_How High-Rise Building Management Runs in Down Time

In the current spread of pandemic, workers are instructed to work from home (WFH). This condition resulted in high rise buildings in Jakarta’s business center not fully occupied as usual. Currently, office towers are operating at is unusual capacity due to the split operation concept, with some companies instructing all of their employees to work from home to comply with the government regulation in the effort to stop the spreading chain of the virus. However, there are also some office towers that function as normal as these buildings are functioning to provide public services.

Amidst this condition, the building managers cannot fully comply with WFH for their contractors or employee as they must maintain normal functions of the buildings although not in full building usage capacity.

Thus, several considerations in managing rise buildings arise, including the mechanism to lower operational cost and the maintenance or building management efficiency in the current condition, how to find a more specific building management mechanism, how to maintain the management to the health standard so as to minimize the residual transmission potential, and to find energy saving mechanism in managing high rise building in this condition, considering the currently operational cost of high rise building management can reach 40%.

All these need to be anticipated by referring to what China has experienced, that the pandemic was followed by a high degree of vacancy, at 21.5% the highest vacancy rate in the last decade.

In the challenges of high rise building management and the risk of high vacancy rate, consideration must also be given should the operation return to normal, will it be required to provide specific room in the building as residual pandemic management post which when it reach zero case, the room can be further be used as the public health & environmental health post for the occupants and the surrounding building area.

According to Lioni Sugiarto, the Building Manager of Knight Frank Indonesia, seeing the condition currently, then, “in the next few months, after the pandemic subside, it would be better for building manager to return by conducting building audit to determine if operational function can return to normal, as well as to reduce potential transmission according to public health perspective.”