Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2019 | Page 41

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“Ruukki Roof Sensor means savings for facility maintenance. The system sends an alert when, for safety reasons, it’s time to re-
move snow from the roof; savings arise since snow does not need to be removed from the roof unnecessarily,” says Pekka Roiv-
io, Ruukki Vice President, R&D.
Apartment living has already changed
a great deal in the recent years, mostly as
a result of rapid technological advances.
Voutilainen points out that in many homes
around the world, it is not uncommon to find
connected whitegoods that self-diagnose sit-
ting alongside smart voice-controlled audio-
visual systems that stream content directly
from the cloud.
“Then there’s the plethora of apps on
smartphones and other mobile devices that
we use to help us navigate everyday life,”
adds Voutilainen.
Roof Proof
Another company very much involved in the
Smart Building revolution is Ruukki which
came out with a Smart Roof product a cou-
ple of years ago. Among the first realized
projects was the Spice Shopping Centre in
the Latvian capital of Riga. Spice received a
pioneering high-IQ roof that monitors snow
weight on the roof and produces information
about any changes in real time.
Taking in experiences from Riga and
elsewhere, in autumn 2018 Ruukki launched
the second-generation version called Ruukki
Roof Sensor, which is the first member of
our future Sensor Network Family. Pekka
Roivio, Ruukki Vice President, R&D, says
that the newcomer features some significant
upgrades:
“The first version was all cloud-oper-
ated, but this new Smart Roof can be used
also locally, making it more convenient for
the users,” says Roivio.
According to Roivio, Ruukki Roof
Sensor means savings for facility mainte-
nance. The system sends an alert when, for
safety reasons, it’s time to remove snow
from the roof; savings arise since snow
does not need to be removed from the roof
unnecessarily.
“Today, in many places snow is often
removed unnecessarily, because the weight
of the snow is not known. This is a way to
optimize the snow removal,” says Roivio,
adding that Ruukki Roof Sensor is an espe-
cially great fit for areas of highest risk.
Enter: Digital Twin
At Ruukki, the R&D department is leaning
heavily into digitalization to expand the
scope of what we thought was possible in
the field of real estate. “This can mean, for
instance, sensors that can tell you if a struc-
ture has been exposed to moisture and for
how long – and whether it’s harmful or not,”
Roivio offers an example.
In real estate, the concept of “digital
twin” has been exciting imaginations for a
while now – and Roivio believes that we are
getting towards better and better function-
ing models all the time.
“When we have a real-life, physi-
cal building and its exact digital twin, we
can run simulations, say, 25 years in to
the future, to see how a certain occurrence
impacts in the long run.” l
Sami J. Anteroinen
Nordicum 41