Buildings of the Future need a radical new approach

We’ve led innovation in the elevator field for close to 150 years, always keeping tabs on the latest developments in urban planning. Cities are changing. Urban spaces of the future, with their focus on flexibility, sustainability and lifestyle, will require more than state-of-the-art vertical transportation.    

It’s in that context that we launched Schindler PORT 4D, offering our customers a holistic view of their building’s transport system, while allowing them to provide personalized, seamless journeys for passengers and goods. Because every building is different, though, it was necessary to go a step further by allowing Schindler PORT 4D to integrate products from partners active in the built environment to meet any requirement of future buildings.

Up until recently, elevator companies have provided equipment largely closed off to other building systems. But no longer. We’ve developed a method that allows partner companies to interface with our own product ecosystem, opening up an entirely new range of possibilities for the future. Schindler CoLab is an open, secure and modular building integration toolbox. Consisting of a series of software and hardware packages, it allows for the rapid connection of partners’ products.  

Schindler CoLab enables seamless integration with building management solutions, access systems, mobile apps, face recognition, robotics, digital entertainment and a lot more. For example, a customer eager to integrate a proprietary smartphone app into their custom-building app can use CoLab. The process is extremely easy and comes at a minimal cost. 

Using CoLab, our partners can integrate a myriad of solutions to offer new use cases & experiences for building owners, property managers and tenants (learn more on the Schindler Developer Portal). Our goal is to grow our partner portfolio and build an ecosystem delivering ever more enhanced customer experiences.

Here are some examples of the use cases we have built together with partners:

Real-Estate Asset Optimization: Power of Data for Sustainability

Our start-up and partner BuildingMinds offers a software-as-a-service solution consisting of a unique combination of an integrated cloud platform, a Digital Building Twin and data-driven insights. 

By interfacing via CoLab, we can construct a total building information ecosystem where large amounts of data – either related to the movement of people and goods throughout the building or to the status of the equipment performance – can be made available to help optimize operations and drive innovation in the sector.

Such building insights enable our real estate customers to reduce operating costs, build sustainability strategies and future-proof their real estate businesses sustainably. And, importantly, with the monitoring KPIs such as temperature, CO2 concentration, humidity, sound level, and illuminance being available, the health, safety, and wellbeing of occupants can be carefully monitored.

Service Robots for Deliveries

We elevate people and robots! Increasingly, robots are using our elevators equipped with CoLab to get around buildings on their own. Together with our partner Robotise, we are transforming indoor delivery services with rolling minibars and in-room services. But JEEVES, the German made service robot, is not confined to hotels: He delivers blood samples in hospitals or drops off mail in office buildings.

Watch us in action at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Zurich-Airport.