Manchester took MIPIM by storm this week – or was it the other way around?
The city had to abandon its beachside pavilion when floods wrecked it before the opening event kicked off on Monday.
But when has a little excess water ever troubled Mancunians? “The rain has not dampened Manchester’s spirits,” Manchester at MIPIM said, “and we’re still looking forward to an exciting week of exchanging ideas and building connections.”
One swift change of venue later – to the VIP area at the Palais des Festivals – and the city’s delegation was back up and running, albeit sadly unable to livestream its sessions on Tuesday as planned.
Particularly unfortunate, as things kicked off with a discussion called “Technology enabled cities: what next?” In the light of their eventful start to the week, “whatever next?” might have been more fitting.
Wake up and smell the Coffey
Don’t you just hate it when someone gets your coffee order wrong? Then pity Margaret Ravenscroft, who employed a designer to create a MIPIM stand for the Coffey Architects team.
“He sent me an image of the completed stand but had Photoshopped it to say Coffee Architects,” she told Diary. “He is an old friend and I didn’t even know he could use Photoshop so that made it all the more believable. It was insanely stressful. An awful yet also genius prank. I’ll probably never forgive him.”
Thankfully the stand, correct lettering and all, made its way safely to Cannes.
There it was joined by boss Phil Coffey, who had kept the Cycle to MIPIM crowd going with – you guessed it – coffee!
MIPIM in 24 hours
MIPIM always inspires intrepid stories – anyone who cycles there will tell you that. But this year there seem to be more than ever.
As well as the Manchester contingent overcoming flooding, the plane carrying the Leeds contingent had to abort its landing at Nice airport on Monday.
But let’s have a special mention for Lendlease’s head of offices, Sherin Aminossehe, who managed to pack a week’s worth of MIPIM into less than a day:
2 speaking panel engagements, 1 vox pop to camera, 1 podcast, 3 quick catch ups and 2 business meetings – now just landed at Gatwick… making every MIPIM minute count!
— Sherin Aminossehe (@ArchiDame) March 13, 2018
Bathroom for improvement?
Word reached Diary this week that the great British public believes our bathrooms are outdated and in serious need of a tech upgrade.
Recent research from DigitalBridge may have been focused on people’s homes but, with our offices always at the cutting edge of innovation, we think that the findings have a lot to offer commercial occupiers when it comes to designing the bathrooms of the future.
Apparently, the number-one thing people want to see is facial recognition systems that automatically adjust water temperature and pressure to suit the user.
Other items on the wish-list include a pep-talking mirror that gives you advice on your outfit, and a brilliantly simple idea worthy of Goldilocks: three taps – one for hot, one for cold and one for “just right”. But Diary’s favourite by far is number two on the list: a hovering drone mirror that allows you to style the back of your hair with ease.
Forget Black Mirror as a terrifying glimpse of our tech future, it’s Drone Mirror all the way.
Build-a-beer
They like a good beer down in Bristol. So, when there’s a major city centre development to be celebrated – not least one on the site of a former brewery – what better way than by naming an ale in its honour?
And so we have Finzels Reach, from hip, modern brewing company Left Handed Cube, tipping its hat to the Cubex Land mixed-use scheme.
Sadly, no cans found their way into Diary’s hands, so we’ll have to take the word of Cubex director Gavin Bridge. “First beer named after a development?” he tweeted. “Tastes great!”
Any other property-inspired ales out there? Tweet us your pics to @estatesgazette using #buildabeer
High times in Canada
With the online shopping boom already causing a shortage of warehousing in Canada, a high-profile product coming onto the market means the sector will be more smoking hot there than ever.
The country is on course to legalise recreational marijuana this summer.
According to JLL, this is expected to send demand soaring for vast indoor growing spaces, with hash-happy developers set to be seeking the green light for an astonishing 8m sq ft of additional industrial space over the next two years.
“The opportunity with cannabis is unprecedented,” according to Gaurav Mathur, research manager in JLL’s Capital Markets team. “This will be even bigger than the end of the prohibition of alcohol.”
Jackpot, you might say.
To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@egi.co.uk or tweet @jessharrold or @estatesgazette
