(MENAFN- A Communications) with top global brands like; Facebook, Uber, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, PwC, LinkedIn, PepsiCo, Oracle, IBM, Nestle, Deutsche Bank, General Electric, The Fairmont and CNN Under Their Design Belt, SAY Studio Managing Director Matthew Sexton Looks To A Unique 2021 Of its kind and at the fore in the field of interior design and architecture across the GCC.
In 2020, the construction industry recorded a contraction of 10.4%, and GlobalData predicted growth of 4.4% in 2021, but so far this number has only reached 2.2%. The industry is expected to register an average annual growth of 3.9% between 2022 and 2025. As of June 2021, the total construction project market in the GCC was estimated at US$3.2 trillion. Buildings, infrastructure and industrial as well as the energy, water, oil and gas sectors.
In 2022, residential, commercial and mixed-use projects, airports, sports facilities, hotels, healthcare and education will be the largest contributors to the construction sector, with new contractor awards estimated at $45.1 billion, followed by oil and gas projects worth $22.6 billion and infrastructure $17.5 billion.
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia lead the construction contractor deposits in 2022, which are expected to be valued at US$11.4 billion and US$20.1 billion respectively. Qatar, which is due to host the soccer World Cup next year, will list construction contracts worth $5.5 billion.
The UAE has shown a decline in contract awards during Covid in the short term, however, the long-term outlook is relatively promising, as the government continues infrastructure initiatives such as; Energy Strategy 2050, Sheikh Zayed Housing Program, and Dubai Tourism Strategy. Infrastructure projects are a major part of the UAE’s economic expansion as it looks to build efficient transportation and logistics networks, as well as a reliable supply of clean energy.
With more than $1 trillion in construction and transportation projects planned, and construction contracts worth $58 billion being floated, Saudi Arabia is by far the largest construction market in the region. The kingdom accounts for 54% of all planned construction projects in the GCC, and 54% of those put up for bids.
The coronavirus has proven that the academics and tech visionaries who have spoken since the 1980s about the possibilities of remote work, have not exaggerated. After months of working remotely, we’ve all learned that most tasks and meetings run effectively without a desk. Offices, however, offer more than just a place to work. It provides opportunities to socialize, share ideas, understand the complexities of their work, and build trust with colleagues. Many innovative business ideas are born between workplace encounters – “water cooler conversations”. Our applications today ask us for presentations to show how design, technology and management practices can be used to make tomorrow’s offices more effective as social, educational and innovative spaces.
Flexible working has taken center stage in the business, ongoing constraints continue to distract teams, and a major new trend is coming from the need for blended office design. We have seen a shift from the workplace to the ‘culture space’. Post-pandemic discovers that the office will be secondarily a place to carry out tasks or participate in routine meetings. As a result, employees will increasingly work in a blended office, navigating between a home workspace and a traditional office building. The latter would primarily become a cultural space, providing workers with a social anchor, facilitating communications, enabling learning, and fostering innovative, uninformed collaboration.
With working from home, employees are naturally accustomed to an informal approach to their workdays. This is reflected both in the physical space and within the company’s culture and behavior patterns. Many employees have been given access to an unprecedented amount of choice and can control when, how and where they work and will want this to continue. Many people will now be looking for a workplace that feels like home from home. Combining “commercial” and commercial-commercial design features was never a new concept and is a design trend that has been gaining momentum for a number of years. The appeal of “resimercial” has gained momentum since employees have had to work from home.
During the first half of the first half of this year, a number of clients reported workplace issues that emerged as companies adapted to life in the “new normal.” This gave an idea to the SAY organization. Their approach as providers of the “new normal” is intrinsically linked to managing change, the overall process of implementing resilience within the workforce. Employees can usually be left out of the business decision with an office upgrade or move, so many excellent companies engage their workforce using change management techniques. Change is rarely easily accepted, an example of how this can happen with working with PepsiCo. Part of the summary was making sure their workforce was as excited about new office spaces as management. And enabling employees to “get on the ground” when time to return to the office was critical. Say Studio used real-time viewing software to create a realistic 360-degree virtual tour of the new PepsiCo office for employees to experience the back office in advance.
The UAE is one of the best countries in the world to lead the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. While sectors such as aviation and tourism remain severely affected, other key areas such as real estate in Dubai and the oil and gas projects sector in Abu Dhabi are already growing. Top brands are now looking to Middle East hubs to identify global trends, and the latest project completed by SAY for PwC has become the only WELL health and safety assessment commercial space in the Middle East and Europe, with the motto ‘Office of the Future’. This set a precedent for offices around the world.
With the impact of Covid, all new office space has health and safety design requirements. The WELL Seal for Health and Safety is a sign of trust from the international WELL-building Institute, the world authority in the field of health building. Global brands are working on strict regulations at the design stage to make this happen. The seal can be seen on buildings that have been placed to prioritize the health and safety of the end user. This includes measures such as cleaning and sterilization procedures, air and water quality monitoring, emergency preparedness programs and health services.
Technology can’t be missed from our list of key lessons for 2021. SAY Studios has both adapted and created technologies for remote access, facilitating operations for workplace and hospitality clients. The first big step that was taken was the adaptation of extended reality programming which has been implemented across the UAE hospitality sector. The newly modified software provides new and existing hotel operators, a real-time viewing platform. The expected time savings, from conception to delivery, is up to 80 percent, and an overall cost savings of up to 50 percent. It’s always tricky when it comes to finishing a design with specific materials, as this is usually done first with 3D visualization. This can be a waste of time, especially when you consider the number of revisions often required, combined with restrictions on the number of people in a meeting, no-shows due to the Covid connection and you have a project that is so much delayed. Adapting existing software certainly isn’t new, but Say Studios applied Extended Reality (XR) technology to the design process that allowed for a more immersive experience, thus reducing time spent on “option”.
In implementing strong building initiatives, the UAE has adopted a collaborative public-private partnership (PPP) across sector sectors, including education, transportation, and municipal business, to ensure efficiency and start-up economic activities in the post-pandemic era. With most of the UAE population vaccinated, the region expects the hospitality and tourism sector to rise in tandem with the global easing of travel restrictions. As one of the most popular travel destinations in the world in 2021, the UAE will create 11 new hotels at the end of 2021, mainly built by foreign players.
The UAE has the highest sovereign credit rating of any country in the region and has made the most progress in Covid-19 vaccines. It has led the world throughout the pandemic in terms of expanding its infrastructure testing and its growth trajectory is set to run from midway through 2021 through 2022.
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