Urban facility management

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate where facility management (FM) is having an impact on the urban environment and what other work needs to be done to easier facilitate achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This is important for practices as it highlights opportunities where the FM discipline can develop and to research to illustrate where the discipline is going. The societal benefit is that we see Urban FM as an intermediator between citizens, public and private practices providing the platform of how they can work together for mutual benefit. Design/methodology/approach The method used is a literature review, looking latest state-of-art in the mentioned field has been assessed and the developments along with potential future research focuses, have been identified. The current scope to expand FM role were also taken into consideration from a recent workshop at the EuroFM conferences 2019 and 2020, several presentations at the CIB World Congress Hong Kong 2019, CIRRE 2018 and 2019, and special Facilities’ issue, illustrating how FM works within Urban environments and the potential contribution the discipline makes on neighbourhoods, communities and broader city-scale. Findings The authors present how FM fits in with a Smart and Sustainable City context by positioning communities as core for meeting SDGs, but they often fall out of needs perspective for hard and soft services. Since 2018, the authors have intensely worked on this topic developing conference papers at both a European and international level. The topic of Urban FM is growing in importance based on out interactions at these conferences and interactions with FM network groups. In addition, the authors have been identifying gaps, with communities that are currently not being met by current urban practice perspectives but could be met through an Urban FM practice perspective. They have engaged an educational perspective of Urban FM by developing workshops, summer schools with students from around Europe and new courses. With a specific focus on this concept, it is important to branch out ideas and disseminate of what a more structured urban FM is. Research limitations/implications Smart and Sustainable Cities has been a focus for many years now from various perspectives such as urban planning and technology providing solutions and frameworks on how to manage increasing populations in cities. What these studies neglect is a service-oriented perspective supporting the livability requirements and social values of future and current communities living in cities which goes beyond operating and maintaining infrastructure of cities. This neglect which highlights the need to develop an understanding where FM expands its role in the urban environment. Originality/value The aim is to highlight solidify research that is happening in this area where FM links to the urban environment and the benefit it has in terms of sustainability. It illustrates to practice and teaching that the concept of FM is relevant within an urban environment, creates stronger connections within and between citizens and cities and illustrate how Urban FM is necessary in facilitating community facilities.

Urban Heritage Facility Management: A Scoping Review

“…The main concept of urban FM is to increase the efficiency of the tangible infrastructure, build employment openings, and safeguard neighborhood inclusiveness in the operation of facilities of the city [14]. The deterioration of physical space is linked to the lack of local inhabitants' self-organization, leading to conflicts between social classes (among people) and between people and governments or between dwellers and other institutions [19].…”

“…Currently, urban FM is expanding community-based facilities management by providing a forum for authorities, organizations, and businesses in new and creative environments to support local stakeholders [13]. The fundamental concept of urban FM is to improve the influence of FM on the urban environment and to ensure the implementation of sustainable development goals through a service-oriented perspective that supports livability requirements and social values, community inclusiveness, and well-being approaches [14] that are more than just the operation and management of the city infrastructures. The urban FM strategy tackles the issues by functioning as a bridge between various stakeholder interests in the urban areas and ensuring that social value is integrated with environmental and financial consideration [14].…”

Exploring urban facilities management approaches to increase connectivity in smart cities

“…An open governance approach requires new models for urban development and design of urban settlements that generate shared value creation for the community, users and commercial actors over time. The vision of this type of open governance aims to connect a happy, healthy, regenerative city which underpins the principles to maximise economic, social, cultural and environmental opportunities laid out in SDGs (Temeljotov Salaj et al , 2018c). The value and serviceable orientation of FM show the potential to act as an active partner in the design process for new buildings or the refurbishment of existing buildings, as well as additional facilities (e.g.…”

“…The value and serviceable orientation of FM show the potential to act as an active partner in the design process for new buildings or the refurbishment of existing buildings, as well as additional facilities (e.g. public services such as schools, elderly homes and medical centres) and organising new services extending FM to the broader settlement area, thus taking more social responsibility in areas (Temeljotov Salaj et al , 2018c). The recognition is a clear correlation between the design of the built environment, individuals’ quality of life, the community’s social structure and business development.…”

Seasonal living and deurbanization: the role of the second home in redistribution of population in large cities of Russia

“…Deurbanization, first implemented in practice by the architects Taut BJF, Wright FL [11], has become widespread as a direction in urban planning. A significant number of scientific publications are devoted to this issue, both of a conceptual nature [12][13][14][15][16] and describing practice in individual states, groups of countries such as the USA, Germany, Poland, Japan, South Africa [17][18][19][20][21]. At the same time, only a small number of works investigate the settlements that combine the second home.…”