With all due respect, having worked on a large conversion, the elevators is the least of the problems. The real challenges are rezoning, different safety requirements, all new plumbing, electrical, ventilation, fire systems, loads, parkings….
I was thinking the same thing, in fact in the building they are talking about, you can see that the residential floors has a completely different design to the rest of the building. How is that an example of the conversion from offices to residential?
I would imagine the utilities (supply and drain plumbing in particular) need to go in a lifted floor or a lowered ceiling? The offices depicted have plenty of headroom to accommodate that I suppose.
@@TrogdorBurnin8or yes, for a conversion you need to have all the new plumbing redirected in the dripped ceilings. The issue is how to deal with the noise of such plumbing, and also how to deal with the space taken by the ventilation. The requirements of water, ac and electricity are completely different. As well as noise control. Unless you have already designed the building to be sectioned in residential units from ten beginning, it might actually be cheaper to demolish everything and rebuild from scratch. And by doing that you know pretty much well in advance how much you are spending, when instead you do a renovation/conversion of an exsisting office building into residential everything is a surprise. And the cost cannot be budgeted.
I was wondering. It must be a nightmare to convert offices to apts and probably cost prohibitive. There was a beautiful conversion in my neighborhood recently of a midrise, but it was stripped down to the elevator core, support beams, and floorplates before being completely rebuilt
as others have pointed out, there are a lot of issues with converting commercial space to residential space, it looks like this innovation addresses one of those issues. as I understand it, the reason tall, multi-use buildings require separate elevator systems is because of the varying levels of security/access required by commercial, residential and hospitality tenants. it looks like this system is really a "smart" access system that uses the same elevators to let people go where they need to go and restrict them from places they shouldn't go...a little more exposition on how the system does this would have been interesting
The issue here is that a smart access system only works if there is a single person using the elevator. As soon as you have multiple people with different access codes using the elevator at the same time everyone will have the ability to go anywhere.
@klyis -- there are a few ways to solve this. One is, just have additional badge access after you exit the elevator. Another is to disallow mixed security passengers on the same trip. I suspect some combination of both is the way to go.
I have lived in I mixed, commercial and residential building for more than 30 years in the middle of the city, and we have had the same security/access system since day one. It's nothing different or innovative.
In other videos on converting office space to apartments the biggest challenge was bathrooms. Offices have one centrally located large bathroom with multiple stalls not at all what an apartment needs
This video is just a badly disguised advertisement for an elevator manufacturer. They haven’t really come up with anything groundbreaking, and it’s not even the biggest issue to be solved in mixed used skyscrapers.
@@miroslavmilan It's actually a non-issue. Why would I care if there are office workers that enter the building through the same lobby and use the same elevators? As a resident I'd know that I'm in a multi-purpose building, and what to expect from that. The only real issue is unauthorized access, but that can be minimized by access-controlled doors at the residential floors.
@@Volkbrechtit's the other way around. Visited a friend in an apartment. It's shared. I was blocked from the bank and companies using the building. In office buildings that allow people off the street to just enter, you usually have to pass a security desk at the bottom, then each floor has a lobby. If you get off at the wrong floor you usually get flagged by security. Lots of the floors will be totally closed to the public so stepping off in them without a bade causes a security response. Sure you could just open the whole building up totally to the public, but then no companies will rent there.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
@@Fr00ter that's not new. the video was supposed to be about converting offices into residential units, which would be an absolute game changer in the real-estate investment world.
Isn't that like Apple approach of introducing already existing thing as revolutionary by just naming it differently and presenting it in such a way, you would think "Wow, I never knew how good that is".
As a german this gives me the feeling, that this story is really true. Discovering something thats allready in use in a lot of countrys, maybe since decades, and selling it as the new hot shi** is so common for this country. We are a so far behind, it can damage your brain.
exactly what I was thinking, I clicked to see a video where the wheel is possibly reinvented, and I ended up watching a video of kindergarteners learning the alphabet. 😂 😂
This is the weirdest B1M video I’ve ever seen. Like, I appreciate that Schindler has experience with mixed-use high rises, and that it’s going to be important as office demand decreases in central business districts, but I didn’t take away any insight into what this approach to elevators actually means in practice other than having two doors, something all of the high rises I’ve lived in already had.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
The way they separated the office lobby from the living lobby is smart but I don't really see why that's strictly necessary. It's still the same property managemer, right?
Because it didn't, elevators with dual openings are common, I don't understand why they had to make a video about it and try to make it look as if this was a revolutionary element in a dual-purpose building.
I think the idea is that if you enter from one side, ie the residential side, you know you won't have to make stops on the office floors and vice versa. Instead of the separate elevator concept of traditional mixed use building.
That's because it is so simple it's stupid. If you open the door to the elevator from the residential lobby and go inside, the elevator will only go to the residential floors. If you open the ground floor door from the commercial lobby the elevator will only go to the commercial floors. Coming down it's the same concept, you get in on a residential floor, when you get to the ground, it only opens the door to the residential lobby. And visa versa for commercial space. So one set of elevators behave as if they were two sets. You go up and down and the elevator opens the right door for you, as opposed to traditional two door elevators where you could chose to open either door and go to any floor, or at least stick in a special access card to identify where you can go.
@@jerryklosek5589 So this essentially blocks off an elevator from others to use if someone from one lobby enters it? Which could lead to a longer waiting time - and less efficiency?
I would have thought the biggest challenge skyscrapers face when turning them into residential would be the lack of sunlight by the cores and therefor apartments would almost have to be entirely open plan with the kitchen and toilets close to the core and then just one huge open space for the rest of the flat?
That's the primary problem in NYC, where there are laws mandating the presence of windows in all rooms. Most office buildings have windowless rooms in their cores. As pressure to convert buildings increases - the real estate industry is nearly omnipotent - I expect that these laws will be modified.
@@simontistNatural light is the benchmark, but a view of the outside is the real driver. Otherwise they could have piped in natural light using shafts, without modern tech.
Interesting. When you mentioned 'the biggest problem with converting offices to residential' my first thought wasn't elevators. It was plumbing. Most people renting a high-rise apartment probably aren't going to be happy with a shared bathroom at the end of the hall. They probably also want at least a minimalist kitchen with a sink containing a garbage disposal. This is A LOT of plumbing, and it is now distributed all over the floor. How is this going to be handled? You are likely to have to increase the size of the water supply, the size of central water heating (perhaps per floor), and greatly increase the number of and capacity of sanitary drains to deal with the multitudes of showers, toilets, and kitchen sinks. I think an article on how this can be done would be interesting and useful.
As others have pointed out, sunlight would also be a huge issue, as offices have large amounts of windowless space while there are building codes that require a window in every room in housing.
or you could just say the biggest problem of turning offices to residential flats is the cost of turning them into residential flats. this whole elevator topic was a clickbait
Or balconies, gardens or parks and supermarkets, places of worship, childcare and other family amenities, children playground, schools and nature etc. Not everyone wants to live in the city centre of skyscrapers. It is more soulless, cold, corporate, transient and stressful. Maybe single people or childless couples who work most of the time and have no life. Families actually prefer suburbs, leafy green spaces to relax in, individual houses and gardens. It is a more cosy and family oriented place.
It can be done with modern vacuum sanitary plumbing originally developed for cruise ships but now commonly used on land in prisons, hospitals, stadiums, and high rise buildings. Plumbing can be in the ceiling and toilet fittings use a fraction of the amount of water that standard fittings do. They can also be moved about easily if needed.
I hope Schindler wasn't given a patient for an elevator with two doors. This seemed more like an advertisement than your normal video, then I saw the sponsor. Your past programs have been so good.
Well, it's a nice building, if i where that company i pay advertisment too. The Big issue with shared elevator is your boss seeing you in pijamas going out while you called saying youre sick today.
So I'm confused, the reason you can't take a normal building with normal elevators and turn it into a residential tower is because people would "feel like they're in an office" - whatever that means... ?
There are different codes and requirements for residential and commercial construction projects because both spaces are used in vastly different ways by vastly different people.
Kitchens need exhaust, bathrooms need separate exhaust, plumbing vent and drain, lots of them. windows for each room. The overall footprint is more suited for large openness so light can get to each desk. Residential is small rooms unless it’s a youth hostel or military dormitory. Some buildings could work others too awkward.
@@TheB1M Cambridge UK, we do not have good transportation between the some of the surrounding towns and the main city for employment. We do have a train line in Cambridge, but it doesn't serve places which are affordable to live. Places like Landbeach/ Waterbeach which are on the train line become to expensive to live. London and Cambridge have the same house/rent pricing issue. Love the videos, by the way.
@@catfactsukimagine crying about public transport in the UK there is a lot of trains and country ain't that big so complaining about driving shouldn't be a thing
So just that I get this correctly: The actual issue here is that you want seperate lobbies for some reason, right? Because if you had a mixed lobby, there would be no issue with the elevator. In the video it is presented like an obvious fact, that work and residential people have to be completely separated but to me that really isn't obvious. Maybe I am missing something here. I think as a visitor I would find it quite confusing, if I had to use different entries for different floors. Also, do Visitors also need to install an App to use an Elevator of a Building they are just visiting?
I don't know if this is another clumsy brand deal or content is getting thin right now, but I think we're all aware why elevators are not the limiting factor in converting an office to an apartment or vice versa. The spaces are just way too dissimilar, save for creating giant ultra luxury millionaire apartments that we do NOT need more of.
Our old office was in the same building as flats. Every time someone burned toast the entire building had to evacuate and it happened 6 or 7 times a month
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 i guess their productivity was toast 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
In New York there are additional challenges in converting office buildings to residential, because of the differences in building codes. The residential codes require a window in every room, while office workers were never afforded that. Many modern office buildings have huge floors, that used to be filled with little cubes. That doesn't work as bedrooms.
In Germany natural light is required for workplaces, so the us-typical cubicle system would not be legal. But other than that I agree. You would need permits and put up (or tear down) walls and reroute plumbing, depending on the exact floor plans.
Not sure if you guys are aware, but the subtitles from around 7m30 suddenly go crazy and include your filming notes with ideas and questions about what should be added. They also suddenly go super fast too (guessing as it’s the captions of the video and the notes) so impossible to read. I will take this moment to thank you guys as a channel though for adding human written captions. As a deaf person, auto captions make watching and enjoying UA-cam videos really hard, so any channels that take the time to add human written ones get my extra appreciation. Just thought you may want to know what’s happening on this one, maybe an upload glitch?
I also really appreciate human-made captions :) the auto-generated are ok if you can hear and self correct but human curators are much more thoughtful and include context as well sometimes which is nice
Sorry, but actually although potential interesting, this video did not explain anything on how this new concept works. A lot of big words with a little meaning.
While going over various elevator setups is interesting, this seems like a minor/tertiary issue when you are supposedly asserting to have 'solved the empty skyscraper problem'. There are just so many more significant barriers to changing a commercial tower into a mixed use/residential tower than getting a more efficient elevator service design.
No, there are just more equally ranked problem. Lot's of details, but nothing really complicated. Modern Underfloor-shower might be the only thing, that goes into the floor itself. And that's the only thing you have to keep. Floors and outside Windows.
This makes no sense. The problem with converting offices to apartments isn’t some weird hang up about keeping the two kinds of residents from ever seeing each other, it’s the plumbing.
I love that they think the big reason we can't use empty offices to solve the housing crisis is that executives don't want to ride with the poors in elevators. If only it were that easy, i suspect it has much more to do with the plumbing (one bathroom per floor in an office building vs 1-2 per apartment and a kitchen too) and the large amount of windowless interior space of large-volume office buildings. If you didn't build for dual use, retrofitting is expensive and may just not work at all.
Well in UK apartment high rises they make sure 'afforrdable' 😂 apartments always have separate entrance & (and a lobby/parking if the developer was feeling generous) lift in too keep the rich hermetically sealed in their luxury and protected from being contaminated by the poor....
@@krashd Through 2 separate lobbies so that the 2 groups never intermix or even see each other. Their point still stands, though the less snide reasoning would be for security. The system works by using an app on your phone to designate whether you're going to an apartment level or an office, and then grouping people up into specific elevators to isolate the 2 groups, making sure an elevator with workers won't stop at any of the apartments and vice versa.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
Fred, I read an article a couple decades ago about challenges to office building conversion. At the time the thinking was that the biggest challenge was insufficient floor height to allow for retrofitting the plumbing required for residences. Has this been solved?
The challenge is actually the other way around. Office floor-to-floor is typcially higher than residential due to taller ceilings. When building for dual purpose on day 1, the residential floors would come in more expensive as they would be built with a higher floor to floor than typically required. Advantage is to be able to run plumbing and services in the resulting ceiling void, but comes at a cost due to added structure and facade that a purely apartment or hotel building wouldn't need.
@@danjelowitsch thats true but with the rediculous mismatch of vacancy rates to need, the improved revenue from making it mixed use would almost certainly dwarf any extra cost - and in the case of all the existing commercial structures, the cost was already built in. Plus a lot of extra uses for taller spaces in residential are possible.
Yes, the solution is vacuum plumbing which is used on ships and aircraft and in many large buildings such as hospitals stadiums and hotels. The manufacturers of these systems have websites. Another advantage is that vacuum toilets use much less water than normal fixtures.
@@adriandunne4382 Quite possibly these might work in some situations. I’ve worked on cruise ships however, and can vouch that these systems are not nearly as trouble-free as their promoters claim.
This solution has actually been around for a while, although this may be the first new construction to use this technique. I remember presenting smart elevators in one of my presentations back in undergrad and that was lets say a few years ago. But I know some buildings in Japan are using a similar system to some success. But here in the US, the problem is more so the plumbing issue rather than the elevators (I am not sure what they are doing about that, but the number of office tower conversions is going up, especially in NYC). Nice tech all the same although I am not sure how much I would want to rely on my cellphone for building access.
Plumbing and floor plate size. Some of the larger floor plates require some way to get more light to the core, either by adding a courtyard ($$$) or changing the rules to allow artificial lighting in bedrooms. I suspect the other utilities (including elevators) are also tricky, but probably not nearly as bad as those.
There are. Office buildings in DC are being converted to residential use, and they have to strip everything down to reconfigure the plumbing, the electrical wiring, the layout, etc.
I believe the Comcast Technology & Innovation Center does something similar with it having separate Atriums / lobbies for the office space and the Four Seasons hotel that exists at the highest floors and is the highest hotel in North America. You guys should do a video on Philadelphia as it has grown quite a lot in the past decade or so and the Schuykill Yards project or the Bellwether District are two huge massive projects underway to transform an entire city, bringing it into a sustainable future an pushing it further forward on the world stage.
Plumbing (drainage & water lines) would also be a huge challenge , particularly if you’re looking at an existing building. Elevators are used like a bus not a car, multiple floor stops. You are back to needing large numbers if they don’t stop on every floor?
It seems they do serve every floor, unlike the example with adding extra shafts. If no one is using the residential lobbies all of the lifts can serve the office lobbies, and vice versa. It’s just that, on a per lift car basis, if they’re currently serving a residential floor in that moment they don’t seem to take on anyone from the office lobbies. (It’s unclear if that even includes people who live in the same building going home from work, or if an exception is made based on the destination.)
Each elevator seems to be designated to a specific use based on demand by some sort of computer system linked up to an app on your phone. Its not really explained in the video, but I saw other people saying that you walk into the building, and the app tells you which elevator to go to. If you're going to a floor of offices, then that elevator won't stop at any residential floors on its way up, even if people on the apartment floors call an elevator, and vice versa. It's essentially just a keycard system hooked up to a computer that computes demand and assigns elevators accordingly, but uses an app on your phone to tell you which elevators to use. Since the apartments in this building divide the office spaces into 2 sections, it would be interesting if the system could further designate between the 2 sets of offices to essentially act as "express" elevators to the upper offices, but there's no mention of that in the video. I still feel like the elevators are one of the lesser issues in converting skyscrapers though.
The new Ritz Carlton tower in Mexico City works similar to this. The hotel has apartments, offices, hotels, commercial space and restaurants. The elevators have multiple doors depending on where you want to go. The car garage is also pretty impressive as it stores the vehicles via a lift system.
We need some of this in Australia. Residential building quality here is awful, but commercial building owners have a larger incentive to build to high standards. We need livable, comfortable dense housing to stop the endless suburban sprawl and ridiculous commute times
Oh my gosh so true. I live in the Sydney CBD and my residential building is absolutely terrible. Walls, ceiling and floors must be made of paper, I can hear my neighbors all the time, even just talking 😢
Seems to be a really new thing to the new world. It's the default in Europe. Ground floor is shops, first floor is doctors, lawers, small offices, and above is residential. Traditionally it's only 4-6 floor buildings. Not all people like to live on the 20th floor or so. You have to get used to this. Simple reason is , there is no space for any "suburban sprawl". In 20km distance there is the next downtown of the next city.
I don't get it. How is this any different than just any old building having one bank of elevators serving multiple uses? Just because your smartphone tells you which elevator to take doesn't make this fundamentally different than if one were to just walk in and take the first available elevator to whatever floor by pushing the button to the floor they want, whether residential or office.
I looked it up because you made me curious - this company came first. It was founded in 1874 making agricultural machinery and was making elevators/lifts by the end of that century.
In most office to commercial conversions, the elevators are the least of the problem. Think about the last big office you worked in. Picture where the bathrooms were. That’s the only place on that floor with plumbing. Once you break up that floor into apartments, every one of those apartments needs running water, separate heating/AC and other utilities. That office building you are imagining probably doesn’t have space for this. In many cases it’s cheaper to tear it down and rebuild than to convert… unless it was designed from the beginning to be modular. Most skyscrapers aren’t designed that way.
And people moving into those apartments might be making a lot of noise. Are they going to be just serviced apartments for short term rent? Because they can't be long termed since if individually owned, people might want to do some renovations to it, then what about the noise?
In Malaysia, we have mix use building/skyscraper. There's mall, office space and apartment in one and a rooftop garden. That's making your day more pleasant and don't have to commute on heavy traffic.
The biggest challenge in converting to residential is the plumbing risers for kitchens and bathrooms, and the ventilation shafts or risers required by code. These are traditionally close to the core as well and not located near the curtain wall. Bizarre that this video gets so excited about elevator operational controls as a sweeping remedy.
Our group does a lot of work on high rise apts and offices in Houston. Most towers are single purpose, or converted from office to residential. Mixed use is extremely rare. Doesnt seem like there is enough demand.
@@catzzzvb Or maybe people appearing in a video, especially when said video features interview sections, will be aware of what channel said video will go on and will then seek that video out and make a comment. This is not unusual at all. No deals of any sort needed. Happens all the time.
what happens if the visitor don't have the app? what about if your phone's battery is drained? the lobbies are different, because there are doors on both sides of the elevator? what if someone didn't get out on their floor, and then another person get in the elevator for another floor that's not residential or comercial? so many unanswered questions...
I was figuratively scratching my head for this entire video until you revealed the sponsorship at the end. As others have said, the elevators are only a minor part of converting from office to residential use, or mixed use design. Far more important are things like the shape of the building to allow natural light, redundant utilities for easier future conversion between uses, etc. I assume this tower in Frankfurt has these elements as well, or else converting office floors to residential use in the future would be just as difficult as converting any old office tower currently is. Also, I don't believe this elevator technology is particularly new. Frankly, this video is below your usual standards. I don't feel I learned anything from it. If you wanted to do this sponsorship you should have integrated it into a larger piece about future planning for easier conversion between uses.
I find this very convoluted for a pretty minor issue. You don't want to feel like you live in an office building? Well, you do, and hell, who cares? I'd live there.
-We wanted to have residence housing in the office building. We used to have residence and hotel in skyscrpers. -So this is not new? -It is totally new since we have elevator opening in BOOTH sides!!! -No way man, thats some space tech. I mean our elevators in plazas and malls have this, but this have to be some different level. -Well, just like the idea to have residence levels in a skyscraper. TOTALLY NEW. :D What is this bs? This video failed to explain whats so new here.
No discussion about the issue of plumbing needed for residential conversion, or the extra cost of including it during the build to provide multi-purpose spaces.
So I thought that I was going to learn something new but then I watched the video and there are a lot of problems from a real estate development point of view: 1) Residential has different infrastructure compared to Commercial in terms of plumbing, ceiling height, fiber optics, power supply, and window regulations. You are increasing the building costs for both to handle both. 2) Commercial prefers new build since they are taking out a loan anyway 3) Commercial likes to build to their own specs, so another reason for new build 4) We need so much new housing, there is a housing shortage, so why would we ever then switch from residential to commercial? 5) And in most US cities they'd need to come up with a new building regulations to make this legal
I used to work in a skyscraper in Manhattan that was later converted into high-end condos. The movie "Tower Heist" was filmed there. It was a surreal moment seeing former office spaces shown as high rise apartments.
I'd love to see a deeper video on this. Double sided elevators have been a thing for a while, I'd be interested in a deeper dive into how this system differs and is configured
Yeah, video is just a badly disguised advertisement for an elevator manufacturer. They haven’t really come up with anything groundbreaking, and it’s not even the biggest issue to be solved in mixed used skyscrapers.
It's basically a luxury concern. The planners could afford to waste space on two separate lobbies, something that would only be of concern to upper class residents who can afford to not want to come in contact with the unwashed masses on their way to work.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
What we'd need are not just elevators, but extra tall floor-to-floors and 18" allowance from plumbing/drains to be built beneath raised platform floors that would allow for 'easy' reconfiguration without cutting through the slab/steel deck. Also, allowances to have bedrooms without natural light (in large floor plates) and inoperable windows...
Vacuum plumbing enables plumbing to be run in the ceiling and also dispenses with large water tanks as a vacuum toilet requires only about 250ml of water to flush. These systems are widely used in schools, hospitals, hotels, prisons, apartments and stadiums as well as on various forms of transport. Some office buildings already use vacuum systems especially where additional facilities are required for executives, call centers and other additional requirements.
TIL: In the UK, "Science" is another category of land use, like "Residential" and "Commercial". Great video. With that said, I have no idea why they'd be forced to use single-use elevators in the first place.
Oh, what a surprise, i would never have imagined office space vacancy might increase following the boom in remote work |it all started rapidly in spring 2020.
If I understand it correctly. Every shaft has 2 entrances a front and a back. If you press the call elevator on the front the elevator will only accept inputs that bring you to front access floors (in this case commercial) And if you press the call button on the backside the elevator will only accept inputs for floors where the backside is available. This also prevents unwanted ride alongs as the elevator won't allow the frontside to be called or opened while it's in backside use. It's pretty clever and could easily be expanded by having a second lobby floor only accessable via escalator or something which allows access to another 2 subsections or the building. Or you can split/combine the shafts as you see fit. (though it requires some rebuilding of the ground floor)
@@profwaldoneThat sounds like less function per elevator. I work in a building that has done the second door and lockout thing with physical keys since the 60s and it's the opposite of more efficient. They specifically avoid using them when the elevators are in high demand.
Canary Wharf is emptying out, but I've noticed that the City of London is more bustling than ever, with firms like HSBC even relocating their HQ from Canary Wharf to the City. I think it has to do with the culture - if your office is around the City, the expectations are that you'll be in the office 5 days a week, or at the very minimum, 3. Sucks, but it is what it is.
I didn’t know HSBC moved headquarters! Fascinating. I wonder if in 100 years Canary Wharf will be viewed as just a blip of the financial-fanaticism of the 80s… I wouldn’t mind if it was just regular mid-rise flats like so much else of the Docklands tbh.
I've never understood the appeal of Canary wharf. Unless you live in one of the flats close by. It is a pain to get to from the rest of London. Having said that the view from the 48th Floor of 1 Canada Square is impressive on a clear day.
Of all the problems that have to be solved with flexible usage, then the addition of programmable elevators seems to me to be one of the simpler ones. The most difficult is surely going to be about the other infrastructure services that need to be sorted out. Of those, I would pick out something as basic as plumbing as the most challenging. Any office is going to have a need for perhaps 2-4 locations on each floor where toilets are required. Perhaps some kitchenette type facilities. For this, then all the plumbing can be concentrated, vertically, in just a very few locations. However, when it comes to apartments, then they are each going to require a bathroom or two, as well as a kitchen. Maybe a dozen apartments a floor, and then the plumbing infrastructure is going to be well dispersed, and you can't easily have vertical runs as there may be an office beneath. Waste tends to have minimum fall requirements. Even more demanding will be catering for hotel type accommodation, when each room will required its own plumbing infrastructure, and again traditional, vertically aligned services are going to be problematic. There are other services which have to be dealt with, like electricity, telecoms, security and ventilation, some rather simpler than others. Maybe the most intractable will be the lack of access to natural light at the core. Many countries have rules about what sort of habitable rooms must have access to natural light. That will limit the way in which buildings with large areas per floor can be used. It may be that kitchens and bathrooms without natural light are not a problem, but it will be for bedrooms and other living space in apartments. I'm not sure what the rules are for hotel rooms; there are cruise ships without natural light for inner cabins, but is that allowed for hotel rooms? Now a lot of this could be designed in, on a new building, although it will involve compromises. For an older building, much more problematical. Not to say that something can't be done, but it is not going to be easy.
They are elevators with two sets of doors that each open to different lobbies- residential and commercial. The two populations use the same elevator but never mix. This short unfortunately doesn’t explain this as well as the long form version.
Elevators with 2 doors have been around for a while. Keycard access for different levels has been around for a while, too. With 2 or 3 different levels of keycard security, the elevators could be programmed like this without need for an app. When I played Sim Tower as a kid, I assumed a lot of tall buildings had a mix of office and/or residential and/or hotel. When the Book Cadillac hotel in Detroit was re-opened in 2008, it had condos on some of the upper floors.
I thought the biggest problem with office to apartment conversions was bathrooms and kitchens. This is important too, and nifty, but the additional plumbing for separate spaces is a real challenge.
No @TheB1M - your material used to be of good quality, with in-depth detail. Now you are serving short snippets, without any real substance and clickbait titles.
This is an awesome example of thoughtful design from its inception. I’d be interested to see if this elevator solution can be retrofitted to revitalize an existing tower though.
I'm just glad I'm not the only one here not getting what's so great about those elevators... It's a very very very high level problem "people feel like in an office building" when they go to their appartments. Oh poor they.
But do the windows open? And are there balconies? Also, if the building is a large box, then the inside part will not have much natural light because it will be too far from windows.
The software side is the clever bit. It's easy to criticise, but I think most people don't appreciate the technical challenge involved in having everything working smoothly with bulletproof reliability.
No discussion about different needs to utilities between commercial and residential? Nobody is going to build an office building and install and massive amount of plumbing with the thought that maaaybe it will be turned into residential in the future. The elevators are definitely not the largest hold up in the current conversion.
I’m not sure if these are lobbies or communal office space he is filming in, with the 3m high ceilings and windows, but in modestly sized apartments, the big issue in office conversions is always having just one wall with windows, meaning your bedrooms and office are in the central part of the building with no view to the outside. After that, the problems are plumbing, hvac, electric etc.
They have been doing this in HongKong for about 60 years. A high rise can have shops, restaurants, offices, and residential. All in one tower. Sometimes even whole small factories.
Correct me if im wrong. if all floor has opening on the back. meaning ur single lift shaft have to have 2 corridor access for each floor. Additionally your existing lift core arrangement dictate the possibilty to upgrade to this lift system. ie. with common 2 x 2 lift core with perimeter corridor wont be able to accommodate to front and rear opening lift cart.
Im super confused as to why the elevator system is so complicated. Why can’t multi-use buildings just use the same lobby and/or elevators? I guess I can kind of understand wanting diff lobbies for professionalism/privacy, but is that it?
Floor to ceiling glass might look good at first but will cook you in sunny conditions forcing AC and create cold convection flows during cold conditions. Covering 70% of the windows with foil faced insulating foam could fix that.
My dad is in his 70's and still wears New Balance shoes. I've been using their running shoes since high school, they really are amongst the best running shoes.
So many problems with this, yet many can be addressed. Most of the problems are going to be how residential and commercial can seamlessly work when each require a lot of changes. Residential requires several things to work. Bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms/laundry rooms and kitchens. If you were to build the offices in such a way that you could change a floor in to a set of an apartments in no time flat. Most skyscrapers are around 200x100 feet or 20k square feet. If you were to ideally say that each apartment was 1500 square feet and the last 5000 was elevators and hallways. You could set up a 10 apartment/office floor that would have 3 bedrooms 3 baths. If done correctly you could ideally still have 30 offices and large open areas. Think of the bedrooms/bathrooms as being window rooms while the living/kitchen areas are the middle with window ends and the center the elevator/stairs and hallways. This would create a square type area when it was opened up. The plumbing could be sealed off at floor level and the vent sealed in the ceiling. With in the ceiling would be the firewall sections where the apartment walls would be and they could be slipped back in. It would only take a small amount of work to remove the ceiling panels and the the cross members for those panels where the walls are then they connect back in and new shorter panels and shorter cross members are installed back in. The only problem with this is the amount of waste one is going to involve in fixing up these floors and then ripping them out at some point. Office space is going to become obsolete over the next decade when more and more companies are going to down size their staff or grow their remote staff. AI has and is taking over more and more office jobs and people are finding ways to move to new sectors. The push back for working in offices is really getting hammered down to employers as people are no longer wanting that 9 to 5 crap. The internet and their speeds offer 4k video calling that is far better and gets even better by the day. People are no longer wanting to spend the hours driving to work when they do not need too. Countries should be pushing their companies to offer more remote work. Even if you have to live stream 4k during working hours. Its not that hard to have a computer with a screen streaming a group of workers working.
You missed the fact that residential units need operable windows (at least in the US), office buildings do not. If the building is planned with operable windows to begin with it would work, but usually that is cost prohibitive.
We hope you find this upLIFTing!! (that joke courtesy of Your DAD)
fix subtitles, seems to just be your script
Should have called it Schindler's Lift.
you found my dad?
That's racist
I don't have a Dad though.
With all due respect, having worked on a large conversion, the elevators is the least of the problems. The real challenges are rezoning, different safety requirements, all new plumbing, electrical, ventilation, fire systems, loads, parkings….
Thanks for this comment. I was surprised when elevators were the subject of a video about the secret to skyscraper conversion.
I was thinking the same thing, in fact in the building they are talking about, you can see that the residential floors has a completely different design to the rest of the building. How is that an example of the conversion from offices to residential?
I would imagine the utilities (supply and drain plumbing in particular) need to go in a lifted floor or a lowered ceiling? The offices depicted have plenty of headroom to accommodate that I suppose.
@@TrogdorBurnin8or yes, for a conversion you need to have all the new plumbing redirected in the dripped ceilings. The issue is how to deal with the noise of such plumbing, and also how to deal with the space taken by the ventilation. The requirements of water, ac and electricity are completely different. As well as noise control. Unless you have already designed the building to be sectioned in residential units from ten beginning, it might actually be cheaper to demolish everything and rebuild from scratch. And by doing that you know pretty much well in advance how much you are spending, when instead you do a renovation/conversion of an exsisting office building into residential everything is a surprise. And the cost cannot be budgeted.
I was wondering. It must be a nightmare to convert offices to apts and probably cost prohibitive. There was a beautiful conversion in my neighborhood recently of a midrise, but it was stripped down to the elevator core, support beams, and floorplates before being completely rebuilt
as others have pointed out, there are a lot of issues with converting commercial space to residential space, it looks like this innovation addresses one of those issues. as I understand it, the reason tall, multi-use buildings require separate elevator systems is because of the varying levels of security/access required by commercial, residential and hospitality tenants. it looks like this system is really a "smart" access system that uses the same elevators to let people go where they need to go and restrict them from places they shouldn't go...a little more exposition on how the system does this would have been interesting
if you know anything about elevators, you know that relying on them for safety and access control is a very very bad idea.
The issue here is that a smart access system only works if there is a single person using the elevator. As soon as you have multiple people with different access codes using the elevator at the same time everyone will have the ability to go anywhere.
@klyis -- there are a few ways to solve this. One is, just have additional badge access after you exit the elevator. Another is to disallow mixed security passengers on the same trip. I suspect some combination of both is the way to go.
I have lived in I mixed, commercial and residential building for more than 30 years in the middle of the city, and we have had the same security/access system since day one. It's nothing different or innovative.
@@szurketaltos2693 any elevator-based security is inherently flawed
Maybe it's the lack of sleep, but what is this huge change they made? Added a rear door?
Same here. I really don’t see any innovations in this project.
Yes it seems 2 sided lifts are a revelation!
Thanks, I watched the whole thing and I didn't get it.
Looks like just a software update.
They overcame regulations between commercial and residential elevators, and made them the same. So they use less elevators and smaller elevators.
my thought, I donj't see the revolution.
In other videos on converting office space to apartments the biggest challenge was bathrooms. Offices have one centrally located large bathroom with multiple stalls not at all what an apartment needs
This video is just a badly disguised advertisement for an elevator manufacturer. They haven’t really come up with anything groundbreaking, and it’s not even the biggest issue to be solved in mixed used skyscrapers.
@@miroslavmilan It's actually a non-issue. Why would I care if there are office workers that enter the building through the same lobby and use the same elevators? As a resident I'd know that I'm in a multi-purpose building, and what to expect from that. The only real issue is unauthorized access, but that can be minimized by access-controlled doors at the residential floors.
@@Volkbrechtit's the other way around. Visited a friend in an apartment. It's shared. I was blocked from the bank and companies using the building. In office buildings that allow people off the street to just enter, you usually have to pass a security desk at the bottom, then each floor has a lobby. If you get off at the wrong floor you usually get flagged by security. Lots of the floors will be totally closed to the public so stepping off in them without a bade causes a security response. Sure you could just open the whole building up totally to the public, but then no companies will rent there.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
@@Fr00ter that's not new. the video was supposed to be about converting offices into residential units, which would be an absolute game changer in the real-estate investment world.
They seem unduly proud to have used elevators with doors on both sides to service two different lobbies.
Isn't that like Apple approach of introducing already existing thing as revolutionary by just naming it differently and presenting it in such a way, you would think "Wow, I never knew how good that is".
As a german this gives me the feeling, that this story is really true. Discovering something thats allready in use in a lot of countrys, maybe since decades, and selling it as the new hot shi** is so common for this country. We are a so far behind, it can damage your brain.
@@virgiauskashumans can actually be that fickle LMAO
exactly what I was thinking, I clicked to see a video where the wheel is possibly reinvented, and I ended up watching a video of kindergarteners learning the alphabet. 😂 😂
It's not even a new concept. Elevators with dual openings have been around a long time.
This is the weirdest B1M video I’ve ever seen. Like, I appreciate that Schindler has experience with mixed-use high rises, and that it’s going to be important as office demand decreases in central business districts, but I didn’t take away any insight into what this approach to elevators actually means in practice other than having two doors, something all of the high rises I’ve lived in already had.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
Schindler is Not even a German company as the impression this report gives .. it's a Swiss company
Totally unclear how this elevator is new or different. How does an extra door translate to less lifts.
The way they separated the office lobby from the living lobby is smart but I don't really see why that's strictly necessary. It's still the same property managemer, right?
Because it didn't, elevators with dual openings are common, I don't understand why they had to make a video about it and try to make it look as if this was a revolutionary element in a dual-purpose building.
I think the idea is that if you enter from one side, ie the residential side, you know you won't have to make stops on the office floors and vice versa. Instead of the separate elevator concept of traditional mixed use building.
That's because it is so simple it's stupid. If you open the door to the elevator from the residential lobby and go inside, the elevator will only go to the residential floors. If you open the ground floor door from the commercial lobby the elevator will only go to the commercial floors.
Coming down it's the same concept, you get in on a residential floor, when you get to the ground, it only opens the door to the residential lobby. And visa versa for commercial space.
So one set of elevators behave as if they were two sets. You go up and down and the elevator opens the right door for you, as opposed to traditional two door elevators where you could chose to open either door and go to any floor, or at least stick in a special access card to identify where you can go.
@@jerryklosek5589 So this essentially blocks off an elevator from others to use if someone from one lobby enters it? Which could lead to a longer waiting time - and less efficiency?
So an elevator with two sets of doors... I've NEVER seen that before! Such a revolutionary idea 🤣
It's even a trope in the movies: Actors in an elevator. Door opens behind our characters who are surprised and turn around comically to exit...
Some hospitals have that feature.
This channel is just advertorials.
So.. you're saying you don't like Schindler's lift?
Yeah watched this three times to see what the big deal was.
I would have thought the biggest challenge skyscrapers face when turning them into residential would be the lack of sunlight by the cores and therefor apartments would almost have to be entirely open plan with the kitchen and toilets close to the core and then just one huge open space for the rest of the flat?
That’s true in some buildings. Also utilities and insulation for office buildings is different than residential buildings
That's the primary problem in NYC, where there are laws mandating the presence of windows in all rooms. Most office buildings have windowless rooms in their cores. As pressure to convert buildings increases - the real estate industry is nearly omnipotent - I expect that these laws will be modified.
Is this really still an issue with modern lighting technology? The rules about natural light were written in a different era.
@@simontistNatural light is the benchmark, but a view of the outside is the real driver. Otherwise they could have piped in natural light using shafts, without modern tech.
Have the bedrooms and bathrooms near the core leaving the windows for the living space.
Interesting. When you mentioned 'the biggest problem with converting offices to residential' my first thought wasn't elevators. It was plumbing.
Most people renting a high-rise apartment probably aren't going to be happy with a shared bathroom at the end of the hall. They probably also want at least a minimalist kitchen with a sink containing a garbage disposal. This is A LOT of plumbing, and it is now distributed all over the floor. How is this going to be handled? You are likely to have to increase the size of the water supply, the size of central water heating (perhaps per floor), and greatly increase the number of and capacity of sanitary drains to deal with the multitudes of showers, toilets, and kitchen sinks.
I think an article on how this can be done would be interesting and useful.
As others have pointed out, sunlight would also be a huge issue, as offices have large amounts of windowless space while there are building codes that require a window in every room in housing.
or you could just say the biggest problem of turning offices to residential flats is the cost of turning them into residential flats. this whole elevator topic was a clickbait
Or balconies, gardens or parks and supermarkets, places of worship, childcare and other family amenities, children playground, schools and nature etc. Not everyone wants to live in the city centre of skyscrapers. It is more soulless, cold, corporate, transient and stressful. Maybe single people or childless couples who work most of the time and have no life. Families actually prefer suburbs, leafy green spaces to relax in, individual houses and gardens. It is a more cosy and family oriented place.
It can be done with modern vacuum sanitary plumbing originally developed for cruise ships but now commonly used on land in prisons, hospitals, stadiums, and high rise buildings. Plumbing can be in the ceiling and toilet fittings use a fraction of the amount of water that standard fittings do. They can also be moved about easily if needed.
I hope Schindler wasn't given a patient for an elevator with two doors. This seemed more like an advertisement than your normal video, then I saw the sponsor. Your past programs have been so good.
Their videos have developed more of a gigantic advertisement unfortunately
Well, it's a nice building, if i where that company i pay advertisment too.
The Big issue with shared elevator is your boss seeing you in pijamas going out while you called saying youre sick today.
Total lack of a deep dive into anything. A total embarrassment of a @B1M video. I suppose it was funny, because the concept was laughable.
@@dominicrobertson7626The worst part is Schindler is a Swiss company and Not German even 🤐
shut up nerd
So I'm confused, the reason you can't take a normal building with normal elevators and turn it into a residential tower is because people would "feel like they're in an office" - whatever that means... ?
this video is extremely dissappointing
There are different codes and requirements for residential and commercial construction projects because both spaces are used in vastly different ways by vastly different people.
Kitchens need exhaust, bathrooms need separate exhaust, plumbing vent and drain, lots of them. windows for each room. The overall footprint is more suited for large openness so light can get to each desk. Residential is small rooms unless it’s a youth hostel or military dormitory. Some buildings could work others too awkward.
"Catch a train" - God I wish. More like sit in traffic for an hour and a bit for what is meant to be a 35 minute journey.
Where do you live?
This is what it's like in Melbourne Australia
@@TheB1M Cambridge UK, we do not have good transportation between the some of the surrounding towns and the main city for employment. We do have a train line in Cambridge, but it doesn't serve places which are affordable to live. Places like Landbeach/ Waterbeach which are on the train line become to expensive to live. London and Cambridge have the same house/rent pricing issue. Love the videos, by the way.
@@catfactsukhowdy from Fort Worth Texas, I’m fortunate enough to commute by train, but we need a lot more of them in the states
@@catfactsukimagine crying about public transport in the UK there is a lot of trains and country ain't that big so complaining about driving shouldn't be a thing
So just that I get this correctly: The actual issue here is that you want seperate lobbies for some reason, right? Because if you had a mixed lobby, there would be no issue with the elevator.
In the video it is presented like an obvious fact, that work and residential people have to be completely separated but to me that really isn't obvious. Maybe I am missing something here. I think as a visitor I would find it quite confusing, if I had to use different entries for different floors. Also, do Visitors also need to install an App to use an Elevator of a Building they are just visiting?
I don't know if this is another clumsy brand deal or content is getting thin right now, but I think we're all aware why elevators are not the limiting factor in converting an office to an apartment or vice versa. The spaces are just way too dissimilar, save for creating giant ultra luxury millionaire apartments that we do NOT need more of.
What the heck?! This was by far the silliest B1M video I've ever seen. Really beyond.
Our old office was in the same building as flats. Every time someone burned toast the entire building had to evacuate and it happened 6 or 7 times a month
Lol
Lmao
Hilarious!! 🤣
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 i guess their productivity was toast 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I like that story: got anymore fantastical made up stories? 😂😂😂😂
In New York there are additional challenges in converting office buildings to residential, because of the differences in building codes. The residential codes require a window in every room, while office workers were never afforded that. Many modern office buildings have huge floors, that used to be filled with little cubes. That doesn't work as bedrooms.
In Germany natural light is required for workplaces, so the us-typical cubicle system would not be legal. But other than that I agree. You would need permits and put up (or tear down) walls and reroute plumbing, depending on the exact floor plans.
Not sure if you guys are aware, but the subtitles from around 7m30 suddenly go crazy and include your filming notes with ideas and questions about what should be added. They also suddenly go super fast too (guessing as it’s the captions of the video and the notes) so impossible to read. I will take this moment to thank you guys as a channel though for adding human written captions. As a deaf person, auto captions make watching and enjoying UA-cam videos really hard, so any channels that take the time to add human written ones get my extra appreciation. Just thought you may want to know what’s happening on this one, maybe an upload glitch?
Really sorry about that, thanks for flagging! We're fixing it right now 👍
Seems fixed by now :)
I also really appreciate human-made captions :) the auto-generated are ok if you can hear and self correct but human curators are much more thoughtful and include context as well sometimes which is nice
@@TheB1M no worries, still enjoyed the video, just though that to know. I’m just thankful that you do them
Sorry, but actually although potential interesting, this video did not explain anything on how this new concept works. A lot of big words with a little meaning.
While going over various elevator setups is interesting, this seems like a minor/tertiary issue when you are supposedly asserting to have 'solved the empty skyscraper problem'. There are just so many more significant barriers to changing a commercial tower into a mixed use/residential tower than getting a more efficient elevator service design.
No, there are just more equally ranked problem. Lot's of details, but nothing really complicated. Modern Underfloor-shower might be the only thing, that goes into the floor itself. And that's the only thing you have to keep. Floors and outside Windows.
This makes no sense. The problem with converting offices to apartments isn’t some weird hang up about keeping the two kinds of residents from ever seeing each other, it’s the plumbing.
I love that they think the big reason we can't use empty offices to solve the housing crisis is that executives don't want to ride with the poors in elevators. If only it were that easy, i suspect it has much more to do with the plumbing (one bathroom per floor in an office building vs 1-2 per apartment and a kitchen too) and the large amount of windowless interior space of large-volume office buildings. If you didn't build for dual use, retrofitting is expensive and may just not work at all.
Well in UK apartment high rises they make sure 'afforrdable' 😂 apartments always have separate entrance & (and a lobby/parking if the developer was feeling generous) lift in too keep the rich hermetically sealed in their luxury and protected from being contaminated by the poor....
Did you even watch the video? The offices and apartments use the exact same elevators...
@@krashd Through 2 separate lobbies so that the 2 groups never intermix or even see each other. Their point still stands, though the less snide reasoning would be for security.
The system works by using an app on your phone to designate whether you're going to an apartment level or an office, and then grouping people up into specific elevators to isolate the 2 groups, making sure an elevator with workers won't stop at any of the apartments and vice versa.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
Never seen a sponsorship being incorporated into a video so seamlessly yet so clearly. Wow
Fred, I read an article a couple decades ago about challenges to office building conversion. At the time the thinking was that the biggest challenge was insufficient floor height to allow for retrofitting the plumbing required for residences. Has this been solved?
The challenge is actually the other way around. Office floor-to-floor is typcially higher than residential due to taller ceilings. When building for dual purpose on day 1, the residential floors would come in more expensive as they would be built with a higher floor to floor than typically required. Advantage is to be able to run plumbing and services in the resulting ceiling void, but comes at a cost due to added structure and facade that a purely apartment or hotel building wouldn't need.
@@danjelowitsch thats true but with the rediculous mismatch of vacancy rates to need, the improved revenue from making it mixed use would almost certainly dwarf any extra cost - and in the case of all the existing commercial structures, the cost was already built in.
Plus a lot of extra uses for taller spaces in residential are possible.
Yes, the solution is vacuum plumbing which is used on ships and aircraft and in many large buildings such as hospitals stadiums and hotels. The manufacturers of these systems have websites. Another advantage is that vacuum toilets use much less water than normal fixtures.
@@adriandunne4382 Quite possibly these might work in some situations. I’ve worked on cruise ships however, and can vouch that these systems are not nearly as trouble-free as their promoters claim.
This solution has actually been around for a while, although this may be the first new construction to use this technique. I remember presenting smart elevators in one of my presentations back in undergrad and that was lets say a few years ago. But I know some buildings in Japan are using a similar system to some success. But here in the US, the problem is more so the plumbing issue rather than the elevators (I am not sure what they are doing about that, but the number of office tower conversions is going up, especially in NYC). Nice tech all the same although I am not sure how much I would want to rely on my cellphone for building access.
Plumbing and floor plate size. Some of the larger floor plates require some way to get more light to the core, either by adding a courtyard ($$$) or changing the rules to allow artificial lighting in bedrooms. I suspect the other utilities (including elevators) are also tricky, but probably not nearly as bad as those.
I would have thought there were more significant issues with residential/commercial flexibility being the building services requirements...
There are. Office buildings in DC are being converted to residential use, and they have to strip everything down to reconfigure the plumbing, the electrical wiring, the layout, etc.
I believe the Comcast Technology & Innovation Center does something similar with it having separate Atriums / lobbies for the office space and the Four Seasons hotel that exists at the highest floors and is the highest hotel in North America. You guys should do a video on Philadelphia as it has grown quite a lot in the past decade or so and the Schuykill Yards project or the Bellwether District are two huge massive projects underway to transform an entire city, bringing it into a sustainable future an pushing it further forward on the world stage.
Plumbing (drainage & water lines) would also be a huge challenge , particularly if you’re looking at an existing building. Elevators are used like a bus not a car, multiple floor stops. You are back to needing large numbers if they don’t stop on every floor?
It seems they do serve every floor, unlike the example with adding extra shafts. If no one is using the residential lobbies all of the lifts can serve the office lobbies, and vice versa.
It’s just that, on a per lift car basis, if they’re currently serving a residential floor in that moment they don’t seem to take on anyone from the office lobbies. (It’s unclear if that even includes people who live in the same building going home from work, or if an exception is made based on the destination.)
Each elevator seems to be designated to a specific use based on demand by some sort of computer system linked up to an app on your phone. Its not really explained in the video, but I saw other people saying that you walk into the building, and the app tells you which elevator to go to. If you're going to a floor of offices, then that elevator won't stop at any residential floors on its way up, even if people on the apartment floors call an elevator, and vice versa.
It's essentially just a keycard system hooked up to a computer that computes demand and assigns elevators accordingly, but uses an app on your phone to tell you which elevators to use. Since the apartments in this building divide the office spaces into 2 sections, it would be interesting if the system could further designate between the 2 sets of offices to essentially act as "express" elevators to the upper offices, but there's no mention of that in the video. I still feel like the elevators are one of the lesser issues in converting skyscrapers though.
The new Ritz Carlton tower in Mexico City works similar to this. The hotel has apartments, offices, hotels, commercial space and restaurants. The elevators have multiple doors depending on where you want to go. The car garage is also pretty impressive as it stores the vehicles via a lift system.
We need some of this in Australia.
Residential building quality here is awful, but commercial building owners have a larger incentive to build to high standards.
We need livable, comfortable dense housing to stop the endless suburban sprawl and ridiculous commute times
Oh my gosh so true. I live in the Sydney CBD and my residential building is absolutely terrible. Walls, ceiling and floors must be made of paper, I can hear my neighbors all the time, even just talking 😢
Agreed. It's bad enough in Adelaide I can't imagine how the bigger cities are coping.
Same in New York and LA. allmajor cities could use mixed use structures. 🤔
Seems to be a really new thing to the new world. It's the default in Europe. Ground floor is shops, first floor is doctors, lawers, small offices, and above is residential. Traditionally it's only 4-6 floor buildings. Not all people like to live on the 20th floor or so. You have to get used to this.
Simple reason is , there is no space for any "suburban sprawl". In 20km distance there is the next downtown of the next city.
I don't get it. How is this any different than just any old building having one bank of elevators serving multiple uses? Just because your smartphone tells you which elevator to take doesn't make this fundamentally different than if one were to just walk in and take the first available elevator to whatever floor by pushing the button to the floor they want, whether residential or office.
I always find it odd that a company called Schindler makes lifts... "Schindler's Lifts" 🤔😂
Probably because a survivor from Schindler's list founded the company and named it after him in thanks.
I looked it up because you made me curious - this company came first. It was founded in 1874 making agricultural machinery and was making elevators/lifts by the end of that century.
It‘s a common German surname.
@@Kringeladida PS: "Shingle Maker". One of the profession-based surnames like Smith and Baker.
In most office to commercial conversions, the elevators are the least of the problem. Think about the last big office you worked in. Picture where the bathrooms were. That’s the only place on that floor with plumbing. Once you break up that floor into apartments, every one of those apartments needs running water, separate heating/AC and other utilities. That office building you are imagining probably doesn’t have space for this. In many cases it’s cheaper to tear it down and rebuild than to convert… unless it was designed from the beginning to be modular. Most skyscrapers aren’t designed that way.
And people moving into those apartments might be making a lot of noise. Are they going to be just serviced apartments for short term rent? Because they can't be long termed since if individually owned, people might want to do some renovations to it, then what about the noise?
Its 5 am for me, but this channel is worth my attention.
Thank you so much haha! Good morning ☀
In Malaysia, we have mix use building/skyscraper. There's mall, office space and apartment in one and a rooftop garden. That's making your day more pleasant and don't have to commute on heavy traffic.
I'm a simple man: I read Germany, i click.
It is over for Germany..shame
@@yalz302could you elaborate? Just keywords... Thanks
same haha
I read Germany and say "oh $
The biggest challenge in converting to residential is the plumbing risers for kitchens and bathrooms, and the ventilation shafts or risers required by code. These are traditionally close to the core as well and not located near the curtain wall.
Bizarre that this video gets so excited about elevator operational controls as a sweeping remedy.
This video was just the lift I needed this morning 🤣
Our group does a lot of work on high rise apts and offices in Houston. Most towers are single purpose, or converted from office to residential. Mixed use is extremely rare. Doesnt seem like there is enough demand.
it's not really clear why different uses need separate lobbies and elevators?
probably a zoning thing
I would think the biggest problem is the different plumbing requirements for commercial vs. residential.
Thank you and kudos to @TheB1M team! It was so great having you around 💯👍
And there we go. Thought it was some sort of sponsor/agreement to promote a business
@@catzzzvb Or maybe people appearing in a video, especially when said video features interview sections, will be aware of what channel said video will go on and will then seek that video out and make a comment. This is not unusual at all. No deals of any sort needed. Happens all the time.
what happens if the visitor don't have the app? what about if your phone's battery is drained? the lobbies are different, because there are doors on both sides of the elevator? what if someone didn't get out on their floor, and then another person get in the elevator for another floor that's not residential or comercial? so many unanswered questions...
This commercial should be 30 seconds long. Kudos to the creators skill in padding it out though, and upgrading to documentary style.
An entire video about an elevator with doors on two sides.. OK.... what an innovation..
I was figuratively scratching my head for this entire video until you revealed the sponsorship at the end. As others have said, the elevators are only a minor part of converting from office to residential use, or mixed use design. Far more important are things like the shape of the building to allow natural light, redundant utilities for easier future conversion between uses, etc. I assume this tower in Frankfurt has these elements as well, or else converting office floors to residential use in the future would be just as difficult as converting any old office tower currently is. Also, I don't believe this elevator technology is particularly new.
Frankly, this video is below your usual standards. I don't feel I learned anything from it. If you wanted to do this sponsorship you should have integrated it into a larger piece about future planning for easier conversion between uses.
I find this very convoluted for a pretty minor issue. You don't want to feel like you live in an office building? Well, you do, and hell, who cares? I'd live there.
-We wanted to have residence housing in the office building. We used to have residence and hotel in skyscrpers.
-So this is not new?
-It is totally new since we have elevator opening in BOOTH sides!!!
-No way man, thats some space tech. I mean our elevators in plazas and malls have this, but this have to be some different level.
-Well, just like the idea to have residence levels in a skyscraper. TOTALLY NEW. :D
What is this bs? This video failed to explain whats so new here.
Building looks like the start of a Jenga game.
It's awesome right! Probably our favourite tower in Frankfurt rn
No discussion about the issue of plumbing needed for residential conversion, or the extra cost of including it during the build to provide multi-purpose spaces.
So I thought that I was going to learn something new but then I watched the video and there are a lot of problems from a real estate development point of view: 1) Residential has different infrastructure compared to Commercial in terms of plumbing, ceiling height, fiber optics, power supply, and window regulations. You are increasing the building costs for both to handle both. 2) Commercial prefers new build since they are taking out a loan anyway 3) Commercial likes to build to their own specs, so another reason for new build 4) We need so much new housing, there is a housing shortage, so why would we ever then switch from residential to commercial? 5) And in most US cities they'd need to come up with a new building regulations to make this legal
I used to work in a skyscraper in Manhattan that was later converted into high-end condos. The movie "Tower Heist" was filmed there. It was a surreal moment seeing former office spaces shown as high rise apartments.
I'd love to see a deeper video on this. Double sided elevators have been a thing for a while, I'd be interested in a deeper dive into how this system differs and is configured
it doesn't, it a commercial for the lift company.
Yeah, video is just a badly disguised advertisement for an elevator manufacturer. They haven’t really come up with anything groundbreaking, and it’s not even the biggest issue to be solved in mixed used skyscrapers.
It's basically a luxury concern. The planners could afford to waste space on two separate lobbies, something that would only be of concern to upper class residents who can afford to not want to come in contact with the unwashed masses on their way to work.
This video is clearly about how the mixed use was clearly thought through and flexibly integrated into the structure. Considering possible changes in the future and demonstrating how apartments and offices can co-habilitate the space even on the same floors. Not sure why you didn't get that.
What we'd need are not just elevators, but extra tall floor-to-floors and 18" allowance from plumbing/drains to be built beneath raised platform floors that would allow for 'easy' reconfiguration without cutting through the slab/steel deck. Also, allowances to have bedrooms without natural light (in large floor plates) and inoperable windows...
Vacuum plumbing enables plumbing to be run in the ceiling and also dispenses with large water tanks as a vacuum toilet requires only about 250ml of water to flush. These systems are widely used in schools, hospitals, hotels, prisons, apartments and stadiums as well as on various forms of transport. Some office buildings already use vacuum systems especially where additional facilities are required for executives, call centers and other additional requirements.
TIL: In the UK, "Science" is another category of land use, like "Residential" and "Commercial". Great video. With that said, I have no idea why they'd be forced to use single-use elevators in the first place.
Oh, what a surprise, i would never have imagined office space vacancy might increase following the boom in remote work |it all started rapidly in spring 2020.
Wait how are residential lifts different from commercial ones? Just a back door opening and you don’t want strangers to have access to your house?
If I understand it correctly. Every shaft has 2 entrances a front and a back.
If you press the call elevator on the front the elevator will only accept inputs that bring you to front access floors (in this case commercial)
And if you press the call button on the backside the elevator will only accept inputs for floors where the backside is available.
This also prevents unwanted ride alongs as the elevator won't allow the frontside to be called or opened while it's in backside use.
It's pretty clever and could easily be expanded by having a second lobby floor only accessable via escalator or something which allows access to another 2 subsections or the building. Or you can split/combine the shafts as you see fit. (though it requires some rebuilding of the ground floor)
@@profwaldone This comment is a better explanation than the video, which is herald this as the second coming of Christ.
I watched the video and still couldn't work out the big deal, your explanation does this really well , thanks@@profwaldone
I’m still confused tbh, if there’s still less elevators then normally won’t people spend a lot of time waiting
@@profwaldoneThat sounds like less function per elevator. I work in a building that has done the second door and lockout thing with physical keys since the 60s and it's the opposite of more efficient. They specifically avoid using them when the elevators are in high demand.
Thanks for sharing this! I hope this idea catches on! ❤❤❤❤
Canary Wharf is emptying out, but I've noticed that the City of London is more bustling than ever, with firms like HSBC even relocating their HQ from Canary Wharf to the City. I think it has to do with the culture - if your office is around the City, the expectations are that you'll be in the office 5 days a week, or at the very minimum, 3. Sucks, but it is what it is.
I didn’t know HSBC moved headquarters! Fascinating.
I wonder if in 100 years Canary Wharf will be viewed as just a blip of the financial-fanaticism of the 80s…
I wouldn’t mind if it was just regular mid-rise flats like so much else of the Docklands tbh.
I've never understood the appeal of Canary wharf. Unless you live in one of the flats close by. It is a pain to get to from the rest of London. Having said that the view from the 48th Floor of 1 Canada Square is impressive on a clear day.
Of all the problems that have to be solved with flexible usage, then the addition of programmable elevators seems to me to be one of the simpler ones. The most difficult is surely going to be about the other infrastructure services that need to be sorted out. Of those, I would pick out something as basic as plumbing as the most challenging. Any office is going to have a need for perhaps 2-4 locations on each floor where toilets are required. Perhaps some kitchenette type facilities. For this, then all the plumbing can be concentrated, vertically, in just a very few locations. However, when it comes to apartments, then they are each going to require a bathroom or two, as well as a kitchen. Maybe a dozen apartments a floor, and then the plumbing infrastructure is going to be well dispersed, and you can't easily have vertical runs as there may be an office beneath. Waste tends to have minimum fall requirements. Even more demanding will be catering for hotel type accommodation, when each room will required its own plumbing infrastructure, and again traditional, vertically aligned services are going to be problematic.
There are other services which have to be dealt with, like electricity, telecoms, security and ventilation, some rather simpler than others. Maybe the most intractable will be the lack of access to natural light at the core. Many countries have rules about what sort of habitable rooms must have access to natural light. That will limit the way in which buildings with large areas per floor can be used. It may be that kitchens and bathrooms without natural light are not a problem, but it will be for bedrooms and other living space in apartments. I'm not sure what the rules are for hotel rooms; there are cruise ships without natural light for inner cabins, but is that allowed for hotel rooms?
Now a lot of this could be designed in, on a new building, although it will involve compromises. For an older building, much more problematical. Not to say that something can't be done, but it is not going to be easy.
They are elevators with two sets of doors that each open to different lobbies- residential and commercial. The two populations use the same elevator but never mix. This short unfortunately doesn’t explain this as well as the long form version.
Why is no one talking about the huge housing shortage problem in Germany?
So an elevator with doors on both sides? Nothing new? Wtf
What a great innovation! Keep up the good works, B1M! I am so excited that we have hit 3M subscribers.💃💃💃💃💃
Elevators with 2 doors have been around for a while. Keycard access for different levels has been around for a while, too. With 2 or 3 different levels of keycard security, the elevators could be programmed like this without need for an app. When I played Sim Tower as a kid, I assumed a lot of tall buildings had a mix of office and/or residential and/or hotel. When the Book Cadillac hotel in Detroit was re-opened in 2008, it had condos on some of the upper floors.
Great to see you, always love to hear your voice. B1M is the Channel
Every new skyscraper needs to follow this design.
Yeah, skyscraper leases are totally going to recoup costs by incorporating residential rents (at an astronomical fee) vs it being full of businesses.
what about bathrooms and kitchens? that seems to be the biggest problem with converting... need more of both.
Ahh this channel is so good!
Thanks for the heart! :D
@4:59 what's with all the dirt on the whiteboard animation?
Seems like you guys pushed a little too hard in making a story out of nothing...
I thought the biggest problem with office to apartment conversions was bathrooms and kitchens. This is important too, and nifty, but the additional plumbing for separate spaces is a real challenge.
I feel like this is a fake problem.
That's because you don't live with an empty skyscraper
Gentle reminder that the title of this video (original title) "Germany Has Solved the Empty Skyscraper Problem".
No @TheB1M - your material used to be of good quality, with in-depth detail. Now you are serving short snippets, without any real substance and clickbait titles.
Bruh... Plumbing is #1 issue. Unless you want to gut each floor and install sets of kitchens and bathrooms in each floor. Good luck.
Yooooooooooooooooooooooo
I'm glad to see that I am not alone in the confusion department. The concept could've been better illustrated i guess.
This is an awesome example of thoughtful design from its inception. I’d be interested to see if this elevator solution can be retrofitted to revitalize an existing tower though.
I'm just glad I'm not the only one here not getting what's so great about those elevators... It's a very very very high level problem "people feel like in an office building" when they go to their appartments. Oh poor they.
Its just a fucking elevator with 2 doors. Of all the challenges to converting office space this doesn't even register.
But do the windows open? And are there balconies? Also, if the building is a large box, then the inside part will not have much natural light because it will be too far from windows.
글로 읽었을 때는 이 시스템을 잘 이해하지 못했었는데 영상을 보니 이해가 잘 되네요. 잘 봤습니다 😊
The software side is the clever bit. It's easy to criticise, but I think most people don't appreciate the technical challenge involved in having everything working smoothly with bulletproof reliability.
I love the look of the "wave" where the residential section is
No discussion about different needs to utilities between commercial and residential? Nobody is going to build an office building and install and massive amount of plumbing with the thought that maaaybe it will be turned into residential in the future. The elevators are definitely not the largest hold up in the current conversion.
I’m not sure if these are lobbies or communal office space he is filming in, with the 3m high ceilings and windows, but in modestly sized apartments, the big issue in office conversions is always having just one wall with windows, meaning your bedrooms and office are in the central part of the building with no view to the outside. After that, the problems are plumbing, hvac, electric etc.
It is a simple concept but how are the individual bathrooms/kitchens installed for the conversion?
They have been doing this in HongKong for about 60 years. A high rise can have shops, restaurants, offices, and residential. All in one tower. Sometimes even whole small factories.
Correct me if im wrong. if all floor has opening on the back. meaning ur single lift shaft have to have 2 corridor access for each floor. Additionally your existing lift core arrangement dictate the possibilty to upgrade to this lift system. ie. with common 2 x 2 lift core with perimeter corridor wont be able to accommodate to front and rear opening lift cart.
Im super confused as to why the elevator system is so complicated. Why can’t multi-use buildings just use the same lobby and/or elevators?
I guess I can kind of understand wanting diff lobbies for professionalism/privacy, but is that it?
Making something inefficient slightly more efficient - I'm impressed!
Floor to ceiling glass might look good at first but will cook you in sunny conditions forcing
AC and create cold convection flows during cold conditions. Covering 70% of the windows with foil faced insulating foam could fix that.
My dad is in his 70's and still wears New Balance shoes. I've been using their running shoes since high school, they really are amongst the best running shoes.
Also it is possible to create a washrooms that could be converted to apartments. Depending on demands. It will be also called mix-used area.
Well done! Fascinating concept.
So many problems with this, yet many can be addressed.
Most of the problems are going to be how residential and commercial can seamlessly work when each require a lot of changes.
Residential requires several things to work. Bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms/laundry rooms and kitchens. If you were to build the offices in such a way that you could change a floor in to a set of an apartments in no time flat.
Most skyscrapers are around 200x100 feet or 20k square feet. If you were to ideally say that each apartment was 1500 square feet and the last 5000 was elevators and hallways. You could set up a 10 apartment/office floor that would have 3 bedrooms 3 baths. If done correctly you could ideally still have 30 offices and large open areas. Think of the bedrooms/bathrooms as being window rooms while the living/kitchen areas are the middle with window ends and the center the elevator/stairs and hallways. This would create a square type area when it was opened up. The plumbing could be sealed off at floor level and the vent sealed in the ceiling. With in the ceiling would be the firewall sections where the apartment walls would be and they could be slipped back in. It would only take a small amount of work to remove the ceiling panels and the the cross members for those panels where the walls are then they connect back in and new shorter panels and shorter cross members are installed back in.
The only problem with this is the amount of waste one is going to involve in fixing up these floors and then ripping them out at some point.
Office space is going to become obsolete over the next decade when more and more companies are going to down size their staff or grow their remote staff. AI has and is taking over more and more office jobs and people are finding ways to move to new sectors. The push back for working in offices is really getting hammered down to employers as people are no longer wanting that 9 to 5 crap. The internet and their speeds offer 4k video calling that is far better and gets even better by the day. People are no longer wanting to spend the hours driving to work when they do not need too.
Countries should be pushing their companies to offer more remote work. Even if you have to live stream 4k during working hours. Its not that hard to have a computer with a screen streaming a group of workers working.
You missed the fact that residential units need operable windows (at least in the US), office buildings do not. If the building is planned with operable windows to begin with it would work, but usually that is cost prohibitive.
"Think of it as a bookshelf" OR as a building, with floors? Are there people who need help understanding how floors work?
:p