Guest editorial

摘要

Smart and sustainable cities are of focus for over many years now from various perspectives such as urban planning, technology solutions providers and frameworks on managing increasing populations of cities. While studies highlight the complexity of cities and their multiple dimensional aspects in light of sustainability, intermediary (actor or process) in the form of urban FM has the potential to synergise multiple dimensional aspects (Lindkvist et al., 2019a). Urban FM service-oriented perspective has a scope to address some of the complexities of cities through opportunities that promote liveability requirements and social values of communities beyond operating and maintaining infrastructure of cities. The expanding FM role is exemplified in workshops and presentations at EuroFM, CIB and CIRRE conferences held in 2019, illustrating how FM works within urban environments and the potential contribution the discipline makes to neighbourhoods, communities and city-scales. The aim of this issue is to solidify research happening in this area where FM links to the urban environment benefitting it in terms of sustainability and local communities. In 2006, Alexander and Brown (2006) identified three key areas for how urban FM can support and broaden FM from individual organisations and buildings to local economies and communities. Salaj et al. (2018) extend the potential of urban FM to become an active and valuable partner for facilitating liveable areas, focussing on health and well-being, which has emphasis on SDG 3 Good Health and 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. The main idea of urban FM is to improve the quality of the physical environment, create employment opportunities and ensure inclusivity of communities in design and management of services in the urban environment.