Honeywell names Burj Khalifa as the 'smartest' building in the UAE

Honeywell named the Burj Khalifa as the UAE’s “smartest” building at the Middle East’s first-ever smart building awards presentation at the Innovation Live! Summit today in Dubai.

The world’s tallest structure also received the award for the Middle East’s smartest “high-rise residential” building.

The summit, an official anchor event of the widely celebrated UAE Innovation Week, held in association with Dubai Chamber, addressed initiatives that are being spearheaded in the UAE to drive forward the National Innovation Strategy and UAE Vision 2021.

UAE buildings, Latifa Maternity and Paediatric Hospital and City Centre Deira were also named at the event as the ‘Region’s Smartest Hospital’ and the ‘Region’s Smartest Retail Facility’ respectively.

The Honeywell Smart Building Score Awards program, developed by Honeywell, a Fortune 100 global technology and Internet of Things (IoT) leader, assessed the smartness of buildings across the region based on three key indicators – how green, safe and productive they are.

The awards recognize the leading smart buildings in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and assessed hotels, hospitals, educational and retail facilities as well as the leading high-rise office and residential buildings across the region.

The awards are designed to help drive innovation and the ‘smart cities’ agenda in the UAE and across the Middle East in line with regional development strategies.

The Burj Khalifa achieved the highest evaluation amongst all entries from the UAE, with impressive scores across all three smart building categories.

“The UAE continues to make progress toward fulfilling its long-term sustainability and smart cities goals, and will continue to do so in line with the National Innovation Strategy and UAE Vision 2021,” said Norm Gilsdorf, president for Honeywell’s Middle East, Russia and Central Asia regions.

“For us at Honeywell, a smart building is one that is connected, safe, energy efficient and, ultimately, helps improve the quality of life for its occupants and users. We are very pleased to recognize Burj Khalifa, City Centre Deira and Latifa Hospital’s dedication and investment in smart building solutions, and to highlight these best practice cases as an example to be followed around the region and the world.”

The 2016 awards are the culmination of the Middle East’s first Honeywell Smart Building Score (HSBS) – the first-of-its-kind universal framework designed for the comprehensive assessment of any building – launched in March of this year.

The HSBS framework was used to evaluate 620 buildings across seven major Middle East cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Doha, and Kuwait City.

As well as buildings in the UAE, the Honeywell Smart Building Score™ Awards also recognized smart building successes across the region, including:

· Qatar: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel – Winner, Region’s Smartest Hotel; Aspire Zone – Winner, Region’s Smartest Educational Facility;

· Kuwait: Al Hamra Business Tower and Luxury Center – Winner, Smartest Building in Kuwait;

· Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) – Winner, Smartest Building in Saudi Arabia.

Majed Al Fahim, mall manager, City Centre Deira added: “We are delighted City Centre Deira has received the award for the ‘Region’s Smartest Retail Facility’. At Majid Al Futtaim our sustainability mission is to enhance people’s lives through sustainable real estate. We want to lead by example by applying international best practices across our shopping mall portfolio, and in so doing we hope to transform the economic and social development of the region. As Majid Al Futtaim strives to ‘create great moments for everyone, every day,’ we have a sustainability focus at the core of our business to help ensure that current and future generations continue innovating in developing and maintaining more environmentally-friendly buildings.”

“It is exciting to see cutting-edge building technologies being adopted across the Middle East, putting the region at the forefront of global smart city development,” said Pete Costa, vice president, Honeywell Building Solutions, High Growth Regions.

“There is a growing demand from building operators across the region for closer integration of building management systems such as energy control, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, access control, security and fire safety, to help meet their smart building objectives.”

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