Over the last decade in the property world, there has been a trend to bring the outside in and maximise the full annual use of a property’s total available floor area. Public buildings and home owners alike are getting in on the halfway house of the glass covered void filler, giving a sensation of the outdoors with plenty of light streaming in, while remaining sheltered from the elements of northern Europe.

Think of the newly opened Trinity Leeds shopping development and Blenheim Palace’s new gift shop pictured here alongside the British Museum’s Great Court, enclosed by Foster and Partners back in 2000.

Using sympathetic and well designed cover structures, has the added advantage for historic and listed buildings of being able to make modifications without altering the fabric of their construction. A subliminal practical update in keeping with the original style and feel of the building, whilst making the space more usable.

EFG International, the Swiss private bank, sponsored this weekend’s third Donington Historic Festival. EFG has made itself synonymous with historic motoring events and this year issued a small guide covering its involvement in this and the other historic series over the 2013 season.

There is no doubt this form of sponsorship and soft sell works, but how can anyone quantify the exact ROI (return on investment). For an organisation such as EFG, many factors need to align to snare the quarry, such as the invitee’s ability to afford their service, be in a position to change providers and come to think of it, actually have a requirement for an EFG style operation.

With any sensitive proposition and especially when aimed at HNWI (high net worth individuals) an organisation must take a softly, softly approach. There really is no other way. While time consuming, this will ensure a long lasting business relationship and further generate much positive word of mouth amongst the customer’s family, friends and contacts. In this case, sponsorship does bring an ROI, even if hard to quantify.

Associating a brand with a highly visual character is not a new phenomena. The success of the now renowned meerkat from VCCP has encouraged brands to re-visit the character creation department, in an effort to encourage an association and drive sales.

Three Barrels brandy has come up with a typical quirky British aristocratic family. The Basildons enjoy their brandy in a variety of forms. A poster advertising campaign is supported with a website, which collects visitor details, while describing the fictional Sippinghurst family.

The campaign is fun and memorable, but is the link somewhat tenuous?

To rounds of applause and media fanfare the new Trinity Leeds complex opened at the end of quarter one. Offering 1 million square feet of retail space, it is Western Europe’s largest retail launch this year. Developed and owned by Land Securities, it takes various arcades, such as the Burton, and what were previously shopping and connecting streets.

The development pulls these elements together simultaneously under the Trinity Leeds umbrella. The mishmash of angles, levels and materials works. It has an open feeling, and looks traditional with a modern twist. The terrace gardens up above and outside the covered complex add another element of natural environment and inspiration.

Trinity Leeds is a development for 2013 and it communicates its intention clearly. Unlike the previous attempts at city centre next generation retail, where soulless stuffy centres close at 6pm, Trinity Leeds does an excellent job of bringing the outside in. Mixing the old and new. Giving shelter from the elements with the sensation of an old world shopping street, while managing to incorporate the historic church seamlessly and in character, amongst the sweeping glass canopy and girder design.

The centre is an excellent creation and it works in all regards. Looking stylish and functioning as an appealing entertainment space. The development overrides the negative connotations of the 1970s and 80s shopping centre urban monstrosity. Trinity Leeds has successfully melded traditional Victorian Leeds with the 21st Century.

Historic Milanese design house, Zagato founded in 1919, hosted the London debut of a UK based example of one of nine Bentley Zagato GTZs. The one pictured here at the RAC Club event, started life in Leeds before being bought by a retired London businessman, for the Zagato coachbuilder’s cutomisation.

Zagato designs have a strong global following, being highly sought after and collected keenly by motoring enthusiasts.

Zagato is also known for its work with Alfa Romeo, BMW and Aston Martin. An Aston Martin DB7 Zagato is pictured below. 100 models were produced, with 99 sold and one retained by the factory for its museum.

Smart City is an increasingly banded around term in green, technology and property circles. Entering the business lexicon in common parlance a couple of years ago, Smart City, is no longer a sole use term of the Phd bio-chemistry fraternity.

Smart City references the city of the future where ‘everything’ will communicate with each other. In practice this means for example, the electric car will know where the free parking spaces are, when it needs to re-charge, where it will go to attain this, how long it will need to be there, the optimum time to do this regarding cost. Power is generally cheaper at night, when demand is less. The technology can also learn the user’s behaviour pattern, say, on a Friday the user commutes three times further than usual for a regular work meeting. The energy implications of this longer than usual journey will all be part of the Smart City calculations.

Think of it as the fusion between technology, transport, buildings and humans.

Cisco is one of the well known players which has been keen to be associated with the Smart City movement and has published various papers to this end.

Generally, there is still some confusion as to who the stakeholders are and who will pay for the various elements. One thing is a trial project, another is looking to provide a service to 10 million plus city inhabitants. It is in the town council’s interest to make the metropolis more efficient and encourage these futuristic measures, but where will this new budget come from? Will an increased perception of the town offset the significant infrastructure investment? To be blunt, will the Smart City generate more income than its costs to develop, implement and facilitate on an ongoing basis.

Four major players sponsored a conference this week at London’s renowned riverside based Design Museum. Well attended by a range of publics, it was clear money is serious as to the importance of the Smart City. The proof will be if these money men and women open their wallets and back Smart City linked ventures.

This is no flash in the pan, but, no-one yet has a full handle on where the Smart City sector will settle and who will hold ultimate responsibility for its cost and overall management.

Austria famed for mountains, sausage and beer, is the location for many a winter snow sports holiday. However the southerly located Tyrol region, while keen to continue attracting millions of tourists annually – a plane lands every 10 minutes at Innsbruck on a busy day in the winter season – is also pushing a more contemporary and perennially profitable sector.

Precision engineering and high technology has long been synonymous with Munich and Bavaria around 120 minutes north of Innsbruck by road. The large highly visible BMW installation near Munich airport helps increase the perception.

While tourism and the food sector are welcome, the Austrian Tyrol would like in on the high-tech action of its northerly neighbour. The Tyrol has been pro-actively marketing itself through the Austrian Trade Commission as it looks to increase business links outside the region.

Evidenced in the pictures below, the mountainous region is making a good effort at changing the perception of the country as little more than a natural theme-park. By attracting international investment, the home of Swarovski would like to be seen in a different light and is increasing its pan-European presence to this end. The plan could be described as more megabyte than sauerkraut.

Pictured are various e-mobility projects, using electric all wheel drive technology from Mattro, with the support of the EU funding for advanced technology development scheme.

As many sectors of the retail economy struggle, London’s West End is seeing a continued boom. New fashion emporiums are opening on a regular basis. Originating from the usual high end locations associated with fashion, such as France, Italy and Switzerland, they are now being joined by new outlets from places such as China. One example is menswear store from the orient, Bosideng, which recently opened a store adjacent to Bond Street Tube station.

With rents for some of the most sought after W1 locations now hitting a new record high of £200 per square foot. Clearly, any operator will need to make significant sales to cover this high and rising fixed cost.

Technology investment day held in Barcelona in partnership with the UPC. A diverse group of interested parties attended to see the eight local technology finalists pitch their varied ideas. Standards were high, in the end there could only be three winners!

On campus Barcelona Supercomputer pictured above. This is one of only several in Europe, and is housed in an old church adjoining the rector’s house.

BMW’s all electric demonstrator hits the streets. The vehicle pictured above, is the One Series ActiveE. It is the closest model BMW currently offers, in relation to the forthcoming completely new Leipzig manufactured i3. Build and delivery scheduled to commence later this year.