Brookfield sets a new standard for innovation in real estate with WillowTwin and Azure Digital Twins

Digital transformation is rapidly changing the real estate industry

Across the world, iconic skyscrapers are built taller and grander than ever before. But it’s not just the towering glass exteriors that are modern marvels—it’s the technology inside as well. Tenants of large-scale, modern buildings increasingly expect state-of-the-art experiences, from advanced analytics that provide insight into the health and performance of occupants to lighting and climate systems that respond to real-time conditions. Energy efficiency and environmental sustainability are no longer considered optional—they’re minimum expectations for today’s tenants and owners.

Furthermore, leaders in the industry are experimenting with cutting-edge technology. Innovators are adopting AI to drive decision making and optimize systems like energy, ventilation, and temperature. Machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT) are used to remotely monitor and predictively maintain equipment. Digital twins, or digital replicas of physical environments, are emerging as a way to realize the potential of these technologies by helping organizations capture and understand unstructured data across siloed systems.

For tenants, these trends create opportunities for cost and energy savings, in addition to attracting and retaining new talent in competitive markets. For owners, advanced technology provides an opportunity to lower costs and offer unique experiences within their buildings.

Brookfield Properties is a global real estate company uniquely positioned to shape the industry

Brookfield Properties is one such company that’s leading the real estate industry forward. Brookfield develops and manages premier real estate with a focus on optimizing the tenant experience, maximizing the productivity of its tenants’ employees, and improving the investment and operational performance of the asset. With more than 1,900 buildings, more than $200 billion in real estate assets under management, and 450 million square feet of commercial space, Brookfield is one of the world’s largest commercial office landlords.

Brookfield is at the forefront of creating and operating mixed-use “live, work, and play” ecosystems, which they call “placemaking.” Activation of these communities has traditionally been achieved by delivering a combination of dynamic design, exciting retail, temporary art installations, and events. The approach works. Many of its tenants are leaders in the business world, including Accenture, EY, the National Hockey League, and Skadden. Always looking to the future, Brookfield is constantly exploring the use of leading-edge technologies to enable the evolution of these engaging spaces.

The OMW building is a state-of-the-art office tower designed to meet the needs of today and tomorrow

Nowhere is its vision for the industry clearer than in the Brookfield One Manhattan West (OMW) building. OMW is a 2.1 million-square-foot, state-of-the-art office tower in New York City at Manhattan West. OMW was built with cutting-edge architecture, design, and physical systems that come together in a stunning skyscraper that stands out along the New York skyline.

Before it constructed OMW, Brookfield envisioned a digitally enabled property. Specifically, Brookfield was interested in exploring digital twin technology to create a virtual model of the building connected directly to infrastructure, equipment, and systems. With this technology, Brookfield could transform the building into an intelligent network of digitally connected spaces, combining systems across retail, office, hospitality, and residential environments.

Brookfield understood that countless opportunities come from aggregating and combining massive amounts of data in one place. A digital twin would enable it to give its operations team and tenants the ability to “see” what’s happening with building systems, including energy usage, equipment function, lighting, temperature, and air quality. Additionally, Brookfield anticipated that offering an accurate operating history alongside associated data like leasing forecasts and capital forecasts would improve the value of the building to potential buyers and lenders.

“We anticipate that potential buyers will see more value in buildings with digital twins, due to having information about the performance and operating history of the asset. There’s less risk associated with it because it’s a complete dataset,” says Kevin Danehy, Global Head of Corporate Development at Brookfield Properties. “By transcending the previous generation of real estate offerings, we really think we’ll open up a world of possibilities.”

Microsoft and Willow were the strategic partners Brookfield needed to make its digital twin vision a reality

Brookfield had a clear vision for OMW and a digital twin. To get there, it needed partners who shared the same goals and could help ensure a successful transition to the next generation of technology. Brookfield quickly discovered that Microsoft culture and technology made it the ideal partner. Just as Brookfield began its digital transformation journey, Microsoft was revolutionizing its own campuses to optimize the productivity of its employees. Brookfield recognized that the Microsoft vision complemented its trusted technology.

“When it comes to really understanding innovation, the adoption of technology, and the rapid deployment of technology at scale, we found that Microsoft could help us unlock the value of different systems and data,” says Danehy.

Brookfield also needed a technology partner with deep industry experience, which led it to Willow. Willow is a global technology company based in Sydney, Australia, that offers real estate expertise alongside its digital twin solution, WillowTwin^TM. WillowTwin is designed with the exact requirements of real estate in mind. The solution integrates data sources across equipment and systems and displays that data in a true spatial context, providing a model that interacts with the real world. And perhaps most important, it’s highly secure, safeguarding data in a cloud-hosted solution. The strong relationship between Microsoft and Willow gave Brookfield the confidence that Willow could support its global needs and scale.

WillowTwin uses Azure Digital Twins and Azure cloud and edge services. The open modeling language of Azure Digital Twins, Digital Twins Definition Language (DTDL), enabled Microsoft and Willow to collaborate with RealEstateCore to adapt its industry-leading ontology, a set of codified industry models that can be used to digitally represent detail and control buildings. WillowTwin uses the DTDL-based version of the RealEstateCore ontology to organize and take advantage of heterogenous data across buildings and systems—notably, the ontology saved Microsoft and Willow over 200 development hours. Azure Digital Twins brings the scale, reliability, security, and privacy benefits that Azure is known for, and Willow harnesses that power and scalability to provide a solution to customers in the building world that’s relevant for their specific needs.

“Adoption of these key technologies requires a thoughtful change management process,” says Shaun Klann, President and Global Head of Real Estate at Willow. “Willow and Microsoft share best practices to help drive adoption throughout the entire organization.”

The combination of Microsoft and Willow proved to be an effective team. “Willow is an innovative organization that’s nimble and very focused, while Microsoft provides a broader scope and is able to see around corners to anticipate challenges,” says Danehy.

Brookfield optimizes OMW operations through actionable insights and data

Equipped with WillowTwin and Azure Digital Twins, OMW opened a world of possibilities for Brookfield. Starting with a focus on optimizations, Brookfield, Microsoft, and Willow combined data from over 30 different sources into one model of the entire building and all the systems within it. All that data, including architectural plans, engineering drawings, equipment health, and more, can be viewed and interpreted through a single screen.

“We see streams of data coming from all the different systems onto one screen,” says Sabrina Kanner, Executive Vice President of Development, Design, and Construction at Brookfield Properties. “Ease of operations is here to stay.”

Equipped with data and analytics from across the entire building, operators can better understand and manage their assets. By viewing the status of security, elevators, energy usage, and more, they can respond to issues faster than ever before and fine-tune settings for optimal results. If performance of an asset starts to slip, operators proactively change or service the equipment before energy is wasted or it affects the tenant experience. Analysis of data over time improves performance and shapes future asset strategies, resulting in further operational and economical savings.

Beyond optimizations, Brookfield realized benefits it hadn’t anticipated, including improvements to training for frontline workers. Using the solution as a training tool, Brookfield can accelerate and scale knowledge transfer throughout the operations team. New hires can gain a greater understanding of the system faster, and experienced employees can better understand the advanced technology and systems within the building. In terms of future use cases and benefits, Brookfield knows this is just the beginning.

Brookfield improves tenants’ experiences and gives them the tools to optimize their own workspaces

With its emphasis on placemaking, Brookfield has always been committed to creating engaging environments for its tenants. By taking the experience within its buildings to the next level, Brookfield offers its tenants a truly differentiated workspace that helps them attract a skilled workforce and optimize employee productivity. All aspects of an occupant’s experience, including access controls, elevators, lockers, and local retail can integrate into a personalized and contextualized experience.

“We can interact with the people in the building on an individual level and personalize the experience for them. For example, tenants can use wayfinding to find available workspace outside of the tenant’s own workplace, such as flexible workspace facilities and public space on the Brookfield campus,” says Danehy. “And as COVID-19 changed how we all operate, the digital twin solution helped enable contactless experiences throughout the building, from the elevators to the restrooms.”

To unlock deeper insights into isolated spaces, there’s an opportunity for tenants to sync “nested” digital twins of their workspaces. Actionable and real-time data about electrical and utility usage enables tenants to understand how the behavior of their companies and employees affects costs. With this information, they can actively change their behaviors to reduce costs, measure corresponding greenhouse gas emissions, and still maintain comfort. And as tenants deploy more technologies across their private workplaces, from video conferencing capabilities to espresso machines, they can easily integrate with the digital twin.

OMW enhances environmental sustainability for Brookfield and its tenants

The digital twin enables Brookfield and the tenants of OMW to optimize their energy usage, creating a more sustainable building. By optimizing systems and equipment—for example, proactively servicing HVAC equipment before it breaks down—Brookfield wastes less energy on a daily basis. And analysis of data over time gives operators insight into how they can make environmentally impactful decisions, such as reducing the number of lights needed on certain floors during a Friday afternoon. A reduction in energy costs corresponds to a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“We anticipate that by combining data from our various sources in the digital twin, enhancing analytics, and actioning for better efficiency, we will maximize our energy efficiency to achieve savings in cost and greenhouse gas emissions. In older buildings and new acquisitions, the savings in energy and greenhouse gas emissions can be as much as 20 percent or more,” says Danehy.

As tenants enable their own nested digital twins, which can sync with the larger digital twin, they’ll be able to improve energy efficiency more effectively. This move toward a connected ecosystem gives tenants a better understanding of how they use energy so they can adapt and reduce their carbon footprints. In effect, Brookfield helps them achieve their sustainability goals. “Tenants expend 70 percent of the energy in the building,” says Kanner. “Getting feedback to the tenants so they can best and most efficiently use their energy is really important.”

Brookfield has the flexibility for future integrations and developments

Implementing the digital twin is just the beginning for Brookfield. According to Danehy, the purpose of the digital twin is to open the door to opportunities that Brookfield might not anticipate today. With the flexibility enabled by the digital twin, Brookfield can continue to upgrade, innovate, and maintain its state-of-the-art commercial asset.

“The flexibility of WillowTwin and Azure Digital Twins really allows for expansion in the future and allows us to be prepared for what we can’t anticipate,” says Kanner. “That’ll be the difference between winning and losing.”

For example, the solution enables Brookfield to integrate technology platforms like AI, data analytics, and IoT so they can generate more value and continue improving experiences on the property. Beyond OMW, Brookfield is looking to apply this digital twin technology to multiple buildings in its portfolio. This would create an opportunity to build a “command center” that gives operational teams more insight and the ability to be more proactive.

“Working with people and organizations you trust is a difference maker, especially for a project like this. With Microsoft and Willow, we’ve found organizations that are willing to achieve above and beyond what was initially expected,” says Danehy. “The best is yet to come.”

Find out more about Brookfield Properties on LinkedIn.