Last Friday marked the inauguration of global elevator and escalator manufacturer KONE’s new regional headquarters and experience centre.

Located at MapleTree Industrial New Hi-Tech Space, the 25,000-square-feet facility houses both KONE’s Asia Pacific headquarters and Singapore operations, as well as a 24/7 call centre and the new feature, the People Flow Experience Centre. 

The experience centre offers new and prospective clients an immersive experience of KONE’s latest technologies. KONE defines ‘people flow’ as the movement of people in and between buildings. An efficient people flow means that the foot traffic is smooth, safe, comfortable and reliable, with minimum delays. 

“Rapid urbanisation in the region continues to drive demand for infrastructure development giving rise to smart and sustainable residential and office buildings to be intelligent, safe, and reliable,” said Axel Berkling, Executive Vice President of KONE Asia Pacific. He added, “KONE’s commitment is to enable that.”

In November, KONE received the Singapore Green Building Product (SGBP) certificates for three of its products: elevators KONE 3000 S MiniSpac and KONE 3000 S MonoSpace, and escalator KONE TransitMaste 140. KONE is the first company to receive such ratings in both categories of vertical transportation.

The SGBP certification is given by the Singapore Green Building Council and serves as a recommendation for projects applying for the Green Mark.  One such project where KONE solutions have been integrated is the Oasia Hotel Downtown in Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar by WOHA. 

“Globally, Singapore is the gateway of green building and technology in Asia Pacific,” said Jerome Audais, Managing Director of KONE Singapore. “With over four decades of experience in the country, we are well-positioned to improve people flow and contribute to the development of smarter cities and green building for Asia, from Singapore,” he elaborated. 

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