MOVING UP IN STYLE

THE ELEVATORS & ESCALATORS INDUSTRY IS COMING UP WITH NEW SOLUTIONS FOR THE POST PANDEMIC WORLD THAT COMBINE FORM AND FUNCTION

-  BINDU GOPAL RAO

The elevator industry is making bold and strong footholds in technological advancements and customer usability. Skyscrapers, commercial spaces, hospitals, hotels and high-rise buildings are useless without elevators, but today the meaning of elevators & escalators has changed to reach a new high.

THE SPECIFICS

Elevators & escalators have been an integral part of public spaces throughout the world. Their technology and design are always evolving and, with the outburst of industrial manufacturing, it has become an easy facility for everyone. The design of elevators has evolved from steam driven to traction, hydraulic, vacuum and a few other types. Due to this evolution, elevators have expanded in scope from public spaces to private spaces like multistorey residences, from big machine rooms to machine roomless elevators. Use and type vary; i.e. a double storey building can have a pneumatic elevator for its compact and efficient design.

“For a commercial complex where many elevators are in use, the concept of smart elevators has kicked in. Smart elevators are a set of elevators where it helps in crowd management and helps sorting population during rush hours. These smart elevators also cater to the energy savings and condition the energy wastage for various functions when not in use. The intelligent system also takes care of crowd movement in such a way that they can understand the number of users to floor ratio and categorise elevators for dedicated floors,” says Arun Chaubey, architect and interior designer, Uniworks Design.