Building Our Future

Can we better serve our ageing population through a new model of inter-generational co-living?

Justin Shee is the founder of The Kohab; a new inter-generational retirement living company, bringing old and young adults together under one roof to live in mutual support. The Kohab is both a potential answer to the age ghettos created by retirement living and a solution to the loneliness epidemic faced by both young and old adults in the UK.           

In this podcast:

• What’s behind the growing epidemic of loneliness and how can our design and usage of the built environment help to tackle it?
• Why are baby-boomers still reluctant down-sizers & renters? How can this be changed?
• Should we revisit the rationale behind the current status quo of segregated “retirement” / senior living? 
• What are the advantages of inter-generational living, both for the residents and the wider society?
• What are the financial models for encouraging the use of inter-generational living and how does The Kohab intend to nurture the identity of the community?
• Can inter-generational living extend to even younger populations e.g. creches? 

Justin’s favourite building is Henry VI’s Gothic masterpiece, King’s College Chapel in Cambridge. In terms of real estate innovation, automated valuation models (AVMs) are Justin’s hot topic to watch!

You can find & follow Justin on social media via LinkedIn or Twitter (@JustinShee). 

For more references, you can look at:

• Why inter-generational models may be the answer for solving the loneliness epidemic
• How inter-generational living benefits the ‘book-end’ generations
• Living Closer; the many faces of co-housing
• Savannah de Savary’s piece in Property Week on high-tech, collaborative retirement living

Can the application of traditional social sciences to big data help better tailor the future of the built environment to societal needs?

Gemma John is an anthropologist, helping to influence urban planning and development.

After ten years in academic research, Gemma spent five years working for engineering, planning, and architecture firms, including AECOM & Foster + Partners, before establishing her own consultancy business, Human City. 

Human City helps property developers to create commercially successful projects, particularly in the co-working & co-living areas. Gemma’s work ranges from advising on new building concepts through to mobile apps. Gemma is currently designing a research project, focusing on the moral economy of housing.

In this podcast:

• How are generational mindset changes impacting our use & design of buildings?
• How does the real estate industry cater to the evolving changes in what the end user really wants or needs?
• Is co-living driven by necessity or desire?
• Exploring benefits of inter-generational co-living and the concept of the Skyler tower
• What can co-working learn from public libraries?
• The role of social sciences in the “big data” world & how to ensure that human interaction remains at the core of built-environment decision-making in an increasingly digitised world.

Gemma’s favourite building is Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal for its blue vibrancy!

Her innovation to watch out for is Vu.City, the provider of interactive, digital city models.

Can technology bridge the service gap between buildings with amenity & space-as-a-service?

Gabrielle McMillan is the founding CEO of Equiem and has led the Equiem business and team from inception in 2011. In her previous role as Director and General Manager of Advance Marketing, Gabrielle oversaw significant business growth (9 x revenue), expansion into New Zealand and the UK and international operations, including 180 staff.

Equiem catalyses communities, using technology to turn commercial spaces into places & helps landlords unlock new value in their assets; assisting them to attract & retain tenants, while increasing revenue. Equiem aims to breathe new life into buildings through: deeper engagement with customers, a smart technology platform and a curated services experience.

In this podcast:

• How does the UK compare globally in the adoption of space-as-a-service?
• Why is the UK behind other countries in this regard?
• How can Equiem help property owners fulfil the service needs of their end customers?
• Is technology an all-encompassing solution for “service”?
• How can you measure ROI of emerging technologies like Equiem?
• Is there a role in the Smart Cities movement for Equiem-style platforms? Will we see towns etc collaborating under similar technology banners?

Gabrielle’s favourite building is the impressive Rialto Towers, Equiem’s first project. Her favourite emerging real-estate related technology is Bluepoint; a UK cloud-based, visitor management system for buildings and a potential solution for a pain point experienced by many occupiers and on-site teams.

Are brand engagement & media overtaking transactions as the primary purpose of bricks-and-mortar retail? Where else in the build environment is brand influencing building design and utility?

Lara Marerro is a Studio Director & Retail Practice Leader at Gensler, the global architectural practice. Rather than specialising in a specific sector, Lara is interested the power brand and how it relates to consumers and built environment.

With an education that spans psychology, advertising, marketing, and cultural anthropology, Lara’s focus is on translating complex global consumer trends into understandable, workable, and profitable outcomes for her clients.

In this podcast:

• How are shopping habits changing & what is the opportunity for retailers & landlords?
• Is the store media or does it still have a role as the location for transactions to take place?
• Is pure-play experiential retail really relevant outside of the prime retail pitches?
• How can independent retailers compete in a brand-oriented, digital landscape?
• How else is brand / the concept of “Tribes” attaching itself to real estate across other asset classes?

Lara’s innovation-to-watch is AppearHere; where she believes the best is still yet to come!

Lara’s favourite building in the Empire State Building for its enduring impact on the Manhattan skyline.

Does the history of the European Real Estate market hold any clues for the direction of the future?

My guest today is Andrea Carpenter, a communications consultant in the property industry, founder & director of this podcast’s partner, the non-profit Women Talk Real Estate, and author of the new book High Rise and Fall: The Making of the Modern Real Estate Industry.

Andrea began her career as a journalist at Property Week before moving on to be editor of EuroProperty. Following this she worked for various organisations, including: Urban Land Institute, INREV and ANREV in Hong Kong. She most recently worked as Head of Marketing and Communications EMEA at CBRE Global Investors.

In this podcast:

• What were driving forces behind the creation of the modern European Real Estate industry?
• What went wrong in 2008?
• Has the investment industry learned it's lessons or is history in danger of rhyming once again?
• How has the way the industry has developed and been funded influenced our built environments?
• What is Women Talk Real Estate? Who is it for and how can people get involved?

Andrea's favourite Real Estate innovation is What3Words which has simplified talking about location by giving every 3x3m grid on earth a unique location code, comprising of 3 words...

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Women Talk Real Estate  who connect female real estate professionals with speaking and media opportunities across Europe and provide training for successful stage and media presence.

How can collaboration improve the real estate industry? The view from one of the UK property sector's great generalists on the state of the market and the way ahead...

Susan Freeman is a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya. Susan hold a business degree from London Business school and a is well known as a proponent of innovation in real estate. Described by Bisnow as one of the best-connected lawyers in the sector, Susan is one of the most followed real estate twitter users in the UK – you can follow her activity on @propertyshe

Susan is a member of the Mishcon Tech Group, whose MDR LAB runs an incubator programme for legal tech start-ups and she also mentors for Pi Labs PropTech start-up accelerator.

Susan is on the advisory boards of Seaforth Land and Work.Life (please ignore my pronunciation - it's "work life", no dot!) and chairs the new property group at Bee London. She is also a member of the London Chamber of Commerce Property & Construction Committee and has recently been included in Bisnow's 51 Most Influential Women in Real Estate List.

In this podcast:

1. How to make Twitter work for you to build networks & gain industry insight
2. The importance of collaboration in the real estate industry & whether or not we can over-do it
3. Is technology being embraced sufficiently by property companies?
4. Assessing the development of the concept of the "ideal" workplace & the race for talent
5. Space as a Service
6. The future of the retail market
7. The benefits of incubating industry tech start-ups

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Women Talk Real Estate, who connect female real estate professionals with speaking and media opportunities across Europe and provide training for successful stage and media presence.

News content & analysis is available in ever-growing quantities. While this can offer huge advantages, it poses several problems; how can you ensure you're accessing the most relevant content for you without being overwhelmed, while also remaining in touch with the latest ideas from various sources.

Matt Partridge, founder of Infabode. Infabode is an online information platform for the global real estate market, connecting its users with companies producing market news and data, through an online platform that users can configure to suits their needs and interests. Since launching in 2016, Infabode now has over 450 companies contributing news, analysis and data for an audience of over 17,000.

Matt & I discuss the opportunities presented by customisation of news, data and analysis and how to avoid the pitfall of data overload.

The next steps for content provision in the industry, as seen by Matt are implementing AI to use news more intuitively (e.g. by geo-tagging news stories so they become searchable by location) and integration within other Proptech platforms, such as Infabode's collaborations with Realla & Coyote.

We discuss the value of data and how it may be monetised in the future. Is the value in the data or the ability to interpret it?

While real estate may seem an unlikely target for fake-news, content providers will likely be judged on their ability to verify their content and Matt discusses Infabode's approach to dealing with this.

As e-commerce continues to disrupt bricks-and-mortar retail, the story of the retail apocalypse or death of the high street has been mainstream news and this isn’t a phenomenon unique to the UK. I talk to Mark Robinson of Ellandi to see if we can find out: a) whether the situation is as dire as it is presented and b) what is the future of mainstream retail (i.e. everyday shopping, as opposed to destination retail).

Mark founded Ellandi in 2008 and it is now now the UK’s leading investment manager of Community Shopping Centres. Mark is president elect of REVO, the retail property industry body, and one of the more outspoken commentators in the sector.

We start by discussing the categorisation of shopping centres and the polarisation towards either destination or convenience centres, versus the traditional (and probably defunct) prime & secondary definitions.

Interestingly, we soon hit on the concept of community - a running theme in recent episodes – and its importance in creating a sense of purpose and identity for local centres. In the traditional categorisations of shopping centres, there’s no appreciation for this idea and yet, this is clearly an increasingly critical driver of footfall and thus retail performance. Mark’s centres have created data to prove this point out.

Mark’s view (and he’s not alone) is that the retail apocalypse is over-stated; what we’re seeing is the death of poor concepts and badly managed operations. He uses the current example of Poundland as a case-in-point. That is not to say that the sector is not entering a period of profound change; just that some retailers are adapting better than others. Of course, this applies equally to property owners; those who aren’t capable of adapting their own business models in-step with their more forward-thinking tenants are going to struggle and will probably add to the problem.

So, who should be sorting out our struggling town centres out? I think our conclusion is that it’s situation dependent. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s public or private-sector led, the importance is driving ideas of collaboration (both between landlord-tenant and landlord-local authority & other stakeholders), innovation and community. To this end, the argument as to whether or not Local Authorities should be using their access to the Public Works Loan Board to fund town centre regeneration becomes moot; the key is that they’re using the funds to invest in their own built environments, rather than speculating in the wider asset class.

Cripplingly high & out-dated business rates, upward only reviews and misuse of the CVA process are all other complex problems facing property owners and retailers at present. We try our best to cover as many areas as possible and see where the solutions lie!

At the heart of Space-as-a-Service is the concept of community; an intangible benefit that extends beyond functional service provision and which will ultimately lead to customer happiness and therefore potentially higher retention rates and ultimately returns for investors.

Ed Thomas views the central ethos of co-living as bringing community back into the heart of the home. When he joined Reza Merchant's The Collective in 2016, he was tasked with exactly that; creating a sense of community within the pioneering 546 bed, co-living development in Old Oak, West London.

Ed believes that strong communities equate to happy members at The Collective, a belief founded in the fundamental principles of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. After shelter and security, humans next need relationships to thrive. For the individual, the benefits of community range from improved wellness, greater avenues of entertainment, networking opportunities, shared learning experiences and, perhaps most importantly (in a city where 60% of 18-35 year olds report feeling lonely), less loneliness. Ed believes that technological changes have altered our relationship-building patterns in a way which places a greater-than-ever importance on "real" communities in big cities.

For the property owner / developer / manager, meeting this most basic of human needs can lead to higher occupancy rates and rents and higher retention rates, as well as an array of cross-benefits across mixed-use sites.

In our interview, Ed explains how he's used a mixture of intricate building design and planning, combined with technology and, most importantly, human direction to help build community at The Collective, Old Oak. He explains the importance of enabling communities to self-develop rather than trying to force anything on members within the development. This needs to be done within a framework of rules, however, to ensure that all members are pulling their weight equally - the skill lies in being able to navigate the path between facilitating and pushing ideas on community members. Apple's concept of Fearless Feedback is an integral part of Ed's ability to adapt seamlessly to his members evolving needs and demands - communities are fluid concepts and there's no one-size solution.

We discuss the role technology can play in helping both owners and customers build communities, as well as the issues that technology is bringing to individuals as they seek to build relationships in new cities or environments.

Finally, Ed gives his thoughts on the emergence of co-living as a sector, the direction of travel for The Collective and emergence of competition to the brand.

Ed's favourite building is The Collective, Old Oak - unsurprising when you hear the thought he's put into it! His favourite innovation is The Collective's Library of Things; the embodiment of the shared-economy / community ethos through a tech-enabled solution.

Dr Shain Shapiro is founder and CEO of Sound Diplomacy, bridging the gap between music and the world of policy and urban planning.

Sound Diplomacy is the leader of the Music Cities movement, which sees culture built into the urban environment through an integrated music policy.

Music is a universal language. While we all have individual tastes and preferences, it's an experience common to everyone. It can aid with early development, rehabilitation and healthy ageing. It's personal benefits are therefore indisputable.

A well curated and executed music policy can help attract & retain capital and talent, help build the nigh-time economy and improve tourism. Shain argues that Music Cities need more than just a a policy though; they need someone to promote the cause within the local authority to ensure that it is being thought about & that policy is being enacted. The efficacy of this can be seen in London; Shain believes that the decline of 35-40% of music venues in the capital over the past decade has been halted, (at least in part) due to the appointment of the Mayor's night-czar, Amy Lamé.For developers, music is yet another piece in the puzzle of creating a sense of place that will make the development more deliverable and therefore valuable. For build-to-rent's model, music's role in community building should definitely be considered further.

It's important to remember that music (like all arts and cultures) requires a full ecosystem to flourish. Headline acts come from grass-root venue beginnings and those venues need to be encouraged and cultivated. Shain believes that venues with capacity of less than 500 will need to look to multi-use in order to be sustainable as business models. The plurality of buildings could emerge as community centres, tech incubators, yoga studios or many uses. Tech solutions, such as Vanessa Butz's District, could really help with this mixed usage of buildings.

If you're interested in learning more about the role of music in the built environment, please visit Sound Diplomacy or explore Music UK's website.

Shain's favourite buildings are the Grand Place in Brussels and Alexandra Palace.

Kerb is Shain's favourite innovation within the built environment and whatt he aspires to emulate in a music context.