We have known for a long time that building automation already makes our lives easier. It enhances the atmosphere of well-being in the workplace and can increase the productivity of employees and room users. Nutz GmbH has created a product with a service that focuses on people.
Behind all this is the motivation of many individual Nutz GmbH employees. Thomas Gisnapp has been a part of the building automation team for one year.
Mr. Gisnapp, you have been a project manager for 12 months now and are responsible for all documentation in your department. However, you describe yourself as having had a real career change. Why is that?
After my further training as an electrical engineer, I found myself working in plant automation at a company that manufactures machines for the pharmaceutical industry. I dealt with the technical documentation of the machines and worked out the the functional descriptions, from the customer's specifications. The technical documents I created were also part of the operating instructions.At first glance, plant automation may seem very similar to building automation, but if you take a closer look, you will immediately see that these are two very different areas with different systems and different customer needs. This is why I feel I have really had job diversity.
What made you switch from plant automation to building automation?
I wanted to take the step into building automation because I was impressed by the innovative technology and the focus on people. After my conversation with Christian Gruber, I also realized that this was an opportunity to become part of something great. My job is no longer just to create documentation according to pre-defined standards, but to redefine the standards and raise them to a higher level.
What is your motivation and what goal do you have in mind for building automation?
This is an easy question to answer! For me, user-friendliness is the top priority, so it is both a motivation and a goal.
In a building, where many different disciplines and consequently different systems come togehter, there is a multitude of data, parameters and partly own user interfaces. Additionally there are the different stakeholders within a building.
The room user, for example, is only interested in the control of the blinds, the room temperature and the light. Facility management, on the other hand, needs completely different parameters and data, such as the building's current energy requirements. Our task is to put people in the foreground and to develop a visualization that does justice to this. In this way, it is also important for us to create a functional description for the user that describes the entire area of individual room control as well as an easily understandable system description for the facility manager or the building owner. In this was we want to achieve that the respective needs are exactly matched to the user groups. They should only get the information they really need, and experience shows that less is often more.
For me, this is user-friendliness and this is enVision Buildings!
Like your colleagues, you are also involved in the realization of the M8 work and create in Munich East. To finish, can you tell us how far the project has progressed?
The first tenant has already moved in and the employees have received training for the user interface, where they can set their own personal feel-good atmosphere. For the remaining rental spaces, we are in the final stages; some things still need to be programmed and adjusted here and there one last time to meet individual customer requirements.
We are incredibly proud that one of the most intelligent buildings in Germany is now - almost - finished and that we can make a small contribution to climate protection.