“You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it requires people to make the dream a reality.” – Walt Disney
Our vision at Macutex is Better Buildings for a Better Tomorrow.
The key players in this conversation are of course the physical elements that go into the construction of the building, and people that drive why and how the building exists.
To the question of what is a better building?, there are more influencing factors, qualifications and considerations than answers to this question.
The obvious responses to what makes a building better may include it is one that is safe, healthy, compliant, environmentally sustainable, providing a financial return, accessible, utilises smart building technology, simple to maintain, and fit for purpose.
What if we were to broaden our thinking? Here are three not so obvious ways we believe buildings can be better, and help create a better tomorrow:
1. Digitally accessible – Whilst technology is not quite there to instantly teleport us to a different location “beam me up Scotty” style, we can certainly be onsite from anywhere in the virtual digital world. Through the creation of 3D digital models of a site our understanding of what is there, appreciation of the risks and opportunities, and our decision making can all be done as if we were actually there on site. Not only is this of extreme value for asset management purposes, such virtual accessibility can also help businesses to continue to engage with their customers even if people can longer physically attend.
2. Contributing to the advancement in technology – and by this we’re not talking about installing new technology in the name of smart buildings. The fact that a building exists, and no doubt has been the subject to a significant number of photos being taken over its lifetime, means it can be a valuable contributor to the greater good. Future advancement in industry efficiency and enhanced value will be driven by artificial intelligence including the development and training of image recognition-based machine learning. The greater volume and diversity of inputs to industry AI/ML models, the greater efficiency, accuracy and reliability of tomorrow’s solutions. Every building has a visual story to tell and potential to make things better.
3. Building Opportunity: unlocking potential where places, problems and people co-exist – what if we could help solve significant problems in the world such as poverty, homelessness and mental health concerns in regional communities by unlocking the potential within the built environment and consequently the potential in people. Surely, it’s better that abandoned and disused Government assets are re-purposed for community use stimulating social, economic and artistic activity; or premises temporarily vacant awaiting planning and development approval could be transformed into crisis accommodation for the vulnerable. What if we saw the opportunity in buildings to unlock the power of our potential to solve such problems?
If you have a thought, idea or strong opinion on what makes a building better we’d love to know. Also stay tuned for our soon to released campaign on Building Opportunities.