At this year’s Total Facilities Expo, leaders in the facilities management industry will showcase new and innovative designs and services while specialist thought leaders will share their solutions for creating more efficient, cleaner, greener, safer and more secure buildings of the future.

The free-to-attend speaker series will explore key trends including how property tech disruption is transforming the built environment; how the FM industry is adapting to demographic and cultural shifts and insights into our future workplaces.

The Smart Zone is designed as a thriving hub of technological innovation which presents new technologies and solutions for smarter, greener buildings. For the first time in 2019, it will feature ‘Smart Start-ups’ FM Clarity, ClearVue, Groundfloor and Parkable.

CoreNet Global Australia Chapter will return to Total Facilities 2019 to host a Leadership Breakfast on Thursday 21st March. This ‘State of the Nation’ will be presented by Nerida Conisbee, Chief Economist at REA Group.

Here are some of the topics up for discussion:

Booming PropTech disrupting the property sector and future-proofing construction

The booming PropTech (property technology) sector is future-proofing construction with millions of dollars being poured into start-ups and accelerator programs to create smart work places and cities, says Catherine Caruana-McManus, director at Meshed IoT and board member IoT Alliance Australia.

She says savvy property and construction managers across private and public sectors – including real estate giant Stockland – have their sights set on real time occupancy sensing, co-working, environmental monitoring (urban heat, air pollution), risk assessment, insurance and compliance.

How biophilic design is greening our work space and improving our wellbeing

Claire Bowles, sustainability lead at i2C Architects is passionate about the growing importance of incorporating the natural environment into our workspaces to promote 'wellness' and employee efficiency. She has embraced biophilic design in many projects to combat our growing alienation from nature.

She talks about how we as humans “have an innate desire to be in nature” and how “biophilic design is about bringing nature indoors”.

How biophilic design is impacting workplace wellness and productivity

Stephen Choi, executive director - Living Future Institute of Australia is embracing the ‘non visual’ elements of biophilic design in offices across the country. With his 10 years of experience as an architect, he is pleased to be seeing more demand from clients as evidenced in an increasing number of briefs requesting ‘more connectedness to nature’ for commercial projects.

“It’s about how the senses are impacted by incorporating nature into the built environment; the sounds of running water from a water feature; the smell of indoor plants, etc. It’s great to see qualitative feedback from our post-occupancy surveys indicating positive responses from staff in terms of ‘green elements’ in the workplaces. We also receive very positive comments re - benefits of natural light from skylights in addition to areas which connect us to nature in the office. This reflects global studies revealing the impacts on staff wellbeing, higher productivity and lower absenteeism when nature and natural light are incorporated into designs”, says Choi.

Total Facilities Expo 2019 will be held at the International Convention Centre Sydney from 20-21 March.

Click here for more information or to register.

Pictured: Allegro office, designed by Workplace Solutions. Photography by A.Grzesik

Architecture & Design Team

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