As COVID vaccines rolls out in countries around the world, we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, looking forward to having the pandemic behind us in the near future. While remote work is still the norm for now, many are yearning for a return to normalcy with in-person collaborations and interactions at offices.
With the lessons we’ve learned from COVID about the importance of healthy indoor spaces, we begin to envision what the post-COVID offices will look like, as well as how…
Real Estate Tech 3.0 — Opportunities and Disruptions in COVID Reality
Inaugural Episode, Harvard Real Estate Review (HRER) Podcast Series
PropTech has been the buzzword in the real estate industry for the past few years. People are looking for ways to disrupt this traditional industry whether through revolutionizing ways of living, changing mode of operation, or coming up with new models of investments. Post the 2008 financial crisis, disruptions now known as Housing and Homebuilding 2.0 — such as prefabrication, 3D printing, and smart home — came…
Iryna Papalamava, MBA ’18, Harvard Business School
As old business models fail and new ones emerge in a time of rapid innovation, investing in PropTech (property technology) presents a challenge and an opportunity for investors in real-estate enterprises. The amount of capital flowing towards PropTech is higher than ever, but the risks of deploying it effectively — so that it can withstand a potential downturn — are high. Unless PropTech follows established rules of innovation and commercialization, the industry’s promise to transform the 217 trillion asset class of real estate will stall.¹
PropTech, also known as real estate technology, is…
Featuring Commentary by Richard Peiser
Georgios Avramides, MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ’18, Duly Lee, MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ’18, John Lee, MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ’18, Emily Marsh, Master of Urban Planning ’18, Alex Rawding, Master of Urban Planning ‘18
The Plimpton Poorvu Design Prize is a well established $25,000 USD gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA’77, MArch’80 and William J. Poorvu MBA’58, to encourage cross disciplinary work. …
Featuring Commentary by Alexander Mirza
Alaa Raafat & Carlotta Weller, Harvard MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ’18
Since it was founded in 2008, Airbnb, Inc. has become one of the most successful pioneers of the sharing economy, transforming the travel industry around the world. By helping more than 200 million guests find individual hosts, Airbnb has shaken up the hospitality business and urban real estate markets.¹ While large hoteliers everywhere are aware that Airbnb poses a threat, few know what impact the online rental site actually has on the industry as a whole. Our investigation shows that Airbnb may not be taking away…
Featuring Commentary by Fred Cooper
Masamichi Ueta, Harvard GSD MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ‘18
In 1993, the local government of Shanghai envisioned the development of three ‘super-tall’ towers in Pudong — an urban district located at the east of the Huangpu River. The government wanted to attract international investment, and the proposed towers would serve as symbols of modernization and development in Shanghai. In alignment with their development strategy, the local government decided to construct the first of these towers while inviting international developers to build the second and third. Many prominent developers, including Mitsui Fudosan and Hines, greeted the government’s call…
Featuring Commentary by Katherine Swenson
Caroline Lauer, Harvard GSD Masters in Urban Planning ’18
In a world in which natural disasters have become commonplace, it is crucial to pursue rapid, efficient, and just forms of disaster recovery and land redevelopment. The summer of 2017 brought historic flooding, wildfires, and hurricanes, and climate data indicates that the intensity and frequency of such events will escalate as the climate changes.¹
Community development organizations, which have historically focused on issues such as affordable housing and economic development, now face a new set of issues in the field of disaster preparedness.
Although preparing for a major disruptive event has…
Featuring Commentary by Stefano Andreani
Stanislas Chaillou, Harvard GSD M.Arch ‘19
Commercial buildings are not exempt from the rules of supply and demand. Tenant volatility, daily traffic fluctuations, and business seasonality are a few of the factors that contribute to uneven utilization cycles of commercial spaces. In contrast to these irregular rhythms of use, the real estate industry is stuck with rigidity: the physical rigidity of space and the contractual rigidity of leases. As a result, commercial space under-performs, depleting its own economic value. To address this spatial inefficiency, tuning spaces on a monthly, daily — or even an hourly — basis may be necessary…
By Kristen Hunter, M.Des Real Estate and Project Management ‘10
To enhance the decision-making and project management utility of Life Cycle Cost Analysis both in the institutional and private sectors, a multi-faceted sensitivity analysis protocol is proposed. Potential applications include: risk management; identification of root causes of cost differentials between conventional and sustainable alternatives; and the development of contracting standards to promote greater cost competitiveness.
Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is vital to sustainable design and construction decision-making because of the prevailing perception of, and concern over, the greater expense associated with green building. Private sector developers and investors have…
Commentary by Daniel Shoag
By Thomas Leighton, M.Des Real Estate and Built Environment ‘13
Introduction
Municipalities and public-minded organizations face a challenge in designing effective interventions to improve conditions in disadvantaged communities. Disadvantaged communities are subject to a set of dynamic conditions that, in the absence of intervention, generally lead to further community deterioration and destabilization. They also lack a base of durable assets that is sufficient to attract either new financial investment, or residents that have locational choices. …
Harvard Real Estate Review
Editorial team at the Harvard Real Estate Review
