Digital lift promises to deliver on every level

Popping out of the office for a sandwich could soon become a thing of the past thanks to a revolutionary lift that promises to deliver your lunch.

Designs for the “world’s first digital elevator” were revealed last week in London. Kone, the manufacturer, demonstrated how it could arrange to collect a food order from Deliveroo using a small service robot, whisk it to the appropriate floor of your office and then have it carried to the right desk.

Telling a virtual assistant such as Amazon’s Alexa that you are about to go home will arrange for the lift to be ready for you and even call an Uber.

On arrival at your apartment block another of the DX Class lifts could use facial recognition to unlock your door — a technology available in Finland, where Kone is based — while displaying the latest news and weather, your Twitter or Instagram feeds and playing music from Spotify.

Anti-bacterial and anti-scratch surfaces ensure that the interior will always look pristine, an innovation welcomed by potential clients in the cruise ship industry, where cleaning and disinfecting lifts is an onerous requirement.

As the number of buildings more than 200m high grows, from 614 in 2010 to 1,478 now, lifts are increasingly a factor in architectural design. Kone has developed a hoisting method called Ultra Rope, which uses carbonfibre wires to heave lifts up to 1,000m, about twice the distance feasible at present.

Its German rival Thyssenkrupp has developed a system that can move cars sideways, as well as up and down, using magnetic levitation. This has been nicknamed the “Wonkavator” after the lift in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Not everyone agrees that office food deliveries, as envisaged by Kone, are a benefit for the workforce. Gail Kinman, professor of occupational health psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, said: “At-desk food deliveries may seem tempting and a good way to save time, but research shows that it is crucial for people to have regular breaks away from their workstations in order to protect their physical and mental health.”