Amit Gossain stated that smart living, the new normal, is being defined by flexibility and convenience. Architects are a key stakeholder in ensuring efficient people flow for urban dwellings and KONE closely collaborates with them around the world to make cities greener and smarter, especially now when the whole landscape of real estate is changing.
“KONE has been studying everyday challenges in urban residential environments and is addressing them with new solutions that are functional, efficient, and adaptive. From elevator call using WhatsApp to elevator air purifiers and escalator handrail sanitizers, there is a suite of solutions that support people transition into a new normal,” he added.
Responding to a question on buyer sentiments, Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani said that the demand for residential housing has gone up tremendously with the idea of Work from Home. “Today, I think the home has become very important and technologies like artificial intelligence, connectivity, digital, and using space optimally will be important. The demand for sizes of the house will also increase.”
“Ideas and changes are taking place and I am pretty excited to see how the post-Covid world will actually cope up with the new situation. But it’s exciting, it’s new and there is a lot of prospect of creating new ideas, new dimensions in architecture and good facilities like KONE does,” said Gossain.
Talking on when he thinks the economy will spring back to normal, he said, “My gut feel is that by Christmas most parts of the economy will get back to normal. In the short term, there is definitely a contraction in demand for commercial space but in the long run, if the economy is managed well and the GDP of India picks up again, the demand for commercial real estate will pick up again. I am bullish about the growth of the GDP in India over a period of time, but we will have to wait and watch the effectiveness of the policies of the government and how the Make in India and Atmanirbhar pan out.”
As part of the webinar, Heikki Rintala, People Flow Intelligence Expert, KONE Asia Pacific, shared his insights on how smart solutions in the vertical transportation industry are going to shape the future of people flow in buildings and how Artificial Intelligence and digitalization are going to play a key role in this transformation.
