The real estate and construction sector wants to get close to people

User-orientation turned out to be a uniting factor when the actors of the real estate and construction sector pondered required changes. To allow our built environment to best meet the requirements of people and sustainable development, users must be genuinely involved in the development of services and activities. This is the conclusion of the Rakennettu ympäristömme 2025 (Our Built Environment 2025) report, where the Real Estate and Construction Forum sets guidelines for change in the sector. The report was published on 22 November at the annual KIRA forum at Finlandia Hall.

Expectations about the kinds of buildings, spaces, roads and technical networks we will need in the future are straightforward in themselves. We have to produce what people want and the environment can sustain. The built environment must be safe, healthy, easy to use and smoothly operating while also providing services. It is also to be sensibly designed and built and cared for with the future in mind.

´Creation of a future vision did not mean flirting with revolutionary technologies or new trends, but rather a return to basics. Client- or user-orientation is not a novel idea, but yet we found it to be at the core of the transition of the entire sector we are aiming to implement´, says Jukka Pekkanen, the director in charge of preparation of the report at the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT.

Involvement of users in processes

´Since people spend nearly all of their time in the built environment, the operations of the real estate and construction sector, above all, must be based on their needs. In the development of services we must bravely step inside the comfort zone of people and ask what they want, while also observing their actions and behavior. People often say one thing and do another. Yet, they must be genuinely involved in processes, Pekkanen continues.

Behavioral scientists and experts in user-oriented research and design have been engaged in the development of real estate and construction sector services and processes e.g. in the research programs of RYM Oy, the strategic competence cluster for the built environment.

User satisfaction will be monitored more systematically than earlier both on a general and company level. For instance, the biennial Evaluation of the State of the Built Environment (ROTI) will be renewed so that it will focus also on the user viewpoint in addition to experts. The Construction Quality Association (RALA ry) increasingly focusses on the user interface in the collection of client feedback. Quality and competence have also otherwise been recognized as a key area of change. The desire is to make quality into a true competitive factor and selection criterion for the sector.

Reliable one-stop services

´There is a great need to develop services in out sector. People want more services to make daily life easier and preferably in larger packages on a one-stop basis. The focus of the services is the improvement of eco-efficiency and energy efficiency, which are the other main concern of our report besides user-orientation´, says Pia Gramén of the Property Maintenance Association, a member of the report steering group.

Almost 200 sector actors and built environment users participated in the preparation of the report published by the Real Estate and Construction Forum (KIRA). The report presents their views on what our built environment should look like in 2025, and what measures are required to bring about that change. The report has five themes: users, services, spaces, society and infrastructure, and quality and competence. It is intended as an aid for sector actors in development work and as a guide in setting the direction of change.

Thirteen real estate and construction sector corporations make up the KIRA forum. It brings together the key sector actors and consolidates their mutual co-operation. The co-operation, in its present form, began as a result of the vision process launched in 2000, which defined the sector´s common determination for 2010. The now published description of 2025 represents the present view of required changes.

Julkaistu: 24.12.2011 11:32

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