For Everyday.Life (FE.L) presents its award winning design ‘Housing Salinas’ during London Design Week at the Material Matters Fair for the first time since it was presented at SXSW in March 2024. ‘Housing Salinas‘ is one of the winners of Initiative 99, a global architecture competition to design affordable housing
WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company today announced a partnership between its Affinity Insurance business and Kayna, the award-winning insurance infrastructure platform. The partnership has been developed to enable delivery of innovative WTW insurance solutions to SME clients in the UK and US through Vertical Software-as-a-Service (‘vSaaS’)
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
For Everyday.Life (FE.L) presents its award winning design ‘Housing Salinas’ during London Design Week at the Material Matters Fair for the first time since it was presented at SXSW in March 2024. ‘Housing Salinas‘ is one of the winners of Initiative 99, a global architecture competition to design affordable housing for under $99,000, launched by ICON the pioneering construction technology company based in Austin, Texas. Initiative 99 represents a pivotal moment for the future of housing, combining ICON’s 3D-printing technology with CarbonX, a new mortar based concrete developed in partnership with MIT to reduce the carbon impact of traditional concrete. When paired with ICON’s wall system and robotic construction methods, ICON’s CarbonX formula is the lowest carbon residential building system ready to be used at scale. The ‘Housing Salinas’ project by FE.L is more than architecture, designed in response to community displacement in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria, it is the creation of a long-term solution that strives towards a future where residents can live, work, and flourish in an environment that embodies the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. FE.L has already won in the Open Category of Phase 1 of the competition, and is now entered in Phase 2 to see the final concept built, as well as being featured in ICON’s CODEX, a new digital catalogue of ready-to-print home architecture that will allow builders, developers and home buyers to build with ICON quickly and affordably using world-class architecture. At Material Matters FE.L will showcase its submission which for context, is based on the widespread displacement experienced during Hurricane Maria in 2017, affecting around 135,000 people in Puerto Rico, particularly the economically disadvantages areas of Salinas. It is located on the site of a decommissioned coal power plant, which provides an opportunity to address long-term regenerative solutions to outdated infrastructure and better support local communities. FE.L’s solution is designed to adapt over time as requirements shift and communities change. Integrating with the landscape through texture, colour, and natural rewilding, each unit is positioned to create a variety of courtyard spaces, physically connected through use but independent when needed for privacy. Large windows at high level allow deep penetration of daylight without direct overlooking from adjacent units; creating a light, open, voluminous space far removed from the temporary nature of many post natural disaster housing schemes. Commenting on winning the prize, Colin Macgadie, Co-Founder of FEL said: “For Everyday Life is an emerging design studio and creative consultancy with a mission to “Shape what’s next”. Our ambitions could not be more aligned with Initiative 99 and ICON.” Jorge Mendez-Caceres, Co-Founder at FEL said:“The Housing Salinas project highlights our commitment to creating a vibrant and sustainable solution that could be measured against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The ambition is to provide more than just houses; there is an aspiration to cultivate a harmonious living environment that prioritises social inclusivity, environmental responsibility, and economic prosperity.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company today announced a partnership between its Affinity Insurance business and Kayna, the award-winning insurance infrastructure platform. The partnership has been developed to enable delivery of innovative WTW insurance solutions to SME clients in the UK and US through Vertical Software-as-a-Service (‘vSaaS’) platforms. Vertical SaaS platforms provide types of software solutions which are created for specific industries and the partnership between WTW and Kayna intends to provide full program administration for US and UK-based industry-specific platforms in the construction, legal, salon/spa, fitness and field service sectors, distributing tailored insurance solutions. Specialist WTW teams in the UK and US will lead the product development and broker all insurance offerings as the company affirms its primary focus to delivering next generation distribution for the fast-growing Affinity Insurance sector. The partnership between WTW Affinity and Kayna will enable WTW to distribute property, general liability, workers’ compensation, commercial auto and umbrella liability insurance solutions to industry-specific vSaaS platforms. The partnership aims to drive top-line growth for vSaaS platform providers by leveraging platform data to serve relevant, tailored insurance through a streamlined process direct to the customer base that use such platforms to run their day-to-day business operations. “This is Affinity Insurance 2.0”, said Paul Lubbers, Head of Affinity and Programs US at WTW. “Insurance at your fingertips, forms derived from the actual key data that informs insurance metrics, and a facilitated process that goes beyond the policy purchase to trigger alerts if coverage level needs to be updated to mitigate risk. Both WTW and Kayna are playing to our respective strengths in delivering a world-class solution that is set to play a pivotal role in our consumer and commercial programs across the US.” Anthony Borgman, Head of Affinity GB at WTW concluded, “WTW Affinity have been able to add our unique value and expertise to the delivery of a data-led, end-to-end insurance service to not only deliver value but provide greater confidence to SME’s seeking appropriate levels of protection. I am delighted to see our UK Affinity capabilities expand in this exciting way and to have this opportunity to build on our partnership for the long-term.” Commenting on the partnership, Paul Prendergast, CEO and Kayna co-founder, said, “This is all about driving lots of new types of data-led, automated, simplified insurance business, tapping into huge distribution opportunities and doing all the heavy lifting for vSaaS platforms and their customers. WTW powered by Kayna will be providing trusted full service, tailored insurance solutions direct to SMEs via platforms whose core business is not insurance but whose rich, curated SME data is the critical success factor in ensuring right-sized insurance cover.” Key aspects of the partnership include: ● Kayna technology empowers WTW-brokered products on any vSaaS platform. ● Kayna deploys low-code end-to-end orchestration layer. ● Kayna technology enables WTW insurance distribution and the ability for platform customers to engage with indicative quotes, pre-filled applications, and policy generation. ● vSaaS platform leverages its data via Kayna technology to provide relevant, right-sized policy offers for SME customers. ● Kayna technology allows WTW to provide real-time alerts on coverage exposure based on dynamic business changes across the life-time of the policy. ● vSaaS SME customers can manage their insurance policy portfolios with full access on the WTW platform to: Insurance documentation, certificate of Insurance and general account information – fees paid, renewal dates, claims status. ● vSaaS platform has oversight on activity via a comprehensive admin portal. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
