The financial future of the Built World looks more like SaaS software or an Apple subscription bundle.
The places we spend our time have become increasingly important in recent years as offices struggle to regain traffic, consumer venues draw in the masses and work from anywhere is now the norm. Where we work, relax, and recreate now compete for our attention, time, and money.
As somebody intimately interested in elevating the quality of experience in our Built World I think quite a bit about its evolution and advancement.
I dont think anyone wants to see our Built World languish and struggle, most want it to improve. The Internet of Places is upon us and The Built World must own their experience.
So how do we upgrade our Built World?
OWN THE EXPERIENCE
The elegance of our future architecture and design will take into incorporation how well a building or property responds to its inhabitants needs. Not simply a Physical Envelope, but a Digital Sphere as well. At the same time owners and operators’ revenues will flourish through completely new services. These services and amenities are essentially the “Experience of the Property.”
I break them into 3 key suites;
GUEST SERVICES AND AMENITIES
Imagine an office that greets you with your coffee and breakfast, schedules your appointments and reserves your spot in the evening fitness class. Or a hotel that books your reservations and sets you up with a personal training session complete with healthy meals and snacks.
This kind of interaction is already happening as we create relationships with our spaces. Voice, app, website, or text you are able to communicate with your space. By layering services, amenities, and features on commercial, residential, medical, and retail properties, we can make our guest’s visits more seamlessly productive and unlock new revenue streams for property owners.
CREATING ONLOCATION MEDIA + PROMOTION
I have written about this often. There is nearly endless media inventory we can create that sits directly among our consumer’s daily journeys in mixed use, multi-brand and mall environments. Much of this is locked up in Augmented Reality and new implementations are surfacing every month.
EMBEDDING OPERATIONS
In turn imagine critically important digital services like loss prevention, security, and full access control being built into a space by a building’s owner or operator?
As an owner and operator the opportunities to upgrade productivity, experience, media opportunities, and create a more valuable property are endless.
FOR HUMANS, OUR FAVORITE PLACES
Seamless, Invisible and Pervasive.
When digital is inexorably wedded to the architecture of a building and a property it will just be your office, your home, your gym. Upgraded.
You will appreciate the personalization and consideration of digital upgrades to a physical space. As our lifestyles are no longer simply physical our favorite places will blend both beautifully.
FOR OWNERS, OUR PROFITABLE BUSINESSES
Smart property owners must take this page from the SaaS and direct-to-consumer playbook and building digital architecture. By engaging, personalizing, and interacting with their inhabitants, they can create a new revenue platform of amenities and services to layer into their properties. It will be programmable, upgradable, and valuable on a monthly subscription basis.
It’s no longer just about square footage; properties must offer more to remain viable. The built world is not just a dumb property, a building, or a city. It’s an ecosystem that needs the support of a digital enterprise.
Companies that fail to engage directly with customers, visitors, guests, patients, tenants, and inhabitants will suffer, while those that do will have a whole new platform for higher-margin software, services, and upgrades.
