More than three in four small business owners (76%) say business worries keep them awake at night. Whilst sleepless nights are most prevalent among owners of businesses that in serious decline (96%), the new research from Hitachi Capital Business Finance found that even those predicting growth for their business admit
A new partnership, STEM Accord, created to provide co-ordinated action to inspire more young people, and particularly girls, to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) will be announced at the WISE annual conference. STEM Accord has been created by WISE, the ERA Foundation, STEM Learning, Design and Technology Association (DATA)
Super tall structures are a modern phenomenon, and as little as a hundred years back, structures rising over sixty stories were unheard of. Today, dozens of buildings across the world exceed the one-thousand-foot definition of a supertall construction. As buildings reach new heights, what unique features are they adopting to
The importance of placing people at the heart of home building is one of the key messages being delivered to over 1000 senior industry representatives attending the Annual Lunch of trade body Homes for Scotland in Edinburgh later today (Friday 17 May). Highlighting examples where such focus has delivered tangible
When patients are allowed to recover in a more comfortable environment studies show there is a positive impact on their healing and well-being. Effective building design has been widely used to help patients recover more quickly and hospital staff to work more efficiently. Evidence-based design (EBD), the process of making
More than three in four small business owners (76%) say business worries keep them awake at night. Whilst sleepless nights are most prevalent among owners of businesses that in serious decline (96%), the new research from Hitachi Capital Business Finance found that even those predicting growth for their business admit they seldom get a good night’s sleep (84%). The Business Barometer findings come at a time when concerns have risen over the mental health of small business owners across the UK, with reports of anxiety and depression rising at the end of last year. Hitachi Capital’s study reveals that it’s not just businesses that are already struggling that have nightmares, fast growing ones are just as likely to be taking their business worries to bed with them (84%) – they just have different nightmares. For small companies predicting growth over the spring and summer months, red tape (40%), compliance (28%) and dealing with skills gaps in a growing workforce (20%) were their top concerns. For those decision makers expecting their business to decline, the key worries related to market uncertainty (44%) and how to retain business (26%). The Business Barometer survey – which has now run for five years – asked 1,177 small decision makers to share some of the issues that they were currently worrying about and kept them awake at night. The biggest worriers London emerged as potentially the worst place to run a small business in terms of sleepless nights, with almost nine in ten business leaders in the city (87%) saying business worries kept them awake at night. Those in London were most likely to start the working day with bags under their eyes in the country – with night-time business worries in the capital rising by 14% since the start of 2018. Retail was the sector most likely to give business owners nightmares. More than four in five small business owners (87%) within the retail sector admitted to being kept awake at night by business concerns – rising from 75% a year ago. Others sectors where entrepreneurs were more likely to experience sleepless nights included transport (78%, up from 69% at the start of 2018), real estate (80%), and education (76%). Resting easier The Business Barometer also indicates not all owners have been letting their business concerns come to bed with them. Entrepreneurs in Yorkshire reported getting a better night’s sleep over the course of the 12 months (31%, Q1 2019 vs. 25%, Q1 2018).
A new partnership, STEM Accord, created to provide co-ordinated action to inspire more young people, and particularly girls, to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) will be announced at the WISE annual conference. STEM Accord has been created by WISE, the ERA Foundation, STEM Learning, Design and Technology Association (DATA) and The Smallpeice Trust, working in alignment with the Royal Academy of Engineering, Engineering UK and the IET and guided by the recommendations of the Perkins Review. Helen Wollaston, Chief Executive of WISE, the campaign for better gender balance in STEM, says: “Despite hundreds of outreach programmes, most girls in this country still think that science, tech and engineering aren’t for them. We can’t allow this to continue. By joining forces, we will make sure that all girls and their families get the message that these subjects open doors to the jobs of the future” Dr Jo Kennedy, Board Member of the ERA Foundation, adds: “As far as we are aware this will be the first multi-organisation initiative to deliver STEM outreach to schools in line with the recommendations of the Perkins report, Engineering UK and the Royal Academy of Engineering. This collaboration is vital to provide more cohesive support to students, teachers and parents across the UK to ensure that as many young people as possible and particularly girls are inspired and understand the potential STEM careers that could be open to them.” STEM Accord aims to generate impact through combining effort and resources across the existing effective outreach programmes run by the founder member organisations. This approach is a key part of WISE’s 2019 action plan for creating future skills for the UK, taking a holistic approach to improving gender balance in STEM, from classroom to boardroom. Alongside the work as part of STEM Accord, WISE’s priorities for 2019 are: Ensuring that women have the opportunities to retrain or return to STEM careers at all stages of their careers. This includes a call to action for employers, Government and universities, to provide training for women to take up jobs in technology, to ensure that, as a priority, women are able to access life-long learning opportunities to retrain and reskill in STEM, including providing easy to access routes into work such as taster days, internship, returnships and training. Working together with business and industry, through WISE’s Ten Steps business programme, to help them show leadership by improving the representation of women in technical and management roles. WISE is calling on all organisations, from the classroom to the boardroom, to set a target for the percentage of girls and women in STEM to create sustainable change. Helen Wollaston explains: “Technology is transforming our lives and yet more than 80% of those working in technology are men. We need to address this now to ensure that women have opportunities for the best paid jobs, businesses can fill the technical roles they need, and women can play their full part in shaping our future world.” Helen concludes: “We know that industry, education and Government have a shared objective here; to encourage more girls into STEM and provide opportunities for them throughout their careers. It makes sense for us to work together to create sustainable change. We must take ownership, because we all have a contribution to make to ensure that the UK has the necessary STEM skills for the future. By working together, we can create a greater impact than we can separately. We’ll have broader insight, more ideas and better initiatives.”
Super tall structures are a modern phenomenon, and as little as a hundred years back, structures rising over sixty stories were unheard of. Today, dozens of buildings across the world exceed the one-thousand-foot definition of a supertall construction. As buildings reach new heights, what unique features are they adopting to deal with environmental questions? To delve deeper into this question, we caught up with Toyin-Ann Yerifor, an architectural consultant based in Calgary, Alberta to discuss the top five buildings in the world. Toyin-Ann has an architectural master’s degree in advanced environmental and energy studies from the University of East London in the United Kingdom. Lotte World Tower The Lotte World Tower stands at an architectural height of 554.5 meters or 1,819 feet and is the fifth tallest building in the world. Located in Seoul, South Korea, the supertall structure was completed in 2017 and is today one of the most iconic structures in East Asia. As with all supertall structures, says Toyin-Ann Yerifor, major environmental challenges such as water and energy utilization and wind and pollution must be considered. To overcome these environmental challenges, the Lotte World Tower is built near the banks of the Han River, an important decision that reduces the impact the building has on adjacent structures. Further, the Lotte World Tower is designed to minimize wind disruption, which, says Toyin-Ann, is an essential component when managing pollution within an urban setting. Other environmental considerations in the Lotte World Tower include the addition of photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, water harvesting systems, and external shading devices. Ping An Finance Centre Ping An Finance Center is currently the fourth tallest building in the world. Standing at an imposing architectural height of 599.1 meters or 1,965 feet, the office complex commands the Futian District skyline in Shenzhen, China. What makes this building interesting from an architectural perspective, says Toyin-Ann Yerifor, is its dense and hyperconnected design. Typical of many Asian supertall structures, this design approach offers a reduced environmental footprint while increasing the amount of usable space within the building. Ping An Finance Center also stands out from an environmental perspective, says Toyin-Ann Yerifor, because of its Gold LEED certification status. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a certification that rates a building’s level of sustainability. LEED certifications range from certified to platinum. As a Gold LEED certified building, Ping An Finance Center has achieved the second-highest LEED certification, just below the platinum LEED rating. This level of rating shows the building has proven sustainability in the areas of energy and water usage, indoor air quality, material and resource utilization, among others. Makkah Royal Clock Tower The Makkah Royal Clock Tower is part of a mega tall complex of hotels called the Abraj Al-bait in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The clock tower rises to an architectural height of 601 meters or 1,972 feet and was completed in 2012. Besides being the third tallest building in the world, the complex holds the record of the most expensive building in the world, having cost $15 billion to build. The hotel complex is built strategically next to the Grand Mosque of Mecca to accommodate the millions of pilgrims who visit the site each year. From an environmental perspective, says Toyin-Ann, the hotel complex meets a crucial environmental benchmark especially in its use of water. Avoiding the use of traditional sprinkler systems to protect the building from fire, the Abraj Al-bait complex uses an advanced protection system that uses high-pressure water mist instead. This new system uses a fraction of the water that traditional sprinkler systems use while putting out fires in a more efficient way. Shanghai Tower The Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China is the second tallest building in the world. The building rises to an architectural height of 632 meters or 2,073 feet, beating the next tallest building, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower by a mere thirty-one meters. The tower broke ground in late 2008 and was completed in late 2015. From a design perspective, says Toyin, the building has a unique triple adjacent superstructure design which increases energy efficiency significantly. Aside from being the second tallest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower also holds the record for the second fastest elevators in the word, which move at a top speed of 20.5 meters per second (74 km/h or 46 mph). In terms of sustainability, the building incorporates a raft of sustainability measures. To this end, the building has been certified by the China Green Building Committee as well as the US Green Building Council which has certified the building LEED Platinum BD+C: Core and Shell. Some of the sustainable features that stand out, says Toyin, include the towers glass façade designed to reduce wind loads, wind turbines that supply 10 percent of the building’s energy, and a double layer glass shell that significantly insulates the building from external temperatures. Burj Khalifa Soaring to a breathtaking height of 828 meters or 2,717 feet is the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, previously known as the Burj Dubai. Beating the second tallest building, the Shanghai Tower by 196 meters, the Burj Khalifa has retained its position as the tallest building since its completion in 2010. Located in the heart of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the building stands as a testament to the advances in design and construction technologies. Aside from holding the title of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa also holds numerous other titles including tallest existing structure, tallest freestanding structure, tallest skyscraper, building with most floors, highest elevator installation, longest travel distance elevators, among others. The Burj Khalifa is not only an architectural marvel, says Toyin-Ann Yerifor, but also an interesting study in the environmental impact of supertall structures. For instance, the building, like most buildings in Dubai, relies on energy-intensive desalination plants for water. Paradoxically, the building produces millions of gallons of fresh water from air conditioning condensation. This paradox, says Toyin-Ann Yerifor, makes the Burj Khalifa simultaneously one of the
The importance of placing people at the heart of home building is one of the key messages being delivered to over 1000 senior industry representatives attending the Annual Lunch of trade body Homes for Scotland in Edinburgh later today (Friday 17 May). Highlighting examples where such focus has delivered tangible results across a wide range of areas (including customer satisfaction, quality and placemaking) Chief Executive Nicola Barclay will say: “I talk about homes all the time, but today I’d like to talk about people. We build homes and great places to live but it is people who bring them to life – by living in them, designing them, consenting them, funding them and constructing them. So we are, by any definition, a people business. “And what I hope today will demonstrate is that it simply doesn’t matter what size of company you are – if you put people at the heart of it, you’ll get great results.” With the industry having been challenged on a number of fronts in recent months, Barclay will also add: “We are often told that as an industry we must evolve. I believe that evolution is well underway and will continue to gather pace as we move towards a decarbonised society. As we compete for talent and the future pipeline of people to work within our industry, it is vitally important that we continue to innovate and create flexible, attractive environments for our people to work in as well as for our customers to live in.”
When patients are allowed to recover in a more comfortable environment studies show there is a positive impact on their healing and well-being. Effective building design has been widely used to help patients recover more quickly and hospital staff to work more efficiently. Evidence-based design (EBD), the process of making changes to the built environment based on research to improve outcomes, has helped lower the incidences of hospital-acquired infections, medical errors, patient accidents, and staff injuries. “The environment’s influence on a patient’s well-being was first, scientifically, explored by professor Roger Ulrich in his 1980s study that sought to determine whether there was any measurable positive influence in a patient’s recovery when they were given rooms with different views,” commented Gareth Rees, Head of UK Strategic Market – Healthcare Siemens Smart Infrastructure. “The research showed that patients who had views overlooking nature [rather than that of a building] experienced shorter stays, needed fewer pain medication and were more optimistic about their prospects. These findings paved the way to a greater awareness and understanding of how space and hospital architecture can affect our physical condition and state of mind.” Using EBD techniques today architects and designers have been developing solutions for better healing environments. Healthcare facilities often have unique individual requirements with specialised hospital rooms requiring bespoke implementations for patient recovery wards, operating theatres, pressurised rooms and laboratories. Careful design can improve safety and productivity, reduce staff stress levels, lower resource wastage and enhance environmental sustainability. There is a delicate balance between providing the ideal recovery conditions in patient rooms and an optimal work environment for staff to deliver the best possible care. The provision of WiFi and personal control over room conditions are important elements for patient satisfaction. Room automation controlled by a patient’s smartphone or tablet allows the precise control over temperature, ventilation and other functions that affect comfort. Wearable tags can also be deployed to monitor the vital signs of patients to automate control of a recovery environment. Circadian lighting that follows a patient’s natural daily rhythm or sleep/wake cycle reduces tiredness and enhances recovery sleep while audio levels can be improved through the use of sound-absorbent materials installed in ceilings and flooring. Acuity-adaptable spaces lessen the movement of patients reducing stress on both patients and staff. Operating theatres are complex environments that need to be spacious, hygienic and well-lit (with overhead surgical lights). Generally windowless temperature and humidity levels are tightly controlled. Pressurised rooms are designed to isolate a patient with infectious diseases and require air management and filtering systems. Medical or clinical laboratories where approximately 70 percent of treatment decisions are made require stable conditions with exact controls over temperature, humidity and sometimes, pressure. Smart infrastructure and IoT technologies are an expanding area of interest to healthcare planners and allow owners and operators of hospitals to leverage more from their existing assets which are becoming more intelligent- producing and using data to perform better throughout their lifetime. Total Integrated Power and lighting control systems, air, space and asset tracking solutions all improve energy usage, space utilisation and real-time location usage. Concluded Rees: “Hospitals are never going to be places that any of us are going to particularly enjoy visiting but through better physical environments designers can speed up our recovery and alleviate a lot of the stress and fear. Better performing buildings can provide higher comfort levels and well-being for all occupants.”
