5 Modern Office Building Technologies

November 24, 2020 Don Catalano Don Catalano

Office buildings aren't just spaces to work anymore. Instead, they're force multipliers for workforces.  Modern office technologies don't just make buildings more efficient. They support their occupants by making them more comfortable, more collaborative, safer, and more productive. Here are some modern office technologies to look for in your next office space.

 

1. Cellular Boosters

As the desk phone slowly becomes obsolete, the mobile phone becomes more ubiquitous.  This lets workers be in touch and productive anywhere while allowing them to seamlessly blend working at home, off-site, and at the office. However, a cell phone is only as strong as the signal that is available to it. Given that cellular radios don't always cope well with metal, concrete, other nearby phones, and all of the other challenges that come with managing wireless devices in densely-packed office buildings, a good cell signal isn't something that you can take for granted at work.

 

Cellular signal boosters are modern office building technologies that combine a receiving antenna, an amplifier, and a transmitting antenna. They pick up a cellular signal from outside the building and make it stronger so that everyone in the building can enjoy five (or so) bars of strong cell service. At the same time, they also pick up the signals from devices inside the building and amplify them so that they can make it to the cell systems' antennas and out to the world.

 

2. Proximity Sensors

Whether it's an RFID card, Bluetooth trackers, or apps that pay attention to your mobile phone (see! there they are again!), modern office buildings can see you and can see where you are.  While simple motion detection powers things like bathroom or storage room lights that turn themselves on, a building that can track people and their movements can do much more to apply technologies to help workers.

 

3. Automatic Disinfection

Ultraviolet light kills a whole host of pathogens -- COVID, Ebola, and even the common cold and flu. Unfortunately, research has not shown that it is safe for humans to be bathed in it. Enter proximity sensors. Not only can a building know that a room is empty -- and safe to disinfect -- but it can also know when no one is nearby, meaning that it can safely complete its cleaning cycle.

 

4. Smart Elevators

In a pandemic, elevators can be terrifying, since they're confined spaces where you breathe a stranger's exhalations. Plus, you end up waiting in busy elevator lobbies, frequently with other people, for that elevator to come, further increasing your exposure.  Smart elevators minimize both of these issues. Imagine if an elevator system knows when you arrive in the building and knows that you work on the fourteenth floor.  It can. And it can send an elevator to you. And, maybe, ensure that you share it with a co-worker who is going to the same place and with whom you feel safe sharing a small space.  The same smart elevator system can ensure that the car rides back down for the next occupants empty so that it can disinfect itself or flush itself with fresh air.

 

5. Adaptive HVAC and Lighting

Smart buildings can also keep you comfortable.  If it knows where you are, knows that you have a meeting in 30 minutes, and knows that you prefer things to be warm -- even in summer -- it can warm that conference room up to 72 degrees so that you're comfortable when you get there. And if it knows that you got in early, it can begin changing the color of the lights in the evening to help you relax and prepare to head home.  Conversely, if it knows that you need to burn the midnight oil (8 pm? Deadline on your calendar for tomorrow? Still working?), it can crank up the lights and turn down the temperature to keep you alert and working.

 

Here are a few other articles we think you'll enjoy:

Office Space & The New Normal

The New Normal - Office Design Post COVID-19

Ways to Restructure CRE Leases in the COVID-19 Era

 

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