It’s About Flow
More than just elevators…
If you spent time on the A’18 Expo floor at the National AIA Convention in NYC last month like we did, you saw how nearly every building product manufacturer was showcasing the advanced technology features of their latest product lines. While integration of smart tech into building products isn’t new, the way in which manufacturers now utilize smart design is pointing us to a future where AI enhances our personal experiences within the built environment.
One specific manufacturer that caught our eye was Kone Corporation. Kone is a global leader in vertical transportation, i.e. elevators and escalators, and building access control systems. After experiencing their interactive booth at A’18, it was clear to us why. We spoke with Patrick O’Connell, Kone’s Head of Marketing & Communications at Americas HQ about some of their innovative new products, including their Savioke Robot, which debuted at the newly opened EMC2 hotel in Chicago.
Developed in a partnership between Kone and Savioke, the two specific robots you’ll find at EMC2 were named Leo and Cleo by hotel staff. These friendly robots serve as a kind of non-intrusive elevator operator in the hotel’s lobby. The elevators and robots are networked, meaning Leo or Cleo can call the elevator as they sense people approaching the elevator lobby. If they sense that the elevator is full, they will automatically call another before the doors close on the first one.
But what’s even more advanced about these robots is that they can also deliver goods to the hotel guests in their rooms! Patrick used the example of arriving at the hotel, unpacking your belongings, and realizing you forgot to pack your toothbrush — Kone conveniently had travel sized toothbrushes to demonstrate this feature for us at A’18 with their other robot, Elly. At EMC2, you’d phone the front desk to request a toothbrush. A hotel employee would put a brand new toothbrush into a secure console in Leo or Cleo, and program it with your room number. The robot navigates its way to the elevator, communicates the floor destination to the elevator control system, then navigates to your room. It hasn’t learned to knock yet, so when it arrives at your door, you’ll receive a pop up notification on your TV and phone letting you know your toothbrush has arrived. If you give Cleo or Leo a 5-star rating on the spot, it will even do a little happy dance for you!
Patrick told us how Kone’s product development teams are now intently studying how smart tech can be integrated into seemingly traditional systems to provide enhanced user satisfaction and experiences that goes beyond simple product improvements. Another product Patrick introduced us to, Kone’s new Access Turnstyle, does just that.
Turnstiles are now a ubiquitous part of life, whether for transportation infrastructure, office and apartment building security, or cultural institutions. Currently even the best solutions are awkward, if not maddening, experiences as you fumble for your access card and the gates open too slowly and close too quickly. Kone’s engineers realized they needed to improve people flow — and to do that they had to evaluate the whole arrival process. So they integrated building, turnstile and elevator access with your smartphone. For Pre-known floor destinations, Kone utilizes low energy bluetooth to enable its turnstiles to know what floor you’re going to. Swipe your phone at the turnstile, and it assigns you an elevator that quickly whisks you to your floor.
“We’re creating what we call ‘people flow.’ We want to make it efficient and really kind of a cool experience for people inside lobbies,” Patrick explained. “ The modern elevator cabs don’t have individual floor buttons, so the user sometimes has a little trepidation over seemingly having no control. But once you tell the elevator what floor you’re going to, it will get you there without stopping on a bunch of other floors, making for a much more seamless and satisfying experience.”
Kone has taken what’s normally a rote and sometimes annoying experience in building lobbies — stutter-stepping through a finicky turnstile, waiting forever for an elevator to arrive, reaching through people in a crowded cab to press your floor button, multiple floor stops when you’re in a rush — and has turned it into a more seamless experience for all of their users.
Examples like this is how we see the future of technology impacting product development and how we, as architects, should be thinking about designing experiences for the occupants of the buildings we design.
Stay tuned for more blog posts in the coming weeks that examine more innovative manufacturers and building products we saw at A’18. If you’d like to see more of Kone’s elevator products, go to their website, or search for some of them in Arazoo’s Global Library and save them to a project on Arazoo.
