Events and Exhibitions
TALKING TOMORROW, TODAY
The role of ‘smart’ buildings in accelerating infrastructure delivery in
South Africa was placed under the spotlight at an Innovation Day
hosted by Johnson Controls.
H
eld under the theme of ‘Talking Tomorrow, today’, the event
engaged a range of stakeholders to not only make them
aware of the complete solutions available from the company, but
to stimulate an important debate about the increasingly critical
role played by technology.
Designed as a showcase of innovation, the event gave a
comprehensive overview of smart city technology, green building
solutions and energy efficiency, and infrastructure and human
Archie Makatini.
capital investment. Here, the focus was buildings across the
board, from hospitals to universities. “Our aim was to engage
with important stakeholders in order to understand what is on
their wish list in terms of benefiting their end users,” Archibald F.
Makatini, GM for sub-Saharan Africa at the Johnson Control MEA
headquarters in Isando, Johannesburg, says.
Smart cities are not only about ‘bright shiny new buildings’, but
must focus on developing infrastructure that caters to the overall
needs of society, according to Makatini. Born in South Africa,
Makatini’s 23-year career with Johnson Controls has taken him from
New York City to New Jersey, Hawaii, California, and now back to
South Africa. “What brought me full circle was the opportunity.
Africa is primed for infrastructure growth across the board.”
Johnson Controls is ideally positioned to assist cities like
Johannesburg revive their dilapidated building stock, as it
grapples with a growing deficit of affordable housing. “A lot of
these buildings do not even have simple functionality such as
air-con. We as a company can assist in turning Johannesburg
around. We have the knowhow to turn those buildings into
liveable environments.”
Johnson Control panel: from left: Good Hope FM radio personality, Mishka Patel; Peet Geldenhuys, Smart City specialist engineer,
Africa NEXTEC; Justin Lawson, executive director, CBRE Global Workplace Solutions; Grahame Cruickshanks; and Alfredo Dos
Santos, senior cloud architect, Microsoft.
10
RACA Journal I February 2020
www.hvacronline.co.za