Citation
Temeljotov Salaj, A. and Lindkvist, C. (2020), "Guest editorial", Facilities, Vol. 38 No. 11/12, pp. 761-763. https://doi.org/10.1108/F-08-2020-157
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited
Smart and sustainable cities are of focus for over many years now from various perspectives such as urban planning, technology solutions providers and frameworks on managing increasing populations of cities. While studies highlight the complexity of cities and their multiple dimensional aspects in light of sustainability, intermediary (actor or process) in the form of urban FM has the potential to synergise multiple dimensional aspects (Lindkvist et al., 2019a). Urban FM service-oriented perspective has a scope to address some of the complexities of cities through opportunities that promote liveability requirements and social values of communities beyond operating and maintaining infrastructure of cities. The expanding FM role is exemplified in workshops and presentations at EuroFM, CIB and CIRRE conferences held in 2019, illustrating how FM works within urban environments and the potential contribution the discipline makes to neighbourhoods, communities and city-scales.
The aim of this issue is to solidify research happening in this area where FM links to the urban environment benefitting it in terms of sustainability and local communities. In 2006, Alexander and Brown (2006) identified three key areas for how urban FM can support and broaden FM from individual organisations and buildings to local economies and communities. Salaj et al. (2018) extend the potential of urban FM to become an active and valuable partner for facilitating liveable areas, focussing on health and well-being, which has emphasis on SDG 3 Good Health and 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. The main idea of urban FM is to improve the quality of the physical environment, create employment opportunities and ensure inclusivity of communities in design and management of services in the urban environment.
The articles of this special issue contribute to expanding current thinking of urban FM within the areas of Community of Neighbourhoods, Health and Well-Being and Digitalisation.
The urban FM discipline considers what is core business in a neighbourhood or community or neighbourhoods in terms of shared values (Lindkvist et al., 2019b) and multidiscipline competences (Temeljotov Salaj et al., 2010). In this issue, the social sustainability attributes were examined as health and physical comfort, accessibility, integration, economy and participation (Almahmoud and Doloi, 2020) and trust, safety, confidence and social status (Grum and Kobal Grum, 2020). Vukmirović and Gavrilović (2020) propose the placemaking concept as a special value for stakeholders to state their needs, facilitating their involvement and motivation.
Health and well-being is important, from both physical health as well as social, economic and environmental components of individual, community and overall well-being. Nijkamp and Mobach (2020) introduce an analogy between urban design and facility design exploring whether health-directed design interventions in cities and facilities are related. Participatory action research helps students to develop practical tools to delve into local culture and value systems of community life (Zinoski, 2020). Kuijlenburg (2020) highlights a successful model of dispatching students into the city to conduct small-scale, applied research, which aims for increased understanding of urban FM. A workshop in Trondheim illustrates the potential for students to learn and experience the challenges of real citizen participation through a focus on sustainability practices (Temeljotov Salaj et al., 2020).
Digitalisation of services on a city-scale is still underused. In this issue, small studies illustrate the potential impact of digitalisation for urban FM. The case from Iftikhar et al. (2020) examines the complexity in spatial layout, which contributes to developing culturally based information and directs navigators to their desired location. In Trondheim, digital solutions ease communication and involvement of residents (Temeljotov Salaj et al., 2020). In Belgrade, maps represent different user groups’ opinions, preferences about the place and emotional mapping results (Vukmirović and Gavrilović, 2020).
Urban FM approach addresses the challenges by acting as an intermediator between diverse stakeholder interests in the built environment and ensuring social value is embedded in economic and environmental concerns. Developing better maintained buildings and spaces can improve the well-being of citizens and create new opportunities through smart FM approaches on a city-scale. However, urban FM is underused in connecting business, community needs and sustainable goals through the coordination of key players and data sources. Further research in this area is required to examine urban FM in terms of well-being and the development of new business models in approaches of taking care of buildings, campuses and urban areas in neighbourhoods and communities.
References
Almahmoud, E. and Doloi, K.H. (2020), “Identifying the key factors in construction projects that affect neighbourhood social sustainability”, Facilities, doi: 10.1108/F-05-2013-0042.
Alexander, K. and Brown, M. (2006), “Community-based facilities management”, Facilities, Vol. 24 Nos 7/8, pp. 250-268, doi: 10.1108/02632770610666116.
Grum, B. and Kobal Grum, D. (2020), “Concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and quality of life”, Facilities, doi: 10.1108/F-04-2020-0042.
Iftikhar, H., Asghar, S. and Luximon, Y. (2020), “The efficacy of campus wayfinding signage: a comparative study from Hong Kong and Pakistan”, Facilities, doi: 10.1108/F-04-2020-0035.
Kuijlenburg, R. (2020), “Teaching urban facility management, global citizenship and livability”, Facilities, doi: 10.1108/F-11-2019-0119.
Lindkvist, C., et al. (2019a), “Intermediaries for knowledge transfer in integrated energy planning of urban districts”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 142, pp. 354-364.
Lindkvist, C., et al. (2019b), “Defining a niche for facilities management in smart cities”, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Vol. 352, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/352/1/012035.
Nijkamp, J.E. and Mobach, M.P. (2020), “Developing healthy cities with urban facility management”, Facilities.
Salaj, A., Roumboutsos, A., Verlič, P. and Grum, B. (2018), “Land value capture strategies in PPP - what can FM learn from it?”, Facilities, Vol. 36 Nos 1/2, pp. 24-36, doi: 10.1108/F-03-2017-0033.
Temeljotov Salaj, A., et al. (2010), “Knowledge, skills and competence in spatial planning”, Urbani Izziv, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 136-143.
Temeljotov Salaj, A., et al. (2020), “An interactive tool for citizens’ involvement in the sustainable regeneration”, Facilities, doi: 10.1108/F-09-2019-0099.
Vukmirović, M. and Gavrilović, S. (2020), “Placemaking as an approach of sustainable urban facility management”, Facilities.
Zinoski, M. (2020), “Living-dwelling, the importance of half-private spaces in the neighborhoods on the borderline”, Facilities.
About the authors
Alenka Temeljotov Salaj is Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU, Norway. Her research interests are in facilities management, sustainable refurbishment, sustainable cities, citizens engagement and health and well-being. She has experiences from international collaboration projects with cities, industry and research institutions and human resource management. In the last years her focus in the research projects is on Urban FM from sustainable and social perspectives: CaPs – Citizens as Pilots of Smart Cities (NordForsk), +CityxChange – Positive Energy Districts (Horizon2020), BENEFIT – Business models for enhancing funding and enabling financing for infrastructure in transport (Horizon2020), Oscar – Value for owners and users of property (Forskningsrådet), Development of social infrastructure and long-term community care services (ARRS). She is a member of editorial boards in international journals; she created several projects, partnerships, conferences and summer schools. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Ljubljana and MSc in Construction Engineering from the same university.
Carmel Lindkvist is Associate Professor in Facilities Management in NTNU, Norway. Over the last 3 years she has been developing the field of Urban FM. Her current projects include EU funded +CityXchange where citizen co-creation is core for meeting the objectives of sustainability at the city scale. Carmel Lindkvist is responsible for a Masters course on the Introduction of Facilities Management at NTNU and is involved in running summer schools of Urban FM in cooperation with EuroFM. In 2018 she won EuroFM Young Research of the Year and has continued as an active member of this network. One of her key areas of interest is on knowledge transfer of disconnected practices across the life cycle from planning to implementation. Her research builds on organisation management theories to understand the interplay of practices, clients and end users in neighbourhoods and office buildings. She holds a PhD on Innovation in Facilities Management from University of Reading, UK and an MSc on Applied Research Methods from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.