A common assumption is that facility management is a young discipline; it is not. The FM industry has a long, rich tradition. Current and future facility managers should not ignore this history when creating the future industry. Ancient buildings had custodians and perhaps even location managers, and building operations in support of organizations have a longstanding tradition in practice and science. For example, in the 1859 book “Notes on Nursing,” British social reformer, statistician and founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale reported on topics that we now classify as facility management. Under her supervision, hospital mortality rates dropped by 32 percent due to improved air circulation, better cleaning and daily trash removal.

Examples from the early 1900s include “The Modern Hospital,” which demonstrated the coherence of hospital building, laundry logistics and related work processes,[18] and “Business Building,” which describes the built environment of offices, factories and shops, along with organization principles combined with interior design, lighting and ventilation.[19] Plans, buildings and research have always marked new ideas about organizations. Examples extend back to the 18th century, but more recent examples include the Bürolandschaft movement (1961, Germany, office), “Evidence-Based Design” (1984, U.S., hospital), and “Sick Building Syndrome” (1984, WHO, office). This relationship will continue as new interactions among places, processes and technologies emerge and reshape the role of place in value creation. These interrelationships continue to drive research interest, and ongoing areas for future research include organizational space, biophilic design, new ways of working, healing environments, intelligent workplace, healthy workplace, hybrid working and more.

How will place, people, processes and technologies interact to create new requirements for the FM industry? To answer this question, we must understand how the built environment's components interact and define how the focus within the built environment shifts from form and function toward experience. Then, we must define the contours of the FM industry to provide a concise basis for our argument.