Authored by a leading FM academic from Denmark, Facilities Management for Students and Practitioners is already being used at the author's Danish Institute and is intended (as the title states) as a core Facilities text for students and a handbook for practitioners. Its focus is specifically the Danish and Nordic FM market (with illustrative case studies selected from the same) but the concepts presented are, nevertheless, universally applicable.
As a textbook for Facilities‐related courses, or even as reference for practitioners, it is comprehensive and well laid‐out. The theory is introduced in a gradual, planned fashion (illustrated with practical case studies at each step). Key concepts, methods and relevant tools applicable to different facilities management functions appear in separate chapters dealing with each function. Space management, property operation, financial management, services, IT, health and safety and strategic planning each have been given due respect with regards to background, theory and application.
The book is easily navigable with key concepts appearing as tabs on each page; references and relevant web addresses appearing at the end of chapters for easy reference; and adequate use of visuals to stimulate interest and clarify concepts. Textbooks as well as practitioner‐focused texts in our field quite unnecessarily rely on photographic visuals to “make their point”. This reliance, one feels, does more to distract readers from the text than to complement it. The total omission of photographs from Facilities Management for Students and Practitioners was a welcome change and proved that concepts could be effectively communicated sans the usual photographs. However a total lack of colour in the entire book (except the cover), despite an excellent layout, left it a bit bland and lacklustre.
What I found especially appealing was the fact that the book's chapters actually represent (whether intentionally or unintentionally) the various disciplines FM borrows its concepts from. A separate chapter on strategic management, where the readers are introduced to the significant role of FM in organisational efficiency and the long‐term creation of value, was a welcome addition to a Facilities text for students and practitioners.
Being an English translation of a former Danish version (but with updated chapters and case studies) the prose is simple, but falters at times with small glitches in terminology (the FM “discipline” is FM “field of work”; “stakeholders” are incorrectly translated as “partners”) and omitted translation in figures (“FM‐funktion”).
