The ultimate modern occupier
Urban Farmers
Fancy growing vegetables and cultivating fish on the roof of your building? These are your go-to guys. The Swiss team behind this unique start-up is all about promoting urban agriculture to help developers capitalise on otherwise empty spaces
This week Europe’s biggest urban farm launched in The Hague, signalling a huge milestone for one of the world’s freshest young innovators.
Launched in July 2011, Urban Farmers could become the next big thing in rooftop tenancy. And, on the face of it, its business model makes a lot of sense.
The pitch is simple. The team will take empty rooftop space off developers’ and building owners’ hands, deliver 5-7% returns on a capex per sq ft, and set up urban farms that grow fruit, vegetables and fish.
Their first farm in Basel, Switzerland, opened in 2013. The 350 sq m (3,767 sq ft) project produces around three tonnes of vegetables and 900kg of fish. This helps to provide the building, along with surrounding shops and restaurants, with fresh, local, sustainable produce. Now, following the launch of its sister company, Urban Farmers USA, in the States last year, the firm’s sights are set on expansion and it is planning 50 new rooftop farms across the world.
“This is an opportunity for developers to upgrade their empty roof space,” says project development director Fabian Weinlaender. “We are offering a solution to real estate owners who have a space they are not capitalising on. Big companies are starting to take notice. We are now working with Migros, the biggest retailer in Switzerland, about opportunities on its rooftops, and have obviously launched The Hague project on two floors and 22,000 sq ft this week.”
It’s a good pitch. But what about the specialist requirements that come with setting up a patch of farmland on the roof? It is no good if poor conditions and lack of equipment result in the production of piles of withered produce.
“There are structural bottlenecks that need to be addressed, mainly regarding the weight-load,” says Weinlaender. “Farms need watering and it is well known that water can be very heavy in large volumes.
“Up until now we have been able to overcome this, either by being in buildings that can take the load or by using an engineering solution called the silver platter, which displaces the weight of the agriculture system and distributes it to load-bearing walls or pillars. Yes, we are a specialist occupier but there are solutions to most problems we might face.”
In terms of how the rent works, there are two models. “It depends on the project,” says Weinlaender. “One is that Urban Farmers takes on the whole cost of the farm and pays the capex. The second model means the real estate owner pays the capex and the return.”
As to plans to expand into London, Weinlaender says it is high on the company’s hit list.
“London is a very interesting market,” he says. “And so is the UK. We are definitely looking at opportunities here if there was an appetite.
“So far, the landlords and owners we have dealt with have been enthusiastic. It is a mad, out-of-the-box idea, but we are making it a reality.”
The hipster hotelier
citizenM
The Dutch hotel chain founded in 2005 has seven properties in the UK, Paris, Amsterdam and New York City, with 17 more hotels in the pipeline
A Mario Testino portrait of Robbie Williams peering over a Union Jack thong is the most striking feature in the lobby at citizenM’s London Bankside hotel, SE1. Known for compact rooms and bold design with a focus on art and technology, the group has become synonymous with an off-the-wall vibe.
But if you think the artwork packs a punch, wait until you hear about the group’s global expansion plans. Over the next five years, it wants to secure a global portfolio of 33 hotels, comprising 7,500 bedrooms. Today it has only seven hotels worldwide.
As part of that expansion, it is planning 1,000 bedrooms in London, where it has two developments in the pipeline – the 370-bedroom citizenM Tower of London and a 216-bedroom hotel in Shoreditch, E1, both of which are due to complete by the end of the year.
All bedrooms across the portfolio are smaller than 160 sq ft, and these compact spaces help when it comes to such an ambitious expansion plan.
The formulaic bedroom size means that its hotels can be built using modular construction. Bedrooms are built off-site in Japan and shipped to sites around the world.
Smaller bedrooms also lead to smaller site requirements. A citizenM hotel needs only 35,000–100,000 sq ft.
Being tight on space also has its advantages where competition is concerned. Rather than competing with other hospitality operators, citizenM is more likely to find itself in a bidding war with offices and other asset classes for city centre sites.
“In many cities, offices are not the dominant use of space, and our value per square metre is higher than other asset classes,” says Jasper Muller, director of acquisition and investment.
Using this model, citizenM generates upscale hotel revenues while only using half the space in a hotel where typical room rates are £99-£199 per night.
“It makes a much better operating profit. It is higher than a four-star hotel,” says Muller. “We don’t have the seating area in the room that no one ever sits in, or the typical empty lobby and reception desk. What we have created is a living space, where we have taken out everything that the guest does not need, and focused on giving them what they want.
“We have created a lifestyle hotel that caters to a new brand of citizen.”
And what citizenM may lack in space, it makes up for in technology. All bedrooms are sold exclusively on an online basis, check in is handled electronically at a kiosk, and all guests are given a citizenM ID card, which they use to pay for everything at the hotel.
Everything in the bedroom is controlled from an iPad. Guests can choose mood lighting for their room, control the curtains and temperature, and there are more than 350 movies to choose from. For those who do not like any of the entertainment on offer, guests can stream films and music off their own devices.
The number of guests sitting in the citizenM London Bankside hotel living room suggests the brand is beginning to grow on people. Its expansion plans and art choices may be ambitious, but Sehr Ahmed, development and investment director, is adamant there is global appeal.
She says: “Everybody wants good value for money, which is why citizenM appeals to so many people. But the most important thing is that citizenM deals with its guests on a human level.”
The workplace visionary
Aukett Swanke
The architectural practice behind the Google offices in Istanbul and Prague has come up with an innovative concept design for a future London workspace. The building comprises two adjoining towers – each with a different interior design and purpose – and works off a volumetric leasing model rather than a cost based on floorspace
We learn a lot of basic skills from nurseries: reading, writing and, according to the architects at Aukett Swanke, how to design the next London workspace.
Nurseries act as open spaces where children can listen to a teacher, work on their own or play together, offering a variety that offices should emulate. Aukett Swanke is developing a building concept that could provide this kind of flexibility.
“It’s quite a sophisticated series of spaces all in one place,” says director Tom Alexander. The office of the future, he says, does not involve workers crammed into tiny cells with little sunlight or social interaction. But neither is it an unrestrained open-plan floor. It should have a bit of everything.
But how do you design a building with everything?
Aukett Swanke’s answer is a tall two-building flexible “chassis”. One building has traditional, private office spaces. The other consists of customisable 8m (26ft) high rooms, priced by volume rather than floor area. Firms would rent the space and use it however they wanted. If they needed two floors instead of one, they could move the cross-laminated timber provided and put in a second floor, walls, or a mezzanine. If they wanted to turn their box into living accommodation, that could be done with pre-made rooms that slot into the space.
“You need balance, yin and yang,” Alexander says. “It is a combination of spaces that enables both extroverts and introverts to work.”
Both buildings would be connected by glass bridges – which, says Alexander, would be a perfect location for tubes of biofuel-generating algae – giving workers space to walk around and bump into each other. In fact, that “serendipitous bumping into each other” is a core part of the building’s design. The top floor would be a recreational area and the ground floor a communal lounge. Smaller, cheaper pods would be available, so start-ups could work in the same building as multinational corporations.
“An established organisation often wants to work in an environment like this,” Alexander says. “It can have a relationship with emerging talent, and vice versa. Both have valuable information to share, and this design encourages that kind of bumping.”
Flexible leases, ranging in length from hours to years, encourage more movement throughout the building and could let a company experience all its growth in the same area. A start-up could rent a space on the ground floor for a short period, realise that its business is doing well, and work its way up the building as and when it can. On the other hand, if a company were to fail, it could move down and not be tied to an unaffordable space.
The goal for Aukett Swanke in its hyper-flexible model is sustainability. “If we put something up on the surface of the sphere of the world, we should be responsible enough to know that it has a value and a legacy that can last,” Alexander says.
The structure, he adds, could accommodate whatever occupiers needed: “In 50 years’ time, it could be a college or it could be a hotel. It could be any number of things.”
Now, however, it is still a concept and specifics about amenities, price and customisation potential are speculation. The plan for Aukett Swanke is to share its idea and see where it goes. But if an operator did pick up the concept, Alexander says, the future of sustainable building design could happen now.
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