Smart buildings are about sustainability - but also about improving lives
New technologies and materials are taking 'smart' design to the next level
For centuries, mankind has made do with finding shelter between walls and under a roof. Ostensibly, for all of the advances in stability, height and - thanks to computer-aided designs of late - flashiness, buildings have retained fundamentally the same purpose since. But now, some suggest, an architectural revolution is afoot, as different disciplines come together to make buildings "smart" or "intelligent".
"Building owners are having to adapt to technology that wasn't available just five years ago," says Jim Sinopoli, architect and founder of Smart Buildings, a Texas-based leading practice in this new field. "And that's going to change the way we approach building. The question will be how design engineers and architects respond. Making buildings smart will be disruptive. But it's inevitable."
Indeed, while smart or intelligent buildings have yet to settle on one definition - it encompasses using technology to improve control and communications, and to maximise performance and efficiency - according to industry analysts IDC Energy Insights, worldwide companies spent US$5.5 billion on such buildings, new or retrofitted, in 2012. By 2017, that figure is projected to top US$18.1 billion, with other reports citing much higher estimates.
China now has its own annual Smart Home and Intelligent Building Expo. Certainly, much as other elements of our environment - from our personal devices to our home interiors and vehicles - are becoming more intuitive and automated, so can we expect the same from buildings, from how they are run to how they are built. And, as with our hi-tech gadgets, cars and the like, in part this is simply a response to buildings' growing complexity, such that, as Sinopoli puts it, "every aspect of building is increasingly being penetrated by IT".
The human element is a key factor behind the drive to innovate and improve. As Sinopoli says, "while smart architecture is about making buildings cheaper and greener, it's important to recognise that it's also about making them better for their occupants" - in terms of lighting, ventilation, sense of space and safety.
For example, a smart building might shut off gas lines, close down computers and notify occupiers in the event of an earthquake. And Deloitte's new corporate headquarters in Amsterdam, called The Edge, has 28,000 sensors micromanaging humidity, light and temperature to make employees feel as though they are outside on a pleasant day.
Even neuroscience is being brought into the mix in a bid to understand how the brain reacts to certain environments, and then using that feedback to help determine building design. Studies have shown that brain function is improved by visual access to natural light and vistas of the sky, trees and landscape; positive feelings have also been measured in response to curves over straight lines.
"You need to steer the question of intelligent building more towards how it can have a positive impact on the people who use that building," says Betsey Dougherty, co-founder of Dougherty + Dougherty Architects in California, an executive member of the pioneering Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and an expert in using smart architecture in schools.