the already occurring shift towards smartphones as an essential tool in daily life. Used to find colleagues, locate seating, check in at the gym, find lockers, and even order up for ingredients for dinner, the smartphone truly is a passport at the edge. With the development of buildings like the edge being so costly, the construction of such buildings will be by large corporations. While smart buildings may be a worthwhile investment, convincing such corporations to invest in the creation of such buildings will be half the battle.
ReplyDeleteThis article describes a sustainable building called the Edge. The “Smartest Office Space Ever Constructed.” The British have deemed it as having the highest sustainability rating. The entire building is filled with technology. In most cases we relate technology in hurting the environment. But in this case it is the direct opposite. There are solar panels, Led lighting, radiant heating, and trickle water toilets. All of which add to being more green. The building solar panels also produce far more electricity than the building uses. The plan of this building was to create an efficient work environment where employees can think and work more effectively. This experiment is planned to last 10 years, to see if they can successfully make a return on the building.
ReplyDeleteThe article regarding "The Edge" was extremely interesting because it not only involved the concept of sustainable living, but it did so in a way that also incorporated the social aspect of the workplace and new technology that helps increase efficiency.
ReplyDeleteThe building is architecturally designed to be as "green" as possible through many different ways. The building itself is slanted at an angle to take advantage of the natural lighting and conserve energy while at the same time protecting the interior from the sounds outside; in between the floors there are mesh panels which help circulate the stagnant air into the atrium where it is recycled and pushed back through creating a semi natural air flow.
The Edge also incorporates technology in the form of an app which tracks and simplifies employee behaviors. There are twice as many employees as desks available in the building but this is managed through the app based on the employees' scheduling. The app also tracks the temperature of the rooms and makes suggestion as far as where in the building one should be to be in the ideal temp. The last bit of new technology is the one used in the garage. There is image recognition from a photo taken of the car's plate that when read automatically opens the garage.
The last bit of the building concept that makes it so interesting is the push towards creating a more socially integrated workspace. The technological advances in this building forces employees to converse when using desks or sit together when they are in the lounge rooms. I think this is an extremely important idea because often technological advances separate one from the larger group.
The people in charge of the building came up with the idea that if an investment can pay itself off within 10 years it is a good idea to pursue it. In this case The Edge is thought to generate enough to be paid off in full within a little over eight years
The article was very interesting and fun to read. It talked about the smartest building and office space there is. The Edge was made to not only change the office environment but also to change the way employees work. They followed new standards of working to be able to create sustainable and interactive working environment. The building keeps track of employees' daily routine and schedules allowing a more efficient workplace. It goes against the standards of working in cubicles, and aims to create a working community where people actually want to come to everyday. In addition to that, according to BREEAM, The Edge is also the greenest buidling in the world. One of the ways the building is sustainable, is by using electricity from solar panels and even from employees working out. It is one of the few buildings in the world that produces more electricity than it uses!
ReplyDeleteMany of of the technologies that the building uses can be applied to spaces such as schools, cinemas and other public places.
The question now is, even though the building is very sustainable, how many companies would be willing to invest this amount money into their offices?
This can only be determined in the near future.
This is definitely one of the most interesting articles I’ve read. There is also a building being built in Manhattan that is supposedly the new “skyscraper.” It is like an abstract pyramid that harnesses sunlight and directs it as natural light into apartment rooms. The Edge reminded me of that. I’ve always thought of sustainable architecture to be very interesting. As a species of around 7 billion strong, it is physically impossible not to manipulate land and take over habitats. I’ve always found that to be one of our biggest issues. It is sad but unavoidable. So the best thing to do is build buildings that are as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible and the Edge is definitely one of the most effective one’s I have heard of. I really like how they mention that they harness more energy than they consume. Now, that is something any economist would love to hear; having a surplus of a resource. I also like how they mentioned that they collect rain water for their toilets and gardens. I could imagine that if they have a dry period, it would be an issue. Another unique thing they mentioned is the fact that workers can workout at the building’s gym and they actually harness energy from the machines that are in use. I love that idea and believe every gym should do that. The equipment would probably be expensive but it would be an investment since they will cut down on their electricity bill and probably attract many customers.
ReplyDeleteWith the highest sustainability score of 98.4 percent the Edge is the greenest and most efficient building in the world. Equipped with 28,000 LED panels, this building is wired like "synapses". These panels are comprised of motion, light, temperature, humidity, and infrared sensors. Natural ventilation is created within the atrium which is at the center of the Edge. Its mesh panels between each floor lets air flow into that open space. The atrium has a slanted roof which draws in more light and blocks out sounds from the nearby highway and train activity. Promoting new relationships and networking is bound to happen. This is seen as being just as important as using space efficiently. For example, about 2,500 Deloitte employees share 1,000 desks. Data is also collected via the app to study the behaviors of each employee. This data determines their daily needs such as whether or not they will need office space, a cubical or just a chair to get their work done.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the Edge is sustainable is really all that efficient? Economically it will take 8.3 years for the money spent on this infrastructure to be regained and in an environmental aspect the amount of man-power needed and pollution created as a result of this building would've been extensive. I do not think many buildings like these are necessary because the amount of money and time put into building this could've gone to some more immediate causes such as building schools and providing clean water in places that have none.
This article is about a building called the Edge, it is known as the smartest office building in the world. The idea of a building that stores data about people to optimize efficiency is pretty amazing. Edge's ability to do these things while also being the greenest most eco friendly building in the world is even more astounding. As long as this building is affordable for the company that is building it, I believe that many corporations could benefit from having office space like Edge.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free.Building surveys London I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It is the old what goes around comes around routine.
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