Newcastle University

CASE STUDY

THE INNOVATIVE Q BUILDING ADVANCES UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE’S CARBON NEUTRALITY AGENDA

Nestled between Hunter Street and the marina, Q Building is the first stage of the University of Newcastle’s Honeysuckle City Campus Development. The cutting-edge establishment houses the School of Creative Industries and the University’s Innovation Hub. 'The University wanted the building to represent their commitment to innovation to the wider community, and their ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025,' explains Anthony Furniss, the Director of EJE Architecture, the multi-disciplinary design practice behind the development. 'Because of the orientation of the building, with a large northern facade, the original design saw the facade wrapped in a sun shade,' Anthony says. However, the solution didn’t offer the desired transparency. 'We were after a technology that would stop the sun coming in when we needed it to, and offer plenty of vision of the internal structure when we didn’t,' Anthony describes. 'SageGlass from George Fethers was the magic bullet.' The innovative glazing solution tints dynamically in response to the intensity of the sun, which allows complete protection from harsh light and heat while providing full transparency when the sun moves or goes down. 'SageGlass enables the building to cool by reducing the amount of heat entering the building,' Anthony explains. 'That decreases the need for air conditioning and saves energy.' He adds that with the overarching design objective to showcase innovation and creativity within a highly energyefficient building, SageGlass was the icing on the cake. As well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the tinted glass enhances occupant comofrot by reducing glare and helps maintain optimum temperature. Driven by the environmental ambition and pioneering resolve from the inside out, the interiors of the building are defined by the mass use of sustainably sourced timber. The inner narrative generated by this decisive use of wood can be observed from the outside, with SageGlass allowing passers-by to peek inside the building. Just as pedestrians can peek inside the building, the occupants can enjoy the expansive views outwards, a benefit enhanced by the option to grade the tint from the ceiling down to the floor. 'Being able to reflect among the business of creation is important,' Anthony says. 'The ability for students to look out, reflect on what they’re developing and connect with the world on the other side of the glass enables them to come back into their creative mindset with more context.'

Similarly, the visitors, often from out of town, can enjoy sweeping views of the Newcastle cityscape, particularly the working harbour the building is adjacent to. “Having such a transparent building enables the University to communicate with their town and explain how the school fits in within the wider urban context,” Anthony adds.

What is a highly considered, groundbreaking and functional solution from the occupants’ perspective presents as a compelling display of innovation and creativity from outside. The building comes to life as the passers by can see the kinetic facade of the Q Building animate throughout the day, harmoniously responding to the change in the position of the sun. The building has just been recognised for it’s sutainaility credentials with a 6-Star GreenStar rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, becoming the first building in regional NSW to achieve the highest rating. IMAGES MURRAY MCKEAN PHOTOGRAPHY

The University wanted the building to represent their commitment to innovation to the wider community, and their ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025

– HOW SaaS IS TRANSFORMING MANUFACTURING IN THE WINDOW AND DOOR INDUSTRY

In 2018, we discussed the introduction of disruptive technologies set to transform our window and door manufacturing industry. At the time, we wrote about how Industry 4.0, (commonly referred to as the ‘fourth industrial revolution’) would fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. That implementation would mean radically changing the information framework and processes of your entire business. Fast forward to today and I think I'm safe in saying we've all experienced at least a small part of the accelerated digital transformation in the past two years, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. One of the biggest requests we had from our customers in the early months of the pandemic, was how we could help them to get their team up and running remotely while working from home.

CLOUD COMPUTING MAKES WAY FOR SaaS

Thanks to cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS) has become a highly transformative technology in both manufacturing and the supply chain in recent years. As a SaaS application is accessed via the internet, users don't need to install and maintain a local version of the software to their computer or laptop. The application is hosted remotely and runs on your solution provider's cloud servers.

SaaS applications are typically licensed on a subscription basis. You'll pay a monthly fee based on the level of service, storage type, and the number of users or licenses you'll need for your business.

So, what are the benefits of SaaS when deployed within an Industry 4.0 environment? Here we’ll take a closer look at what we feel are the top five benefits that are specifically related to the window and door industry:

A mobile workforce Most definitely the biggest benefit we've seen from the use of SaaS software in 2020/2021 is that our customers had a business continuity plan for when countries around the world went into various forms of lockdown. Remote access to business-critical software meant their teams could be agile and continue to access real-time data remotely which was critical for continued operations. This reinforces the concept of data mobility — accessing your data where and when you need it, one clear advantage of digital transformation.

Increased security and reliability SaaS providers have access to highly specific partners, resources, and tools that no window and door manufacturer would realistically specialise in (and rightly so). The data stored and processed in the cloud is managed by a strict set of security requirements, resulting in a secure platform where your data is protected.

TECHNICAL

Since SaaS is hosted in the cloud, your team will be able to securely access the data 24/7 and from anywhere, increasing flexibility and reliability. Your data is also protected from any disaster that could impact your manufacturing facility should you retain the operational data onsite.

Reduced cost and risk As all your data is stored in the cloud and the application is run on virtual machines, there is no longer a need to purchase and maintain expensive hardware equipment such as PCs, laptops, and local servers. If there is less hardware and equipment to maintain, your IT resource costs will be reduced. The risk of managing your data locally would also decrease. The running and maintenance of the cloud is the responsibility of the cloud platform and service provider you work with.

The benefits here are that window and door manufacturers will have much lower IT and operating costs, and reduced risk, as the responsibility of maintaining the security of their data is transferred to the highly specialised solution provider. Moreover, window and door manufacturers can focus on their specialty fields (making windows) and not focus on IT.

Interoperability Because SaaS solutions are hosted in the cloud, your software can communicate and freely exchange real-time information across different tools and platforms such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Management Information Systems (MIS), and Customer Resource Management (CRM).

This allows your team to communicate across various departments in the business, all working off one true source of data, to support endto-end operations in your manufacturing facility.

Scalability Some of our customers came to us with ‘homegrown’ systems set up to manage their business. Many of these systems have been added on to over the years as the business has grown. The time, skills, and resources, not to mention the risk of tribal knowledge, that go into ensuring these systems continue to run as they should, is relentless and expensive. These systems often operate independently in a silo and do not connect with other business-critical software. With SaaS, customers can quickly and easily adjust their software to suit their changing business needs. Additional storage or services can be upscaled without having to invest in hardware or software. The benefit here is that SaaS apps are highly scalable, allowing businesses to easily access more features and services as they grow. WHERE TO START?

Advancements in technology have the potential to positively change the way you work. It may feel like a huge task to fully understand new technologies — researching service providers, understanding cost v benefits, and identifying the direct impacts these could have on your resources and your business in the future.

Working with a trusted business partner who has specialist insight into new technologies, and more specifically in your industry, will help to relieve a lot of the stress and research you’ll have to undertake.

A knowledgeable and experienced business partner will work with you to understand your concerns or weaknesses, then help you identify and implement the best possible solutions for your business. This leaves you free to focus on your main priority which is getting more windows out the door.

Soft Tech (a Compusoft Company) provides premium software for the window and door industry, exclusively built to design, estimate and manufacture windows and doors. Founded in 1988, Soft Tech now has offices in North America, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, Turkey and India. With more than 30 years’ experience in the window and door software industry, Soft Tech has developed a reputation for excellence on delivering some of the largest, complex software solutions for some of the world’s best industry leaders.

For more information you can reach Soft Tech at Softtech.com/contact/

LogiKal - Software for the best windows, doors and curtain walls

Get a hold of the latest software innovations in the window and door industry

• Quick and easy quoting • Multiple window systems available within one project • Customized printouts for quoting, ordering and manufacturing • Shop drawings with integrated CAD function • Third party hardware libraries • Automated site measure app • 20 years‘ experience with direct CNC connectivity • Autocad and Revit Plugin • Design windows according to the Australian

Standards

For more information contact us via www.orgadata.com.au

ORGADATA Australia Pty. Ltd. GPO Box 1108 | Brisbane QLD 4001 +61 733 974 148 | info@orgadata.com.au