Intelligent Buildings: An Introduction

Derek Clements-Croome, Derek Clements-Croome

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135008369
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Bau- & Architekturtechnik

This book introduces the concept of Intelligent Buildings to the wider construction community. Edited by the Father of Intelligent Buildings, Derek Clements-Croome, the book explains that intelligent buildings should be sustainable, healthy, technologically aware, meet the needs of occupants and business, and should be flexible and adaptable to deal with change. This means the processes of planning, design, construction, commissioning and facilities management including post-occupancy evaluation are all important. Buildings comprise many systems devised by many people and yet the relationship between buildings and people can only work satisfactorily if there is an integrated team with a holistic vision.

Part I

Principles of design and management practice

Chapter 1

Introduction

Derek Clements-Croome

An intelligent building is one that is responsive to the occupants’ needs, satisfies the aims of an organisation and meets the long term aspirations of society. It is sustainable in terms of energy and water consumption and maintains a minimal impact to the environment in terms of emissions and waste. They are also healthy in terms of well-being for the people living and working within them and are functional according to the user needs.

(Clements-Croome, 2009)

Intelligent buildings should be sustainable, healthy, technologically aware, meet the needs of occupants and business, and should be flexible and adaptable to deal with change. The life cycle process of planning, design, construction, commissioning and facilities management, including post-occupancy evaluation, are all vitally important when defining an intelligent building. Buildings comprise many systems devised by many people, yet the relationship between buildings and people can only work satisfactorily if there is an integrated design, construction and operational team possessing a holistic vision.

Buildings affect people in various ways. They can help us to work more effectively, they can present a wide range of stimuli for our senses to react to, and they provide us with the basic human needs of warmth fresh air and security. Intelligent buildings are designed to be aesthetic in sensory terms, including being visually appealing; they are buildings in which occupants experience delight, freshness, a feeling of space. They should integrate daylight into their design, and should provide a social ambience which contributes to a general sense of pleasure and improvement in mood.

If there is to be a common vision, it is essential for architects, engineers and clients to work closely together throughout the planning, design, construction and operational stages of the building’s total life cycle. This means that planners, consultants, contractors, manufacturers and clients must share a common vision and set of intrinsic values, and must also develop a single understanding of how patterns of work are best suited to a particular building when served by the most appropriate environmental systems. A host of technologies are emerging that help these processes, but in the end it is how we think about achieving responsive buildings that matters. Intelligent buildings need to cope with social and technological change and are also adaptable to short-term and long-term human needs; however, from the outset this must be delivered through a vision and understanding of the basic function and character of the building.

Throughout history clean air, sunlight, sound and water have been fundamental to the needs of people. Today, sensitive control of these needs may use either traditional or new solutions, or a blend of these, but we have to remember that the built environment is fundamental to mankind’s sense of well-being and it is the totality of this idea that we need to understand and value even in this low carbon economy age. Intelligent buildings respect these values for the individual, the business organisation and for society, and we can learn a lot about intelligent buildings by looking at the history of world architecture and seeing how people have adapted buildings to deal with the rigours of climate and the changing face of civilisation. There are also lessons from Nature; animals and plants that have evolved to use materials and expend energy optimally in a changing and dynamic environment. Similarly buildings are now having to absorb the impact of the technological age, but the implications of climate change and the need for healthy working conditions are now also dominating our thinking as people become more knowledgeable about their environment.

Modern buildings consume a great deal of energy and water in their construction and during their total life cycle operation. They use large quantities of materials and aggregates and generate waste and pollution at every stage of their existence. It is no longer acceptable to consider a building and its systems in isolation from its social impacts. The growth of megacities to over 10 million people by 2050 is now part of a rising trend towards urban living and development. Modern liveable cities do comprise intelligent and sustainable buildings and infrastructures, however, they are designed to show a respect for the natural environment in all respects. Sustainable and Intelligent Cities are composed of intelligent buildings supported by intelligent infrastructures and are created for the well-being of the residential, commercial and industrial communities which inhabit them.

In the future, there will need to be a consideration towards the influences buildings have on society, the local community and future generations. For this, we will need to consider the environmental, social and economic impacts of each building throughout the total processes of bringing it into being or deciding to refurbish existing ones. Whole-life value in which quality and whole-life costs are assessed is therefore paramount if we are to think long term and meet growing sustainability demands. However, this does not mean architecture has to be starved of human considerations; after all improving the quality of life is an essential ingredient of sustainable development.

For intelligent buildings to be sustainable and to sustain their performance for future generations, they must remain healthy and technologically up to date; they must meet regulatory demands; they must meet the needs of the occupants; and they must be flexible and adaptable enough to deal with change. Buildings inherently contain a variety of systems devised by many people, and yet the relationship between buildings and people can only work satisfactorily if there is integration between the supply- and demand-side stakeholders as well as between the occupants, the systems and the building envelope. Systems thinking is an approach essential in planning, design and management, together with the ability to create and innovate whilst remaining practical. The ultimate objective should be simplicity rather than complexity, which not only requires technical ability, but also requires the powers of interpretation, imagination and even intuition as part of the building process. Building Regulations can stifle creativity yet are necessary to set minimum levels of expectation and to satisfy basic health and safety requirements. However, we should aim our work well above these prescriptive requirements; after all, buildings form our architectural landscape, they generate the environment we inhabit and they should uplift the soul and the spirit of the people within them as well as those who visit them.

The key criteria for achieving good-quality intelligent buildings are defined by Strelitz (2006) as:

• satisfying stakeholder objectives and needs;

• meeting social and environmental needs; and

• recognition of available resources.

An intelligent building starts with a good client brief and should comprise of:

• a clearly articulated project vision;

• a recognition of the planning, design and procurement realities; and

• about whole-life value objective.

The creation of shared visions, effective teams, clear structures and robust processes ensures that the intelligent building being constructed will demonstrate the purpose for which it was conceived. Times are certainly changing so there needs to be an outlook by the project team which is long term and not just short term.

Key issues for intelligent buildings are sustainability (energy, water, waste and pollution); innovation such as the use of information and communication technology, robotics, embedded sensor technology, smart-materials including nanotechnology; adaptability and flexibility; health and well-being in the workplace; and an understanding of social change. Aesthetics as well as function are important in the sense that not just the visual appearance is considered but how the environment affects all the human senses constitutes a total aesthetic.

Some examples of innovation are, for example, coating and embedding materials with nano-particles allowing us to specify material properties much more easily. Such materials in façades, for example, will provide sophisticated forms of feedback and high levels of control besides regulating heat losses and gains. Self-healing materials will revolutionise façades in the future (see BBC Focus Magazine, 2009). Another example is Lotusan paints applied to façades to repel water and so let rain water be collected easily. Simple, natural materials can also be effective. In India, Vetiver grass is made from the root of the Vetiver plant and is used as a blind which can be dowsed with water in hot weather to enable adiabatic evaporative cooling to occur.

The intelligent buildings control markets are strong worldwide even after the gloomy economic period of 2009. The largest markets are in the USA, Asia, Middle East and Europe but some smaller countries are showing rapid growth. BSRIA Member e-News August 2009 shows that Scandinavia, Germany and Qatar spend most per capita on sophisticated intelligent controls. The increasing demand for sustainable, healthy and low-carbon intelligent buildings seems, therefore, likely to sustain this dynamic market pull.

Building management systems provide control and interoperability between the various systems servicing the building. Innovations such as internet-based, communication standards and protocols are increasingly making it more important to integrate systems within intelligent buildings. This, in turn, will ultimately require an extended range of professional expertise that could force ...