Mod Work Coming To Europe

According to ING, Europe should see a .5% increase in 2025 in the construction industry, which sank 2% in 2024. A quarter of contractors continue to struggle with labor shortages, due to an aging workforce. There continues to be an increase in the renovation sector, including in sustainability. This was also addressed in A Discussion on the Benefits of Modernization by Undine Stricker-Berghoff, who interviewed Udo Hoffmann, senior vice president Central Europe of Otis. According to Hoffman, “The potential we’re talking about is huge. There are estimates that potentially more than 3 million elevators across Europe are due for modernization.”

Touching on the topic of modernization is our Focus for this issue, Maintenance and Safety. EW Correspondent Madeleine Olausson hits the nail on the head in High Safety Risks With Old Lifts. The author notes that Sweden has the oldest lift stock in Europe. Our second focus article also concerns Sweden; Norwegian Expansion touts Mitsubishi Electric’s purchase of a Norwegian elevator company.

We report this month on several events in Europe, as well as one in China, one in the Bahamas and another in India. In Europe, The Second Lift Expo Italia by Bülent Yilmaz was held in Milan. Supported by ANICA, there were 133 booths and 16,000 visitors from 72 countries. The Nordic Lift Expo, reported on by Olausson, was held in Stockholm, Sweden, and was also a second-time event, but with 10 years between the two. Other events include IEES 2024, a symposium reported on by Angie C. Baldwin, held at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Supported by Liftinstituut and Elevator World, it was quite successful. ISEE 2024 was held in Mumbai, India. Reported on by Vijay Pandya, this second event reinforced India’s position for innovation and sourcing. A South China Debut, was held in Shenzhen, China, supported by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd. This was a forum held for the first time in southern China.

This issue features Elevator World’s 27^th Annual Project of the Year winners, so it gives a good picture of how commercial building is progressing around the world, and exactly how the vertical-transportation (VT) industry adds to the picture. Projects span the world, come in all sizes and in many cases the VT equipment contributes to the sustainability of the buildings they are in. The judging is intense and based on creativity, innovation, challenges overcome, installation methods and use of advanced technology. Some projects are in very old buildings like London’s Big Ben and must not affect the historical value of the building. Other projects create “another world” atmosphere by inserting an escalator into an aquarium of regional marine life like in Doha’s Grand Cruise Terminal. Challenges included modernizing elevators in a fully occupied, high-traffic building, Prudential Tower in Boston. An unusual building in Dubai (a city filled with unusual buildings) known as One Za’abeel was two vertical towers with a horizontal building connecting them and spanning an interstate. The challenges included shaftways differing in shape and size from top to bottom. Sky Bridge, Hong Kong International Airport is the longest airside bridge and moving walk with room for airplanes to go under. In Australia’s The Esplanade, a luxury residential project demanded a glass elevator and shaft with temperature controls. The Paris Olympics Dive Platform Lift had to be correctly rigid and would rise from 1m to 2 and 3 for different events. The inclined lift at Merkin Vinyards Hilltop Winery & Trattoria in Cottonwood, Arizona, had to climb and top the highest hill in the area. And last was the Chongqing Metro Line 2 that required in-truss modernization of 85 escalators in a remote mountainous village in China. When all is said and done, we have just over 40 pages devoted to the best of the best projects completed in the past two years.

This is a very large, information-packed issue. We hope you enjoy it. I’m always glad to hear your suggestions at ricia@elevatorworld.com.