INTELLIGENT buildings boast three essential features; environmental control, an advanced communications network and good information flow.
The building's electrical system should be readily adaptable to any communications device, ranging from a basic intercom to the most advanced telephone and video-conference facility.
The Sharp Makuhari building in Japan is the corporation's new centre for multimedia research and development and information operations for global management and marketing.
It was built to commemorate the company's 80th anniversary in the the new Makuhari techno-metropolis in Chiba Prefecture, just outside Tokyo.
''Makuhari is a new urban centre built on reclaimed land,'' said Mr Kozo Hayashi, Sharp's senior executive director and general manager of the Tokyo branch.
''It was created to alleviate the effects of the dense concentration of people and facilities in the Tokyo area.
